ONE LIGHT

     One light. One candle. One flickering hope to end the darkness. Many lights together to remember, to remind, to allow the joining together of people, their hearts and their minds.
     Tonight is the first night of Chanukah. It is a holiday which has suffered, unfortunately, by its proximity to Christmas, as somehow it has turned into a present festival rather than a festival of light, of hope, of determination, of survival. Somehow, it was felt that oh, these poor Jewish kids, all they got at this time of year was a latke (potato pancake kinda'), a dreidel, some pennies and some chocolate coins.
     But it was not like that at all. I do not think that my parents had the money to overwhelm us with toys and gifts for every day of Chanukah and certainly not for four individual kids! If memory serves me correctly, we received perhaps a board game, or a longed for item of clothing, mainly something to be shared. 
     But the true joy was in the anticipation of the family gathering, of playing cutthroat dreidel and amassing one's hoard of pennies, of the latkes and the desserts, of the Chanukah gelt (money) - real and chocolate - and of the anticipations of how to spend the real stuff. And remember, these were no huge amounts we are talking about, but still, money all our own.....
     And we lit the candles, even having our own menorah for some, and we sang together all the songs of the holiday. For eight nights we did this and it never got old and we learned about the meaning of the holiday in school. It was a holiday that reminded one and all that we, the Israelites of old, the Jews of today, are one. It was a holiday that commemorated the importance of freedom, of practicing one's religion - whatever it might be - and of hope. A hope that we might have our own independent homeland, not ruled by a foreign power, be it Greek or Roman or British. It reminded us of our ties to this homeland, a tie that has lasted throughout the millennia. It reminds us that yes, there are miracles, there are ways to progress when we unite as one, when we share the same goals and realize we have the same history, no matter how that history worked out.
     And so we transfer the meaning of Chanukah, its seriousness and its joy, to modern times, down through the years. As our ancestors did, so shall we and so shall our kids. It matters not whether we receive a gift we had been eyeing, for the true gift of Chanukah is its meanings, all of them. It is sharing the holiday with friends and family. It is sharing in the glow of the candle lights. It is in remembering and in accepting of the responsibility to maintain our freedom, maintain our principles, take joy in our heritage. Simple, really.
     That is what we should take with us to holidays and what we need to get out of it, no matter if the holiday be of one religion or another. If we all would do that, what a different world we would have, what a different future we would be leaving to our kids. If only...
     In the meanwhile, a zissen Chanukah, a Happy Chanukah, and a happy holiday season to all. May the world be lit up with joy, with goodness, with pride in what humanity can achieve, and may we all light "just one candle" and see how we enlighten the darkness.