This is the season when days feel short and the nights long. When the world around us seems to be filled with overwhelming darkness, Hashem has gifted us with the light of our menorah. Each flame stands tall. We are not to use the lights, only to gaze at them. “Haneiros halalu kodesh hem, v’ein lanu reshus lehishtamesh bahem ela lirosam bilvad – these candles are holy. We have permission only to look at them.”
Take a moment and look at the world today. We feel surrounded by haters. Campuses are hotbeds of Jewish hatred, streets fill with shouts for violence against Jews, and jihadists in suits make it seem normal to call for the destruction of our people and to ‘globalize the intifada’. Money is being poured in from foreign countries to pay for textbooks and education that rewrite our story. A whole new generation is being raised to see Israel as a nation of ‘privileged white colonialists’. Famous podcasters cast false blood libels against the Jewish people while millions accept their lies as truths.
Amidst all our difficulties, we are asked to simply look at the menorah. The menorah is here to give us strength. Each night, its light calls out to us. ‘Listen to my story! The Greeks wanted to destroy the connection we have with our Creator. They wanted us to slink away, disappear into their culture and forget who we are. Abolish Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh, a baby’s bris, and our Jewish calendar. And yet there were a few brave souls who refused to allow our light to die. Yehuda HaMaccabi and his courageous brothers. Yehudis who defied the voices of defeat that called for surrender. The search for the shemen zayis zach, tirelessly seeking the perfect oil despite those who discouraged the quest as impossible.
We are given clear direction. When you look around the world and feel frightened. When the darkness feels crushing. Take another look.
Look at your menorah. You will see your world through another lens. Where once you saw choshech you will see ohr. You will fight hopelessness with hope. Instead of being brought down you will lift others up.
Look up! See Hashem’s great hand in your life and the life of your people. Look towards Shamayim and know that you do not walk alone. You are a nation of miracles. You have traveled throughout the four corners of this earth, gone through every type of persecution and yet, you, Am Yisrael, still stand!
Look out! See the incredible nation that you are blessed to be a part of. Look out for your brothers and sisters. Don’t let a day go by that a prayer for Yerushalayim, for our chayalim, for the pain of another, does not leave your lips. Don’t live only for yourself. Live for others. Do a chesed each day. Show Hashem that you care for His children.
Look in! See the spark within that refuses to die. Know that your pintela Yid is the secret of the Jew. You have been bequeathed with a legacy from those who walked before you. You are filled with passion, inspiration, and the fire of your soul.
I have the zechus of taking groups of women on a mission to Poland. Our mission is one of ‘zachor – remember!’ Remember what it means to live as a Jew. Remember what it means to die as a Jew. Remember Amalek and those who wish to wipe you off the face of this earth. It is only when you know where you come from that you know where you are going.
We stand in the ‘shower room’ of the Majdanek camp, the room where our people were cruelly disinfected, forced to be stripped of their dignity, heads shaved, terrified, and then shoved into the gas chambers. I share a story told to me by my uncle, Rabbi Jacob Jungreis.
My grandmother, Mama, was in Bergen Belsen. There are no words to describe the fear, the hunger, and the pain. My uncle recounted a conversation that unfolded before his eyes. Another rebbetzin exclaimed to my grandmother, “Look at us! Look what they did to us! We are so ugly!” She began to sob.
My grandmother, Mama responded, “If this is how Hashem wants us to look than we are beautiful. We are always beautiful in the eyes of Hashem.”
I think of the words “Shechora ani v’navvah Bnos Yersushalayim – we are blackened but beautiful, the daughters of Jerusalem.”
Look at the holy lights. Remember that no matter how difficult the night, how crushing the darkness, how down you feel, we are forever beautiful in the eyes of Hashem. We are Bnos Yerushalayim.
Take the lights of Chanukah and infuse your soul with its eternal flames. This is our story. We never allow ourselves to fall into choshech. The menorah speaks to us, especially today.
Al hanissim… Bayamim hahem bazman hazeh. From those days until today. Open your eyes to the miracle and beauty of our nation.