The month of Kislev is created through the energy of the letter Samech. In the upcoming weeks our focus will be on Chanukah and its connection with the letter Samech ( and the word Nes, Nun-Samech, meaning miracle). For now, we resume our interest in the letter Samech as it relates to the previous discussions of the fallen state of the letter Nun, for which it acts on to uplift, and the shape of the letter Samech , a near circle. We also asked a question last week related to Jacob's (Ya'acov) dream of the angels ascending and descending on the ladder (Sulam). Why does the word for ladder start with a Samech? Is that directing our attention to the nature of the ladder Ya'acov envisioned?

"The wind whirls round and round, returning again in accord with its circles" (Kohelet- Ecclesiastes, 1:6) The Hebrew word for round and round is Sovev (Samech-Beit-Beit). King Solomon is bringing to our awareness the seeming vanity of life- that we circle around and all is vanity, for the nature of the world is to absorb the new and indeed there is nothing new under the sun. To expand then on the sense of "falling", one can become fatalistic about the value of attempting to make a difference in the world. Do we not always return to the place from where we start, from dust to dust?

After circling around with this theme, King Solomon concludes Kohelet (12:13) with a ray of optimism, highlighted by an enlarged letter Samech that starts the word, Sof (Samech-Vav-Peh, meaning the end). Rabbi Ginsburgh points out that this enlarged Samech comes to rectify the existential despair which can derive from an adherence to the "philosophy of the void". The Samech is there to uplift us from a feeling of senselessness, that our lives are merely circular. The shape of the letter Samech in fact is not a circle. Rather it is a circle with an edge on the top that extends out to the left. Perhaps we are not merely circling, we are spiraling, so that our return to the "same place"is now at a different vantage point.

Ya'acov was dreaming that night about his exile from the land of Israel and as the Rabbis teach, dreaming of all the future exiles of the Jewish people from the land of Israel. Sometimes it may seem, whether on a personal level or a communal level that we have learned or gained nothing from the lessons of our history. We find ourselves back again, with the same challenges and dilemmas and wonder what is the point of all that we've been through.

The word Sulam (ladder) appears but once in the Bible. It is our knowledge and image of the physical ladder that may dominate our visualization of the Sulam in Ya'acov's dream. Angels are pure spirit, and if they are ascending and descending the ladder, it might more properly be seen as a rather sublime ladder. A ladder, that is not vertical. A ladder that is spiraling on which the angel ascends and descends and finds itself not at the same point on the circle (as in the clever artistic images of Escher) but ever ascending on the spiral of spiritual existence.