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Somehow this Chanukah seemed more solemn than usual and the light more precious. While our homes and our windows were illumined with the lights of the Chanukiyot, the world around us has darkened, become heavier and more divided, more unsure.

I had a few opportunities over this Chanukah to sing Peter Yarrow’s (of Peter, Paul and Mary) “Light One Candle.” It was written as a response to the Lebanon war in 1982. More than any time in the 40 years that I have sung this song, I found myself tearing up over the words: “Light one candle for the Maccabee children / With thanks that their light didn’t die; / Light one candle for the pain they endured / When their right to exist was denied.” Today they seem to call out again to Israel as she navigates an untenable situation with an array of tragic options in front of her from which to choose and forge a path of stability and safety. We are all feeling Israel’s pain, enduring it with her – worried and angst-ridden.

The song also calls out to us to be united in spirit, to “never become our own foes.” One thing we have learned about Israelis in these times is that even if they don’t all support their government, they are united against Hamas. They need us to be united with them. The chorus, “Don’t let the light go out,” is speaking directly to us now in this time. The light of the rededicated Temple of the Maccabees that refused to go out is the light we must tend to today. Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman in her inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” echoed the theme when she wrote, “There is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it, If only we're brave enough to be it.”

Especially in these dark winter days, and during these dark times for Israel and the Jewish people, we need to take the Chanukah light with us and embody it ourselves. May its light of perseverance prevail, and may Israel know peace within her borders before we light our Chanukah candles again next year.

Shabbat shalom,

Beth