Joelle Lifestyle - The World at Home

“It is better to light a small candle than to curse darkness .”
— Confucius

We all have our wars.

The Hanukkah holiday is about the fierce survival and triumph of Judaism so spiritual values as embodied in its Torah (symbolized by the Menorah, since the Torah is compared to light over Hellenistic civilization which had attempted to Hellenize –cultural assimilation compared to darkness– the Jews away from practicing Judaism’s commandments.

We are all victims of Hellenization, prisoners of plastic aspects of fake beauty (Beauty is Truth for the Greeks, Truth is beautiful for the Jews), of untrue values of wealth, happiness and learned behavior, illusion of nurturing feelings of comfortable zones where we can lie to our true self and not be undisguised. Well…

The victory of the ancient Jewish Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire started when they found out that almost all the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found only a single container that was still sealed by the High Priests (Cohanim) with enough oil to keep the eight branched candelabrum Menorah in the Temple lit for a single day. They used this, and miraculously, that oil burned for eight days (the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready) thus defeating the overwhelming forces and again consecrating the Temple in Jerusalem, almost two centuries before the current era.

Sometimes the truth to oneself (the remaining blessed oil) is so hard to find because most of us want to assimilate in large groups where no supplementary work is required to make the necessary changes; willingly sinful, we pursue the easier tasks and behaviors not to face the real essence of our existence, our mission to be truthful to what we believe in.

However, because Jews do not traditionally glorify war, Judaism does not emphasizes the military aspects of the holiday but concentrates on celebrating the positive spiritual aspects about the Temple’s re-consecration and the associated miracle of the Hanukkah lamps as described in the Talmud. Therefore, according to Jewish law and to custom the primery ritual is to light in the Menorah a single light from left to right each night, to a total of thirty-six over the course of eight nights. The old sages say that after lighting the candles one should stare at the flames and ’listen’ for half an hour what the candles have to say.

A ninth candle, the servant candle or Shamosh, is used to light all others so that the sacred light spreads through them like the Shabbath candles (See the blog “A Sanctuary of My Own”); it is used for the sole purpose of enlightening our meditation… ’the house within’ rather than ’the house without.‘ The Menorah – or the Hanukiah like Israelis call it – should be placed in front of windows so that passers-by in the streets and inside the house should see it and be reminded of the holiday’s miracle.

I would like to offer you a picture of my NY household Menorah at my window, as well as the one in the street on Fifth Avenue facing Central Park, my apartment, and the famous Plaza Hotel.

May the light of those Hanukkah candles enlighten your spirit and say the truth that you may need to hear.
Amen

This blog is dedicated to my cousin dr. Sophie Silverstein. May the candles show her the right path for all her desires to come true!