👩🏼‍🏫

On My Mind

Mrs. Aliza Feder's Newsletter

Last week, my son shared some thoughts that he had heard from Reb Dovid Cohen, the Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron. They resonated deeply with me—especially because they overlapped with things I’ve been thinking about lately.

We learn from a young age that the world is called olam because it is  he’elem—it hides Hashem’s presence. The next step is logical, though not always obvious: if every human being is an olam katan, a miniature world, then this feature exists within us as well. Namely, our guf hides our neshama.

On some level, we already know this. The body is the visible part, and the neshama is the hidden part—no one will ever find it on an X-ray or MRI. But it’s not just that the guf “covers” the neshama. It does more than that—it actively hides it. The more we busy and distract ourselves with the guf, the harder it becomes to notice the neshama at all.

And yet, the Talmud tells us that just as Hashem fills the entire world, the neshama actually fills the entire body. 

We know that one of the defining features of the culture of Yavan was a hyper-focus on the physical. Every year on Chanukah we hear shiurim, workshops, and speeches reminding us how that emphasis on gashmiyus and olam hazeh still affects us today. But here’s the subtle point that struck me: the physical doesn’t merely cover the spiritual—it conceals it.

There’s a difference:

When you cover something, the item is still technically visible, though your attention may be directed elsewhere. Essentially, it relies on distraction or misdirection. Like for example, putting something flashy in front of the real thing so you don't notice what's behind it.

When we actively hide something though, the goal is different, it’s to make it completely undiscoverable. It involves actual concealment, not just diversion. An example would be locking something in a drawer so no one can see it at all.

Yavan—and much of our society today—strives not just to distract us from our neshama, but to make it feel as though it has disappeared entirely. The problem with much of Game A (see here) is not that it distracts us from our goals (well, that too,) but that it hides the fact that there are any goals at all. 

Torah is our antidote. It is compared to ohr, a light that illuminates and reveals the godliness hidden deep within us and the deep purpose to our lives.

The last time Hashem “took off His mask”  in galus and performed open miracles for the public was during the days of Chanukah. Each year, we light the menorah to remind ourselves that even when something is hidden, we believe it is still there—glowing silently beneath the surface.

As you sit in front of the flames, spend a few minutes looking at them, and reminding yourself that your neshama is there, strong and active. Just as Hashem is there, watching and guiding and orchestrating it all. 

Have a beautiful, lichtege Chanukah, and may we all be zocheh to see beyond the mask of teva and into the light of what’s truly there.

Mrs. Aliza Feder