This is Hanukkah!
Considering the name of this page, what better way to initiate it than with Hanukkah greetings to all our holy friends.
My sister Jenna recently reminded me that I once explained to her that Hanukkah is really a minor holiday in comparison to the rest of the Jewish holidays. It’s only but because of its proximity to Christmas that it gets so much extra hype. But when she told me this, I felt like I had belittled such a beautiful and meaningful time. So it inspired me to share a few thoughts:
Tonight is the eighth and final night of Hanukkah, known as “This is Hanukkah!” It’s a strange name though, because we’ve been celebrating and lighting candles and eating latkes and sufganyot (Israeli doughnuts) for a week already. So why is tonight, the very last night, called “This is Hanukkah”?
As my wife taught me today, the last day was the time when we were able to sit back and really realize the magnitude of the miracle. Every day was a miracle, since only one-eighth of the oil burned; but it wasn’t until the last day that they realized the completeness of the miracle. Only in retrospect could we understand how truly miraculous the oil was from the very beginning.
The other day I ran into a wonderful woman who had hosted me for Shabbat several years before in the Old City. I hadn’t seen her for a while, and was excited to share the news about my marriage. She was filled with happiness for us, but when I asked her about how she was doing, a grim look fell over her face, and she simply said, “We should see miracles.”
Friends and family, aren’t we all waiting for our own miracle? When times are the darkest, aren’t we all just waiting for that moment when everything turns around, and the light is revealed?
This year the Udrens did see a miracle. In the final moments before my father went in for serious intestinal surgery, the future was hazy and unclear. Would the surgery be successful? Would they find more cancer inside my father?
The next day when I heard that everything was OK, I felt like I could take a full breath for the first time in days. True, it was not an open miracle, but rather one that happened through the hands of the doctors and the nurses; but the fact that it went so well and that he recovered so quickly is still a miracle. And there is no doubt all our prayers helped that miracle come into fruition.
When Hanukkah leaves us, what are we left with? We can look back and see how magical each of the eight days really were. We should also take that light into the year, and move from darkness to light in whatever ways we need. We should all see miracles!
Happy “This is Hanukkah” to everyone!
My sister Jenna recently reminded me that I once explained to her that Hanukkah is really a minor holiday in comparison to the rest of the Jewish holidays. It’s only but because of its proximity to Christmas that it gets so much extra hype. But when she told me this, I felt like I had belittled such a beautiful and meaningful time. So it inspired me to share a few thoughts:
Tonight is the eighth and final night of Hanukkah, known as “This is Hanukkah!” It’s a strange name though, because we’ve been celebrating and lighting candles and eating latkes and sufganyot (Israeli doughnuts) for a week already. So why is tonight, the very last night, called “This is Hanukkah”?
As my wife taught me today, the last day was the time when we were able to sit back and really realize the magnitude of the miracle. Every day was a miracle, since only one-eighth of the oil burned; but it wasn’t until the last day that they realized the completeness of the miracle. Only in retrospect could we understand how truly miraculous the oil was from the very beginning.
The other day I ran into a wonderful woman who had hosted me for Shabbat several years before in the Old City. I hadn’t seen her for a while, and was excited to share the news about my marriage. She was filled with happiness for us, but when I asked her about how she was doing, a grim look fell over her face, and she simply said, “We should see miracles.”
Friends and family, aren’t we all waiting for our own miracle? When times are the darkest, aren’t we all just waiting for that moment when everything turns around, and the light is revealed?
This year the Udrens did see a miracle. In the final moments before my father went in for serious intestinal surgery, the future was hazy and unclear. Would the surgery be successful? Would they find more cancer inside my father?
The next day when I heard that everything was OK, I felt like I could take a full breath for the first time in days. True, it was not an open miracle, but rather one that happened through the hands of the doctors and the nurses; but the fact that it went so well and that he recovered so quickly is still a miracle. And there is no doubt all our prayers helped that miracle come into fruition.
When Hanukkah leaves us, what are we left with? We can look back and see how magical each of the eight days really were. We should also take that light into the year, and move from darkness to light in whatever ways we need. We should all see miracles!
Happy “This is Hanukkah” to everyone!
posted by Jonathan Udren at
Sunday, January 01, 2006
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