This evening marked the beginning of Hanukkah which is the Jewish “Festival of Lights”. It was surprising learning that it is actually one of the minor holidays on the Jewish calendar given the visibility it gets in the media during the festive season.
Hanukkah has it’s roots in the re-dedication of the Second Temple after the Maccabees successfully defeated the Greeks where there was only enough oil to light the lamps for a single day and yet the lamps remained lit for eight days allowing for the preparation of more oil. Thus starting on the evening on 25 Kislev of the Hebrew calendar, Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days as a remembrance of that miracle.
I’ve spoken on the shamash (“servant”) candle which is the candle in the middle of the menorah that is used to light the other eight candles. But whilst expounding upon the call for us to remember the duty of the shamash candle and strive to serve the needs of others, there’s an even more subtle thought of hope in the mysteries of the menorah for us and our world that I hadn’t thought of until now.
In our service to others, we should strive to give much more light to the world than that which we have.
In these times where it seems every time we turn round we see more and more instances of atrocities and darkness visited upon our fellow human beings, bringing light to extinguish the darkness would seem to be in need now more than ever.
Certainly, anything you can do individually to improve the quality of life for another is a good thing.
A kind word to another who may be in desperate need of one.
An ear willing to listen to someone else’s troubles and find a way to comfort them.
Helping someone with a task that may be vexing them but is something you have the talent and the willingness to do.
Being willing to stand up against injustice and intolerance in aid of those who may not be able to do so themselves.
An unexpected delight given to another as a way of paying our blessings forward.
And this journey into sharing one’s light may well start out being very narrowly focused and there’s nothing wrong with that.
But when we come together as a community, we are capable of bringing our talents to shed much more light to bear upon the darkness of the world when we work in concert and do good far in excess of the sum of us all.
And in so doing, we often find that we are capable of far more heroic and far reaching gifts that we can give the world than we would have ever believed ourselves capable of by ourselves.
In a time where we’ve got another variation on COVID-19 ravaging the world, tensions threatening to become wars everywhere one looks, and even day to day life where too many people are just so stressed out that they can’t be bothered to be civil to one another…now more than ever we ought to step back, take a deep breath, and remember our purpose is really to serve the needs of others before our own and bring far more light against the darkness than we consume.
Find that way you can pool your talents and skills to serve the needs of others and you will find and illuminate the greatest gift of Hanukkah or whatever festive season you may celebrate.
Hope.
May you have a happy and safe festive season with those you love and remember that no festive season is complete without lots of light to shine upon the world! 🙂
