by Rabbinic Intern Shira Stutman

Nowadays, I feel like it’s always dark outside. The kids awake well before sun-up; I get them ready for their day, ready myself as well, and head off to school. By the time I arrive home, many days, darkness has fallen yet again.

I hate this much darkness. I was born to bask in sunlight, not shrivel in the dark. Nevertheless, when the clocks change in the autumn, I know that the days are going to shorten until the winter solstice (this year on December 21), at which time the days will begin to lengthen.

For those of you who join me in winter gloom, despair not! Judaism has a band-aid, a stop-gap measure to remind us that, even in the midst of darkness, light can still shine.

Chanukah.

When we light our Chanukiyot (Chanukah Menorahs) we begin with one candle, with the smallest amount of light. Each night, as we add another candle, add another light.

In the middle of Chanukah, which begins on the 25 of Kislev (this year, on the evening of December 7), we celebrate a new month in the Jewish calendar—the month of Tevet. This is an especially poignant moment in our holiday of light, for the beginning of a new Jewish month brings with it a “new moon” (read: a moon-less night sky). On the first night of Chanukah, we had started with one candle, and had begun to work our way up. On the sixth night of Chanukah, just as the shining lights of six candles begin to worm their way into our hearts, though, the new moon of the month of Tevet brings one more reminder of darkness. Even in the midst of building light, then, darkness can return, even if just for a short while.

We can think about the light-from-within-darkness either literally or metaphorically. If we are in a difficult place right now—as Americans, as citizens of the world, or just as human beings—we can look to the light of the Chanukiya to help us remember to keep hope alive.

Just as the light returns at the end of winter, so may light come back into all the lives of those who need it. May the Chanukiyot that we light remind us of the power of light, and may we be motivated to work for light in our own lives, in the lives of all our loved ones, and in all the inhabitants of the world.  

Chag Chanukah Sameach. May we all enjoy eight wonderful, light-filled, Chanukah nights.