eDvar Shabbat Hanukkah Rosh Hodesh Parshat Miketz 5786
Glowing Faith
“Keep showing us the beauty of your Jewish traditions,” our State Rep told us at last Sunday evening’s Hanukkah lighting. Tommy Vitolo then added, “From the perspective of someone who is not Jewish, I hope you’ll share the moral-beauty of Jewish life to the rest of us for generations, centuries, and thousands of years to come.”
I’ve been thinking about his words a lot this week. It’s been a painful Hanukkah. The horrifying attack on our people at Bondi Beach. Murders at Brown and here in Brookline. It’s time for what’s best, noblest, and finest in our faith to beam brightly.
A key word in this week’s Torah and prophetic passages is the word for grace, for glowing goodness. The Hebrew word chen appears when Joseph blesses Benjamin (Gen. 43:29), and in the closing words of the Hanukkah Haftorah (Zech. 4:7). It’s a tender word. A touching sentiment that glides in the Priestly Blessing. Its two-letters even begin the Hebrew word Hanukkah.
Hanukkah’s story is agile. It’s nimble enough to surface in different times and places. Yes it originates with the Maccabees and the Menorah. But it shows up in more recent centuries too. At Valley Forge with George Washington in 1776. In 1897 Vienna for Theodore Herzl.
For us, in our post-October 7 world, one of the most courageous stories of faith that keeps humming inside me is Agam Berger’s. She was 19 when Hamas took her hostage. When she was released, after 482 days in harmful captivity, her words were of biblical proportions. “I chose the path of faith. And I returned in the path of faith.”
As you mingle the Shabbat lights tonight with Hanukkah’s lights, may you find yourself whispering “I chose the path of faith. And I return in the path of faith.” And may you share that glowing faith warmly and widely.
A sweet Shabbat and blessed Hanukkah to you.
Rabbi William Hamilton
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