This idea of bringing light has always fascinated me. Partially because I happen to love fire, particularly how one spark of light can make an entire room brighter. Taking that physical phenomenon into an intellectual concept, though, we can infer that even one ounce of "goodness" will light up a room, a school, an entire world. I guess it's no coincidence that NCSY's logo is a flame. It's such a beautiful symbol of passion, intensity, and illumination.
Story time:
I am a freshman at WashU, a secular university in St. Louis (Washington University in St. Louis is its full name, but it's a bit long to use all the time). In my dorm, I am the only Jewish girl who considers herself "religious." In the beginning, it was daunting; in the beginning, sometimes it's hard to be different, to stick to what you believe. As time went on though, I became more comfortable with my floormates, and they with me. We started to have open and stimulating conversations about religion; they were absolutely fascinated with ideas about keeping kosher, keeping shabbos, and being shomer nigea.
After plenty of conversations, and also just hanging out, a few of my new friends even said to me, "Sarah, you're the first Jew that we can really ask questions to!" I was speechless. Although I often see myself as small, as one of billions of people, for my floormates, I have become the one Jew they feel comfortable asking questions to. It's a pretty unbelievable honor, in my opinion.
Sometimes, we are presented with daunting yet awesome opportunities of bringing light into the darkness. Every night, we add a candle, we add more light; with more time, we can spread more light, we can bring more light into the darkness.
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