Dear Community,
One of my favorite Chanukah traditions is lighting the menorah as a family, and sitting together as the candles melt. The first night is quite dark, and each night as we add a candle to the chanukiah, there is increased light. My children (ages 4, 4, and 7) always have a lot to say about the dripping wax, darkness of the season, and inevitably—about the increasing light.
Why on Chanukah do we light one additional candle each night? Is there any other option? The thought might be inconceivable, but this idea had to be decided at some point! One of the great Jewish debates in the Talmud was this exact question.
"How exactly should we light the Chanukah lights?" the rabbis asked. Shammai suggested that we should start the holiday with the greatest number of lights and decrease by one each night, but Hillel countered with a then radical idea: on the first night, we should start by lighting one light, on the second night, two, and so on—because, as he put it, in matters of holiness we do not decrease, only increase.
Chanukah is all about increasing light and all that light brings to our world—warmth, visibility, and illumination. Chanukah occurs each year in the midst of a season when light feels so scarce, and these tiny flickers of light, increasing day by day, help to feed our beliefs and actions that build into illuminating forces of hope, joy, and connection.
At the JCC, I feel so grateful to spend each day observing this increasing light in our community. While Chanukah makes me extra aware and grateful for its presence, this is light I see shining every day of the year. This is light that comes from the joy and discovery of our children, our families, our teachers and staff. We are the light; all of us of every age, and this is our chance to shine together. I invite you to join us at the JCC every night of Chanukah to kindle the lights of our menorah, and to increase our light by shining together as a community.
Chag Urim Sameach
Happy Festival of Lights!
Jacqueline Marks
Chief Children and Family Officer