013 - 9th of Nissan - Binyomin & Kislev

Day 9 of the 12 days of Nissan brings us into the energy of Binyamin and the month of Kislev—a time of hidden miracles, sacred paradox, and quiet faith.

Kislev is the month of Chanukah, of dreams, of sudden breakthroughs… but also of long nights. Cold winds. Silence. It’s the moment in the year when the days are shortest—but we begin to light candles.

That’s no accident.

This month asks us to trust the light even when we can’t see it—and no one embodied that more than Binyamin.

Binyamin was born in tragedy. His mother, Rachel, died giving birth to him—and named him Ben Oni, “the son of my sorrow.” But Yaakov, with a vision of hope and transformation, renamed him Binyamin, “the son of my right hand.”

That shift—from mourning to strength, from sorrow to sovereignty—is exactly what Kislev is here to teach us.

Binyamin lived his entire life carrying both of those truths.

And so do we.

Later, the tribe of Binyamin was nearly wiped out in a horrific moral collapse—so dark we barely speak of it. And yet… generations later, it was in Binyamin’s territory that the Beis HaMikdash was built. The Holy of Holies—the most sacred space on earth—stood on land that had once been soaked in shame.

This is Geulah:
When the places that seemed furthest from G-d become the places where He dwells most intimately.