Blog

Yes, in just a few hours, we will welcome the Festival of Lights. How appropriate that is for us at this season. Not only are our days shorter and the nighttime hours prevail, but our our world is clouded with its daily challenges. The kind of light we need is not the kind that lets us perceive the physical world around us. We need a light that will brighten our hearts and souls, a light that might pierce the loneliness created by the pandemic, a light of hope in the face of the healing needed in our world.

As I, no doubt, point out year after year, Hanukkah, Chanukah, Hanukah, Hannukkah is a minor festival on our calendar. I must say, that this year, with all that is happening in our worlds, it takes on a different dimension. It is that expanded dimension that invites the holiness of the light emanating from the candles of the holiday. We declare after the lighting that this light is sacred and we only can use the light to be able to absorb its holiness. The light is not for reading or for warming ourselves, but for igniting the spark of life that has sustained our people throughout the generations.

I hope you will be able to join us for candle lighting at 5:30 today. The link is in yesterday's email.

Happy Hanukah to all of you!!

Rabbi Ted