Ceremony and Celebration Family Edition, The Hagim, Hanukka, The Eighth Night, From the Thought of Rabbi Sacks
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You can see religion as a battle, a holy war, in which you win a victory for your faith by force or fear. Or you can see it as a candle you light to drive away some of the darkness of the world.
The difference is that the first sees other religions as the enemy. The second sees them as other candles, not threatening mine, but adding to the light we share.
What Jews remembered from that victory over the Greeks twenty-two centuries ago was not a God of war but the God of light. And it’s only the God of light who can defeat the darkness in the human soul.
From Optimism to Hope, 96
❖ Points to Ponder
- Does Judaism see religion as a battle or as a candle?
- What is the connection between this passage and the message from Rabbi Sacks in “To Light Another Light” (p. 86)?