Contemplating the word Kislev reveals the secret connection between wisdom and trust: The truly wise person does not place his confidence in his wisdom, but in what lies beyond it.
By Rabbi Nir Menussi
What is the meaning of the word 'Kislev'? Although the origin of names of the Hebrew months is Babylonian (they 'immigrated' to Judaism during the Babylonian exile), from the moment our Sages incorporated them into Hebrew tradition, they essentially annexed them to the Hebrew language itself. This permits us to interpret their meaning in relation to Hebrew words. Let us contemplate the various meanings we can find in the word 'Kislev', and try to learn from this about the unique spiritual work of this month.
Fools and Intellectuals
The main letters of the word Kislev form the Hebrew root k.s.l. This root is familiar to us primarily in the context of kesil (fool). Although this is indeed the primary use of the root, and most of its appearances in the Bible are in this sense (for example, in the verse "You fools [kesilim], when will you get wisdom?" Psalms 94:8), it is not the only meaning. A study of the sources reveals that the root k.s.l appears in the Bible with three additional meanings:
"Kesel" – confidence ("If I have put my trust [kisli] in gold," Job 31:24)
"Kesalim" – the fat on the loins of an animal ("And the fat [kesalim]… which is on the flanks," Leviticus 3:4)
"Kesil" – a constellation; by extension: zodiac signs ("For the stars of heaven and their constellations [ksileihem]," Isaiah 13:10)
Can we find a connection between all these different meanings? First of all, between the first two meanings there is a direct connection: the loins, which give us stability and firm standing, embody our feeling of confidence. When it is said that a person places his kesel-confidence in something, it means that this thing becomes, as it were, the loins upon which he leans. Even kesil in the sense of stars and constellations is related to confidence: the idolatrous stars embody false promises that tempt us to invest our faith in them.
These meanings shed new light on the type of flaw embodied in the word "kesil" (fool, as opposed to other words for ‘fool’). The kesil is a person who casts his lot with false idols. His foolishness blinds him from identifying a reliable source of confidence, and instead of girding his loins and embarking on the difficult journey towards it, he reclines in the nearest and easiest refuge with the comfortable feeling that he has discovered the truth, allowing his loins to grow fat.
More deeply, this cluster of meanings reveals a profound connection between the realm of intellect and the realm of emotion. Foolishness (kesilut) is an intellectual flaw – a state of lack of wisdom, or alternatively, an excess of distorted wisdom. Kesel-confidence, on the other hand, is precisely a very raw and basic emotion, a largely unconscious experience of placing trust in something (hence it is illustrated as being located in the loins, far from the lofty intellect). The similarity between them reveals an underground connection between these two realms: our thoughts do not remain as floating insights above but trickle into the subconscious and build within us an emotional fabric as well.
This opens a new perspective through which to judge our intellectual views: in whom or what do they cause us to place our trust? We can maintain a rich, special, and creative world of thought, and constantly delight in the interesting thoughts that fill us; but it is very possible that these thoughts nurture in us an experience of false confidence in illusions that will ultimately shatter. A symptom that can attest to this is precisely a feeling of insecurity – an existential anxiety that rises from within us that everything might collapse. This experience essentially signals that something in our intellectual worldview is shaky and requires rethinking.
The Revelation of His Heart
A deeper understanding of the nature of foolishness and the possibility of its rectification is hidden in the following verse:
"A fool (kesil) has no delight in understanding, but only in revealing his heart" (Proverbs 18:2)
When a verse comes to negate something, it implies that at first glance, we would assume the opposite. In this case, the verse's assertion that a fool does not desire understanding comes to challenge a prior assumption that the fool actually seems to desire it. This adds an important detail about the unique character of the kesil (fool, as opposed to other types of fools): the kesil appears outwardly, and perhaps even to himself, as a curious and open person, maybe even as an important and knowledgeable intellectual. However, it is not the love of truth and wisdom that drives him, but rather "the revelation of his heart": he only wants to know himself, to return to what he already knows, to find himself in every subject he studies. Such a person is not a true scholar but a kind of narcissist in love with himself, whose intellectual pursuits are merely a pretext for self-involvement and self-glorification. (This idea is reflected in the fact that the roots כ.ס.ל (k.s.l) and ס.כ.ל (s.k.l) are very close to ש.כ.ל (sh.k.l. which means ‘intellect’): the fool is a scholar whose mental 'letter transposition' has distorted him…)
This verse reveals the source of the fool's false confidence. When a person is constantly preoccupied with himself, he does not step out of his own contracted consciousness. He does not truly encounter what he does not yet know. In doing so, he builds around himself a warm illusion in which everything is within him and he knows everything, where nothing can shake his world. This is why intellectuals in particular often tend to experience existential anxiety. This anxiety is the fruit of doubt seeping through the cracks of their intellect, reminding them how shaky its walls are, how prone their self-confidence is to shattering.
From here we can also learn about the object of true confidence. The rectification of the fool- the true scholar – sets out from the start to seek understanding out of the humble recognition that he himself is limited – that not everything is found within him. The search for understanding is like an encounter with another, requiring us to step out of ourselves and develop a genuine interest in the truth that lies outside of us. When taken to its ultimate conclusion, the search for understanding leads beyond the human realm altogether, to a search for Divine truth that lies beyond all of us together. In other words, the search for understanding leads to faith. This process reminds us at all times how little we know absolutely, thus freeing us from false self-confidence and allowing us to place our trust in the only secure thing – the eternal Divinity that nothing can shake.
To Believe the Wisdom
On the 25th of Kislev, we begin to celebrate the festival of Chanukah, which embodies the conflict between Jewish faith and Greek culture, particularly with Greek philosophy and its legacy. Regarding the thought of the nations of the world, our Sages said: "Wisdom among the nations – believe; Torah among the nations – do not believe" (Eicha Rabbah 2:13). According to the simple interpretation, this means that we should reject the religions of other nations but accept and even adopt their wisdoms. To this simple level, Chasidut added a dimension of depth: it is not enough to merely believe that there is wisdom among the nations, nor is it sufficient to bring it under the wings of faith; we must also believe the wisdom – transform it into a wisdom of faith connected to its Divine source.
The month of Kislev, which culminates in Chanukah, is the time to air out our intellect, to break free from the dense thought patterns that confine us within ourselves, and which toss us between excessive self-confidence and bouts of insecurity. An intellect whose ceiling is open to faith is an alert and renewing intellect, always aware of its limitations and placing its trust in what is above it.
