DANCE OUT DARKNESS
How can we dance out the darkness in our lives?
We danced out of Egypt toward revelation at Mount Sinai, out of Haman’s decree toward the rebuilding of the Second Temple, out of gas chambers to the State of Israel.
Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free. – Rumi
How can we dance out the darkness in our lives? How can we dance through the lingering shadow of Oct. 7, through the trauma of missile attacks coming from four directions, through the loss of precious lives, and still dance with gratitude for the miracles and for the outpouring of love and unity?
The light that emerges from darkness seems to be built into the very fabric of the universe. Against a backdrop of void, God said, “Let there be light,” and the light was good. And we, the Jewish people, seem to be experts in the art of dancing out of darkness. We danced out of Egypt toward revelation at Mount Sinai, out of Haman’s decree toward the rebuilding of the Second Temple, out of gas chambers to the State of Israel.
It is said that with this original light, created on the first day, Adam and Eve could see from one end of the world to the other. But God hid this supernal light, lest it be misused. Each day we pray for its return – “May a new light shine on Zion” – and for us to be worthy of it. The revelation of this hidden light will usher in the messianic era, a time of peace, joy, and no more war, for which we long, hope, and pray.
Dance Out Darkness
Yoram Raanan’s painting Dance Out Darkness began with a canvas primed in coffee grounds, giving it an earthy foundation. He then poured streams of blue, purple, and gold paint over the horizontal surface, creating richly layered textures that sparkle with light. Then, in a moment of inspiration, he turned the canvas upright – and from the darkness emerged the gift of a dancer: a mysterious female form, mid-motion, revealing a moment of transformative beauty.
With bold overlays of purple and magenta, the figure seems to dance out of darkness, a visual metaphor for hope and renewal.
The dancer appears to be looking upward. Above her, in the top left corner, rises a mystical forest of tree-like silhouettes, touched with flecks of gold that seem to rise like angels in motion. In hassidic thought, dancing is a way to lift up holy sparks – to sweeten and transform darkness; in the painting, we can feel those sparks flickering with joy.
Turning the canvas upright shifted the perspective from a horizontal, earthly view to a vertical, spiritual one. In his book Healing Visualizations: Creating Health through Imagery, Dr. Gerald Epstein describes a pivotal insight:
“The vertical movement seemed to lift me from the horizontal hold of the given, the ordinary patterns of everyday cause and effect. I leapt into freedom... the task of being human was to help realize freedom – to go beyond the given, to the newness that we are all capable of and our capacity to renew and recreate.”
To dance out darkness is to leap into freedom – to move beyond what is, into what can be. In the words of a poem attributed to Albert Einstein:
We dance for laughter, we dance for tears,
we dance for madness, we dance for fears,
we dance for hopes, we dance for screams –
we are the dancers, we create the dreams.■
https://www.jpost.com/judaism/article-861422