Hanukkah is our December holiday, and it is time to clean our Menorahs, buy our candles, and invite family and friends over to celebrate and eat latkes. By itself it is great fun, lively songs, dreidel games and presents.
Yet, I know I want more. I stare at those burning candles and want to feel something deeper. What do I do? I pull out my Hassidic texts and learn.
Here are some thoughts and meditations to engage you this Hanukkah.
The Rabbis, in the Talmud teach that you have to see the flames of the candles burning in order to say the holiday blessings. This is different from Shabbat, when you can miss the candle blessing and still bring in Shabbat with the Kiddush over the wine. The rabbis explain that Hanukkah is a "personal" holiday. The Holiday is not intrinsically holy, but rather only counts if each one of us looks at the candles and is inspired and "woken up" to feel the light of the Divine inside ourselves. The Hanukkah lights awaken gratitude and open our eyes to the miracles in our lives. Also, the candles help us meditate and access Godliness and Holy inspiration from the heavenly lights.
The rabbis also teach that we should use the finest olive oil to light the candles. We know you have to press really hard on an olive to squeeze out the oil. Squeezing the olive is like the pressure we feel in life. But isn't it true, that often when we are squeezed to the breaking point, at precisely those crushing moments our finest selves shine through! The olive oil reminds us to persevere and overcome our challenges, believing, always, that we can find light in the darkness.
So gaze at the Hanukkah candles. The silent flames are glowing, sometimes dancing; vulnerable yet always reaching upward. Remember that each one of us possesses an inner flame, sometimes lost in the pressures of life and too many things we have to do. The flame wants to dance, to reach upward, to touch something higher and deeper and more precious and meaningful. That flame is your flame. It can never be extinguished. Don't let the light go out!
A Happy and Light-filled Hanukkah celebration for us all.
Membership premiums will be distributed at the close of our service this month. If you are unable to attend and pick up your gift, please send Julie an email. She will hold it for you and bring it at our January service.
Our premiums this year, based on your level of membership, are a custom Lev Eisha heart keychain, a CD of our sacred music, or a copy of The Bridge to Forgiveness: Stories and Prayers for Finding God and Restoring Wholeness by Karyn D. Kedar, chosen by Rabbi Toba August.
We are assembling a Passover cookbook to be distributed at our Women's Seder on March 30, 2008. Please submit your recipe to us via the form in your mailing or by e-mail. You can also use the online form. By your submission you certify that this recipe is written in your own words and not copied from some other source.
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If you have a milestone to share please send it to: editor@leveisha.org. Our newsletter gets printed about a week before each service. Please send the info ASAP.
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