jewscout
Religious Zionist
I found this, like most all of Rabbi Yolkut's speeches and lessons, to be very inspiring and I hope he doesn't mind me posting this, i am giving him the credit after all i couldn't come up w/ something like this myself.
This is taken from the "Rabbi's Message" section of the Beth Israel web site.
This is taken from the "Rabbi's Message" section of the Beth Israel web site. Chanukah may well be the most universal of Jewish holidays. While many of our holidays help reveal the differences in observance between different Jews (those with a sukkah and those without, or tremendous variety in standards for Pesach), the majority of Jews unaffiliated, Reform, Chassidic, and everything in between fulfill the central mitzvah of Chanukah, the lighting of candles, in the halachically optimal way. In fact, the Talmud refers to our practice of lighting menorot for every member of the household, with an ascending number of candles representing the days of Chanukah, as a halachic stringency, and suggests that one can on a very basic level fulfill this mitzvah by simply lighting one candle each evening.
The fact that Jews universally observe this mitzvah in the optimal fashion goes to the heart of the message of Chanukah. The discovery of a single cruse of pure oil after the Greek defilement of the Temple reminds us that somewhere, there is a part of a Jewish soul that remains uncontaminated by sin or assimilation. This message, which was so important at the time of Chanukah, is even more crucial in our day. There are so many things that compete with the Torah for the values of the Jew in the world. Chanukah reminds us that in every child of a Jewish mother burns a flame sustained by the purity of the soul. Our job is to stoke the flames of Chanukah and bring the light of Torah into our world on a permanent basis.
Anna and Chana join me in wishing you a Chanukah filled with joy and light a freilechen, lichtige Chanukah.
Thank you again Rabbi!
And i too want to wish everyone out there a Happy Chanukah!:jiggy: :bounce