Ceremony and Celebration Family Edition, The Hagim, Hanukka, The Fifth Night, From the Thought of Rabbi Sacks
Can copy this into an AI, or connect the whole library to your assistant. For deeper learning, you can directly use the original seforim, sites, and apps.
The symbol of Hanukka is the chanukiah we light for eight days in memory of the Temple Menora, purified and rededicated by the Maccabees all those centuries ago. Faith is like a flame. Properly tended, it gives light and warmth, but let loose, it can burn and destroy. We need, in the 21st century, a global Hanukka: a festival of freedom for all the world’s faiths. For though my faith is not yours and your faith is not mine, if we are each free to light our own flame, together we can banish some of the darkness of the world.
“Why Hanukka Is the Perfect Festival for Religious Freedom,” The Washington Post (December 7, 2015)
❖ Points to Ponder
- Why is Ḥanukka considered a festival of religious freedom?
- What is the connection between this passage and the message from Rabbi Sacks on “Ḥanukka for Our Time” (p. 73)?