Chanukah

My zeide re­counted what he heard from Reb Aizel in the days when glass kerosene lamps were in use:

“Some peo­ple see a bluish-red cir­cle sur­round­ing the glass, ” Reb Aizel said, “while oth­ers see a pure flame. The ex­pla­na­tion: those with weak vi­sion see the cir­cle; those with pure vi­sion, with lichtike eyes, see no cir­cle at all — that is, they per­ceive no con­ceal­ment, only G-dli­ness. ”

My un­cle, R. Leib Chas­dan — the Se­bezesher shochet in Homil — re­lated in the name of the al­ter chas­sidim:

At all times, let your gar­ments be white, and let oil not be want­ing on your head.¹⁸

A chos­sid should al­ways vi­su­al­ize him­self in white gar­ments, with a jug of oil bal­anced on his head. By mov­ing even a hair­breadth he’ll com­pletely soil his clothes.

18. Kohelet 9:8. ↩

This was my zeide’s daily sched­ule: he would go to sleep at 12:30 or 12:45 a.m., and wake up at 3:30 or 3:45 a.m. My fa­ther told us that un­til the age of 50 or 55, Zeide never laid down to sleep; he would only doze lightly at the ta­ble.

I re­mem­ber that Zeide had a slightly singed Gemara Beitzah at home. “Zeide was sit­ting and learn­ing, ” my fa­ther said, “and dozed off; and the book was scorched by the can­dle. ”