TEMPLE HIGHLIGHTS | RABBI'S MONTHLY COLUMN

May this year's Chanukah menorahs shine with great joy and inspiring challenge

From the study of Rabbi Stern

Tradition teaches us to place our Chanukah menorahs in the front windows of our homes to fulfill the mitzvah of pirsum ha-nes – the publicizing of the miracle of Chanukah. But Rabbi Michael Strassfeld draws on a midrash about the ancient Temple in Jerusalem to suggest another reason: “According to the tradition, the menorah in the temple illuminated the whole world. Therefore King Solomon built the temple’s windows wide on the inside and narrow on the outside (the opposite of medieval castles, which tried to capture as much outside sunlight as possible), for the temple’s windows did not convey light into the temple but rather were a source of light to the outside world.”

Often, we build our houses and structure our lives as protective containers, built to retain light and happiness and comfort, but not to shine them forth. We live behind gates, we drive behind tinted windows, we (myself included) check caller id before we pick up the phone. We create our lives as medieval castles – we hunker down, and calculate how to draw in as much light or luxury or security as possible, but too rarely consider how to be a source of light to those beyond our own walls: to an isolated senior citizen, to the family with two working parents who can’t find affordable housing, to the child without health care. The tradition of the menorah in the window comes to remind us that as Jews, we are supposed to be sources of the light of decency and justice and goodness, not just collectors.

And if it feels showy or chutzpadik to consider letting your own light shine for the benefit of others, remember the teaching of the Chasidic Rabbi Joshua Horowitz. Like most Chasidic teachers, he held humility as a primary Jewish value. But he also taught that when it comes to the pursuit of justice, to shining forth the light of decency and compassion, humility has its limits.

He asked: if, as tradition teaches, the Torah was given on a low mountain to teach us humility, then why not make the setting even more humble and give it on a flat field? To remind us that sometimes, even against his or her own will, a person needs a little pride in order to make a difference in the world. That is why, in the Book of Exodus we will begin at the end of this month, God tells Moses that God will be with him when he goes to Pharoah – to give Moses the self-esteem and sense of daring to challenge Egyptian oppression. The Moses who approaches Pharoah is humble enough to be hesitant, and bold enough to say, “Let my people go.” “When Israel needs freedom,” Horowitz wrote, “it is not the time for humility.”

So as we light the Chanukah candles this month, we might consider asking – how have I let the light of my own gifts shine as a blessing for someone else? As the Chanukah lights grow with each night, to ask: have I increased the energy I spend on bringing light to the struggles of others? Have I been bold enough to make the choices and establish the priorities that cause light to grow and darkness to diminish? To place those joyous, dancing miraculous flames in the window of our homes, and ask: what kind of windows have I built into the dwelling place of my life and heart? The windows of a medieval lord, who captures whatever he can? Or the windows of Solomon, which bring light, blessing and hope to a darkened world? May this year’s Chanukah menorahs shine with great joy and inspiring challenge. May their light and ours be a source of great goodness, inside and out.