Eishet Chayil: Morning Star

“And she rises when it is still night”- There are those who need to see the first signs that morning is coming, when the sky is changing colors and the birds start singing, before  getting up. And there are those who can awaken when the sky is still ink black, and when the whole world is still asleep. They awaken because they know that dawn will eventually break. They don’t need an external indication promising that the sun will rise, that darkness won’t last forever.

Such is the Eshet Chayil; she rises before the first ray of light appears. And right away, she “gives food to her household”, she nurtures others and paves the way for a new day.
She is like the “Ayelet HaShachar”, the morning star, mentioned in Psalm 22. She is the star that rises right before dawn, when the night is still at its thickest, and becomes a beacon of hope for those entrenched in the grips of obscurity. The morning star refers to Esther (Socher Tov on Psalms: 22,1) who brought hope and light in the darkness of exile.
Whether we are enduring a personal or collective affliction, we can choose to “rise when it is still night”, just as we could sing the Hallel before being saved, see Hallel in History, i-shine, and not just wait to sing it when it is all over, when everything is clear and we are past the danger.

It is up to us to either wait for the morning star, or to become the morning star, gleaming and bringing the promise that the dawn is about to break.