No dvar Torah this week because I did an interactive discussion. However, I’ve been writing!

Click here for my Chanukah column for the Jewish Journal.

Click here for my Midweek Musing column for the Gloucester Daily Times.

And here are my comments from Temple Ahavat Achim’s public Menorah Lighting:

It’s wonderful to be together tonight, despite the cold and despite the darkness of the world. As many of you know, Chanukah is also called the Festival of Lights, and it celebrates two things: the victory of the Maccabees against the Syrian king Antiochus and the forces of assimilation, in a society that would have them give up being Jewish in order to fit in. AND the literal and figurative light that came from a small amount of oil, barely enough for one night, that expanded to fulfill its purpose, miraculously burning for eight nights. This was long enough for the newly victorious Maccabees to reclaim, recover, and rededicate their sacred Temple, which Antiochus’s forces had desecrated.

Light shines brighter in community. If you hold one candle just in front of you, it’s for you. If you lift up a candle, it’s for the people near you. If everyone raises up a candle, it lights the way, expanding to fulfill its purpose.

In the time of the Chanukah story, the Maccabees fought alone. In victory, they recovered alone. Tonight, in the shadow of a heavy world, we celebrate their courage and perseverance together, as a community of Jews and allies, neighbors and friends. It has been gratifying to feel the support of the wider Gloucester community, all the more so in light of recent events. Several of my interfaith clergy colleagues have reached out to lend their hearts. And the number of people who signed up for this event AFTER the news from Sydney came out should give us all a sense of hope for the light that shines so brightly in the Gloucester community. 

Chag Urim Sameach! Happy Chanukah!