Chanukah Torah..

One small Chanukah thought.Chanukah is a really fun holiday. Really fun. You get together with your family, get gifts, light the menorah [for those pyro's out there this is SUPER fun ;-)] eat really oily food...and of course... play draidel.
But this holiday is not only dripping with oil, it is also dripping with spirituality.
What? Where's the spirituality in gifts and draidels?I can't really tell you that your new ipod is totally spiritual, but i CAN tell you somethign cool about the draidel.
Go into the living room and take one. Look at the way it is set up. If you spin it normally, you are taking the little stick on the top and spinning it - right? Why is this? Look at that little stick. It looks like the letter YUD. Which is representative of G-ds name. What we are celebrating on Chanukah is G-d's miraculous intervention in our lives. What we are celebrating with the draidle is G-ds regular intervention in our lives. That YUD [G-d] is the one who 'spins' out how our daily lives will go. He is in control of everything. And whether your day is a "Gimmel" day, and you get everything you wanted, or a "Shin" sort of day and you have to give up something dear to you. Whether it is hard or easy...Hashem is in charge of everything that happens.
We know that G-d runs everything that happens in this world. Whether it is winning the lottery or being diagnosed with a serious illness. He is not only in charge of handing out fates, but in changing them as well. Which means that Hashem can send someone an illness, and just as quickly take it away - no matter what the doctors say. He sends us tough things so that we will turn to Him and ask Him to fix them.