In a few  weeks  we will once again celebrate Chanukah,  the Festival of Lights. While the holiday celebrates a war victory of a  small group of Jews over the mighty Greek empire, the  Chanukah celebration itself is over a partial victory. We remember the  successes of the Maccabees, Jewish rebels, in chasing  the Greek army away from the  city of Jerusalem and surrounding area only, not from the entire Judea  area. A full victory of freeing  the entire Judean territory  from  the  Greek empire  came  some  years later. At that point the Greeks  decided  that  it was not  worth it for them to lose so many soldiers during  constant  battles with the Maccabees. They  then  withdrew their army  from the rest of Judea.

During  the initial victory as  the Maccabees entered the Jerusalem Temple they cleansed it from Greek statues  and  pagan religious articles everywhere and lit the seven branched golden menorah in order to bring  back the Light of Holiness to the Temple. They  then rededicated  the temple to the G-D of  Israel. Hence  the word  “Chanukah”,  dedication. 

This Light is the true spiritual meaning of the celebration. In the absence  of Godly  light  at  the temple, G-D’s spirit was absent from the soul of  the people. That  absence  of  the  Shechina, the spirit of G-D resulted  in many Jews becoming  Hellenists, Jews who followed the Greek pagan religion and customs. The Maccabees considered the Hellenists to also be enemies of the Jewish people. 

During Chanukah today, we  also celebrate the power of  our own inner sacred Light  which dwells in each of our souls. It is  the sacred Light of inner peace  and  love. As we celebrate the holiday of Chanukah we pray  that  our Light grows stronger  and will illuminate the dark parts of  the world, that it will shed  peace and hope for people under oppression and despair.

We  light  the  ‘Chanukia', the  special  8 branched Chanukah menorah  every  night of the  eight  nights  of  the holiday. There is also one extra branch for the “Shamash”, the  server branch, used to hold the candle which lights  the rest of the menorah. With every  night our sacred Light deepens in our souls,  gaining  more power, strengthening  our resolve  to  hope and work for a better, peaceful  world. This  is our Light of Peace among  ourselves and among all the nations.

May it be so. 

Happy Festival of Lights!

Rabbi David   

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