What's with the Snow?

Snow. Ice. Sleet.
For those of us living east of California, and west of Florida, the weather has gone from bad to worse.
It was cute at first, but as one slips & slides down the sidewalk, the freezing air begins to wear thin.
Maybe if we take a deeper look at the meaning of snow & ice, we can find something positive to contemplate on the rest of the winter. In a Chassidic Discourse about the holiday of Yom Kippur, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi brings 2 beautiful analogies, using snow & ice to illustrate his points.

1) Snow begins as water.
2) As the water leaves the clouds as rain, the cold atmosphere can turn the water into snow.
3) As the snow falls to the ground, as time passes the snow melts, returning back into its original form of water.

So too by Torah.
1) Torah begins as G-d's Essential Divine Will & Wisdom.
2) As G-d's Wisdom "Descends" into our atmosphere, where we can understand it, it takes on a worldly form: the events of the forefathers, monetary laws, etc.
3) When one learns these seemingly mundane stories & laws,
with the intention in mind that this is really G-d's Divine Will & Wisdom, then the Torah learned is elevated and returns back to its original source.

~~~

What about ice?
Well, if one were to look into the books of the prophets, ice would be found to be mentioned in an unlikely place. In the first chapter of Ezekiel (Yechezkel), the prophet writes of a now famous vision/prophecy he experienced. He describes the various angels and levels in which he sees.
But above all of the loftiest angels, Ezekiel describes there being a "sheet of ice."
Ice!? In the spiritual realms, "physical" things that take up time & space can't exist! Rabbi Shneur Zalman explains, that the "ice" that Ezekiel sees, represents the great level of selfless nullification - ultimate commitment to the Will of G-d - of the angels on that level. Like ice, these angels are completely nullified & "still."

By looking at the world in a deeper way this winter, may we be warmed up, physically & spiritually!

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel