Chanukah 5784 ~ December 2023
On the Friday of Thanksgiving, our five-year-old grandson, Mason, followed me down to the basement as I went to put away our Thanksgiving flag and take out the Chanukah one that now adorns our front yard. As he looked over the Chanukah area of decorations and items, he immediately picked up a bag of dreidels. He politely asked, “Grandpa, can I take out one to play with?” He quickly pulled out one of the small plastic dreidels, closed up the bag, and carried it up to the kitchen counter.
As I came up the stairs with the many decorations that we would hang and place around the house, Mason began spinning the dreidel. I thought that, at his age, it would simply drop to the countertop as he spun it. But he remembered from the previous year the technique that his father and uncle taught him to get the right momentum with the flick of the fingers. Before long, he kept on saying “I win, I win, I win.” Lisa kept on smiling watching the excitement with each spin. She turned and asked me, “Shouldn’t you teach him what each letter means, so he knows when he wins and when he doesn’t?” But for some reason, I didn’t listen to my preschool director wife, and instead just let him have fun spinning. Afterall, it wasn’t Chanukah yet. We can save the fun and games for when he tries to show his spins to his month-old cousins, who I’m sure won’t have any interest whatsoever. In the meantime, just the fact that Mason got into the spirit of Chanukah, immediately after eating turkey dinner and his now favorite Grandma Lisa’s stuffing, tells me that this Chanukah will be full of the fun of having a young child in our midst who wants to celebrate Chanukah just for the fun of it. I know that Mason will bring a smile to all of our faces when we meet together in Providence with latkes and sufganiyot (donuts) and he spins that dreidel many more times.
As I was looking through our collection of Chanukah items with Mason, I came across my childhood Chanukiyah. It is a cutout of the Kotel with an Israeli soldier and worshippers standing in front of it, praying, as Israel captured the Old City during the Six Day War in 1967. I haven’t used it in years because I never liked the words that describe the Kotel. Instead of the Western Wall, the words read the Wailing Wall. In our home, we use a brass menorah that I purchased in Israel when I studied as a Rabbinical Student in Jerusalem. However, this year, I see the words on my menorah of my youth as words that express the feelings of my soul at this time. The pain I feel, both with the continuing war against the Iran backed terrorist Hamas and the hostages still held in Gaza, as well as the ground swell of antisemitism that overwhelms all of us, is expressed in those words. And, just as the menorah from my youth brought me pride as a Jewish ten-year-old at that moment that the Kotel was ours, the brass menorah brings me to recognize the beauty of Jerusalem in peaceful times.
As many others have suggested, this year - despite all that we are sensing - take pride in lighting the Chanukiyah. Display your decorations and your menorah to the outside world. The mitzvah is actually lefarsem at ha-nes, to ‘pronounce the miracle.’ As you light your candles, perhaps they can bring that smile to your face, mindful of when you stood and your face shone as you gazed at the candles for the first time each year. We need that light; we need to smile. And at the same time, may the light of the candles be our hope that, just as the Maccabees, the IDF can once again overcome those who choose to destroy the light that makes our Jewish heritage so unique, so strong and so bright.
May the letters of the dreidel used in Israel that Mason spins come true both in Israel and here in America: “Nes gadol hayah sham,” May the great miracle happen there… here….and now. So that, as Ella Sackett shared with me just yesterday:
“Dan
Daniel is doing fine; he was called back to reserve service on October 7th. We hope he can get discharged soon and get back to his job as a counselor in Beit Shemen youth village.”
May that light shine soon for Daniel and all of the men and women who are not only fighting for Israel and the hostages, but for the light of the spirit of the menorah, both in the time of the Temple of Old in Jerusalem and today, as well.
Chag Urim Sa’meach, (Happy Festival of Lights), Happy Chanukah and Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi K