CLD #749

Yavan, the Hebrew word for Greece, also has a negative connation in the formation of the letters that make it up. In one of last year’s CLD’s on Hannukah we discussed the formation of the letters. Let us break that down again and get a little deeper. Yavan is spelled Yud-Vav-Nun forming three ‘lines’ if seen as artwork. The letter Yud is a short line and can even be seen as a dot on paper. The letter Vav, the second letter in Yavan, is a slightly longer line. The third and final letter of Yavan is Nun Sofit. The Nun is the longest line on paper.

What does this teach us? That Yavan, one of the types of spiritual enemies for the Jewish people, has a way of seduction to sin unlike other spiritual enemies. Yavan tries to pull in the Jew to confuse him/her in the most justified way. Yavan first begins by doing something small, such as making a person do something that is 100% justified according to Halacha but in reality is just wrong and has a ‘bad smell’ to it. For example when one drinks milk that is not Halav Yisrael and is produced without Rabbinical Supervision, this individual is going in the way of Halacha for sure and is not violating any rules of Judaism. However, this does not have the best smell to it. Before you know it, the negative spiritual force of Yavan pushes the individual to start eating non-Kosher dairy products by persuading the person to think that just like Kosher milk that is not Halav Yisrael is produced without Jewish supervision, so too non-Kosher milk is allowed.

Before you know it the person is mixing meat and dairy in a non-Kosher restaurant after knowing that the meat is really from a Kosher company and the dairy products contain Kosher ingredients. This is directly seen in the lettes of Yavan as stated above, first the individual makes a small and almost unnoticeable move like the letter Yud. Next this person falls into a worse hole and cuts a line into their service of Hashem like the letter Vav. Finally, after ignoring the danger zone messages, the person falls into a pit of sin like the letter Nun Sofit, which is a straight line spiraling downwards.

This result is something that us as Jews need to pay attention to and avoid at all costs. This begins with David HaMelech’s Tehillim, the Book of Psalms and is seen in the first chapter! David HaMelech writes: Ashrei HaIsh Asher Lo Halach Be’Atzat Reshaim, praised is the man who did not WALK in the advice of the wicked. In the same verse David HaMelech praises the individual who did not STAND in the way of the wicked and finally he praises the man who did not SIT in the seat of the wicked. This Perek of Tehillim warns us from getting into situations that snowball into a mess of sin.

Be’ezrat Hashem this Hannukah we will take time to ourselves to THINK about what type of situations lead us to sin and what we can do to stop us from even stepping into such misfortunes. 

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