CHAG URIM SAMEACH!!!!!

Happy Hanukkah my friends!

No matter who you are or what you believe, we could all stand to learn more about other cultures and religions.  Learning about other religions and faiths builds understanding.  Understanding creates empathy which in turn creates compassion.  Compassion and love change human lives.  Let's change lives together.

The first blessing on Hanukkah is said as the "shamash" or helper candle is lit (this is the candle used to light the other candles.

Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tsivanu l'hadlik ner shel Hanukkah.

"Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who hallows us with mitzvot, commanding us to kindle the Hanukkah lights."

Judaism, at its core, is the expression of the covenantal relationship between God and the children of Israel.  It is filled with symbolism of God's love, promises, and relationship with His children.

Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, celebrates the rededication of the second time the Holy Temple was built in Jerusalem.  That was, and it is today, a time of joy and hope.

Furthermore, I just personally love the symbolism of a candle.

"A candle is a small thing.  But one candle can light another.  And see how its own light increases, as a candle gives its flame to the other.  You are such a light." ~Moshe Davis (Jewish Rabbi and Scholar)

#HappyHanukkah #FreedomOfReligion #LightTheFire

Also, this is how much I love candles...I literally wrote a poem about two years ago about candles, fire, faith, and religion:

Once

that quivering

 flame was the source of

light on the darkest night.

Now, lucky to be lit

for a nice aroma

or perhaps,

for the roasting of sugary marshmallows.

How many religions throughout time have made

use of Prometheus’s stolen gift of a spark?

Hannukah, Diwali, Jashne Sade, Samhain,

and more.  Even Vesta’s temple was lit forever

by the sacred flame.  And who should lead all of

Israel through the wilderness but a pillar of cloud

and fire.  Then there is dear, sweet Santa Lucia

crowned in her wreathe of candles.  Yet today

the very pinnacles of her crown are reduced to

 rare usage, reserved only for when the storms of life

cause all other sources of comfort and hope to fail.

Then, at very last, we take away the bushel

and allow the spark to take root in our hearts.