More Reflections for the Chanukkah Season

Dear Friends,

     The winter solstice offers us a challenge of faith.  Will we believe in our senses and accept that the world is a place of darkness, cold and death?  Or will we nurture the flame in our hearts that reminds us that a time of light, warmth and rebirth is soon to come?  Will we commit ourselves to the present and let the darkness invade our souls, or will we commit ourselves to hope, to a vision of a better future and positive action?

     When we light the candles of the menorah, each candle is a ray of hope that we light in the midst of darkness.  In the early days of our religion, our rabbis debated whether we should light eight candles on the first night and light one fewer each day, or light one candle on the first day and add one candle every day.  Ultimately, the choice was to light one more candle each day, demonstrating our faith that a time of greater light is coming.

     For most human beings, the act of living each day is filled with many incidents in which we are called upon to make choices between that which is tangible and that which requires a leap of faith.  Making such decisions is very difficult, and often there is no simple answer.  However, most people find it somewhat easier to choose that which they can experience with their senses.

     The lights of Hanukkah challenge us to consider occasionally making choices based on faith rather than on the input of our senses.  The Psalms of the Bible address this idea in a wide variety of ways.  As a spiritual exercise, it can be helpful to read and reflect on a different Psalm each night of Hanukkah.  There are 150 different Psalms to choose from.  Here are eight suggestions that represent some of my own favorites: Psalm 19 (God as Creator and a Source of Strength), Psalm 23 (The Lord is My Shepherd), Psalm 96 (God as Sovereign), Psalm 114 (When Israel Went Forth From Egypt), Psalm 121 (I Lift My Eyes to the Mountains), Psalm 130 (A Plea for Help), Psalm 137 (A Psalm of Solidarity with Israel), Psalm 150 (Hallelujah).