Hanukkah: night 8

How many ways can you spell this holiday? I don’t know but it must be a lot. As I sit in my room I glance over and see my roommate’s menorah lit up and I can’t help but to be filled with a sense of wonder and awe. Hanukkah is the festival of lights it occupies a special place in the hearts of all Jews. It is the one holiday that even the most secular of Jews celebrates and it is the only holiday not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Hanukkah is a rabbinical holiday, it commemorates the date the Holy Temple was retaken, cleaned and rededicated. It is a symbol for our people it lets us know that even in the darkest hour our light still survives. Hanukkah was the first ideological war fought in human history. The Greeks weren’t just killing Jews; they were trying to kill Judaism and they were stopped, this wasn’t a war against the physical body it was a war against the very soul of the Jewish Nation. And so for eight days we celebrate Hanukkah we light lights which we are forbidden from using for any purpose. We are instructed to sit with our lights, to sing songs, eat greasy food and talk Torah, and remember that even in the darkest of times we have hope. Eretz Israel.