Rabbi's Chayva's Chat

A final word on Chanukah as we light the seventh and eighth lights. Chanukah has as many facets as there are ways to spell its name. I’ve touched on a few of them over the course of the holiday. In last week’s Dispatch, I wrote about lighting a light for each part of our identity and dispelling the darkness of misunderstanding. In South San Francisco, Mayor James Coleman and I spoke about Chanukah’s gestures of hope, lighting the Temple’s menorah against all odds of success, and in our practice today, progressively adding light despite the days getting shorter. On Shabbat, I taught how if candles are already burning, one must extinguish and relight them to fulfill the mitzvah of lighting the Chanukah candles; one cannot take credit for the beautiful flames without lighting and blessing them oneself (or with a group). What else do we take pride in or credit for, when we only enjoyed the result? The candles don’t light themselves. So, too, do we need to intentionally kindle the flames of community-building, justice and charity work, and being there for one another.

Today, we near the end of Chanukah, and its lovely, flickering spell is fading. But there is one more teaching to carry us forward through the darkness of December. Elana Stein Hain recently wrote in The Times of Israel, “We tell the story of Hanukkah, in our liturgy and in our songs and in the rituals we use to celebrate the holiday, as the decisive end of a frightening conflict: the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and the Temple is rededicated with Divine imprimatur. But that is not the full picture of how Hanukkah was experienced in its day: alongside the joy and triumph, there was loss, uncertainty, and ongoing strife.” The rededication of the Temple was not the end of the war, and the victory did not last the Jews forever. The Jews were not even a united people in that time. But rather than letting history ruin a good story, let it deepen the resonance of this holiday. As Hain writes, “As we continue to navigate the messy middle of today’s conflict, may the more complex aspects of Hanukkah and its aftermath inspire within us the hope and faith we need to persevere as a people.”

That hope and faith will be rekindled again this weekend, as we host Dr. Keren McGinity and Dr. Laura Yares for our Shabbat of Jewish Learning. Another contemporary teacher, Rabbi Dr. Joshua Kulp, reflects, “Part of the function of scholarship is to make people a little bit less certain about the truth of their own narratives.” Drs. McGinity and Yares will open us up to new narratives and learning on topics close to our hearts: interfaith families and youth education. Both speakers are engaging, insightful, and wonderful to spend time with, and I cannot wait to join together in learning from this Shabbat. Happy Chanukah, and soon, Shabbat shalom!