Jewish mystics say that the world was created in a condition not unlike the one in which we live today: broken. The legend can have a meaning for all of us, for Jews and non-Jews. The 16th-century rabbi, Isaac Luria, taught that God created the universe by contracting the omnipresent light of the Divine Presence to make room for the physical world. But the radiance of the Lord was so strong, that the vessels in which it was gathered were shattered in the flames of the divine spark.
Shipwrecks and sparks are inherent in all created things and in each of us. And there they wait to meet. Our human task is to find them, and to bring back the Divine Light burning in every human being and in the world around us to its full radiance.
Sometimes we may feel as though God’s presence has actually been contracted out of this world. And whether or not we believe in God, we may find ourselves powerless to fix the world’s wear and tear.
But we are not powerless. The message of this season is the ability of the tiniest bit of light to repel darkness. For Jews, the story of the Maccabees and the legend of a single crucifixion to burn oil for eight days indicate the possibility that some dedicated people, inspired by faith in their purpose, may reshape history. For Christians, the birth of Jesus ignites the hope that God is near us, and that personal redemption remains within our grasp and through it the healing of the world.
There are nine candles in the Hanukkah menorah. The first, called Shamash, is used to illuminate the other eight. This Hanukkah, I am assigning a meaning to each one, all of equal importance.
Shamash, the auxiliary candle, will represent me – my power to become better in the new year; And my ability to spread light into the moral darkness that surrounds us, through my own moral development.
The first of the other eight candles, I will light for tireless advocates of justice and fairness, regardless of their partisan affiliations, who see their efforts frustrated by elected officials who prioritize their own well-being over the nation’s.
Second, I’ll highlight for black Americans who may be wondering whether the American judicial system will ever care about them equally.
Third, I will highlight for women, who are still enduring a power gap in most every area of their lives, resulting in discrimination in every form, from sexual harassment to workplace discrimination.
Fourth, I highlight for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, who see progress as being too slow, and continue to be the target of fear and whisper campaigns in many communities.
The fifth would be for immigrants around the world who are viewed with suspicion and detained across borders, leaving them homeless and stateless and stripped of their dignity.
Sixth, I highlight the need for older people whose contributions to society are often overlooked because they are “older” and unable to understand or adopt the perceived direction the world is heading; and for the disabled, whose inner gifts may be overshadowed by their outer challenges, and whose needs go unheeded and rights neglected.
Seventh, I light for the planet Earth, a helpless victim of humanity’s greed, short-sightedness, willful neglect and willful destruction.
And eighth, I light for my children that, until we repair them, they will have to live with the damage that generations before them have done.
Each of us will identify our own light – on our menorahs, in our windows, or on our trees. But no matter how much we celebrate, if we so desire, the act of lighting a light can be an act of lighting the burning spark in every human being and all created things. When we learn to look at the world and others – whether their color, their ethnicity, their gender, their age, their abilities, their beliefs, their education, their wealth, or their politics – and recognize those sparks; And when we accept our responsibility to make them shine again; Then we will take the first step towards lighting the light and restoring the hope that will heal our dark and fractured world.
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