On Sunday, the world went dark. When I heard what happened in Bondi, at one of the world’s first public menorah lightings for 2025, I was crushed. Anger, grief, sadness, and oh so many questions came crashing all together inside of me. But there was no time to process. I knew what needed to be done. I knew we had to move forward with our celebrations and public menorah lightings. But the jarring realization that the “festival of lights” had just gone dark, and a holiday of joy had been shattered by unimaginable sadness, made it feel so surreal.
The rest of the week continued in the same way. As more details of the tragedy emerged, my personal sadness intensified, but our efforts in spreading the message of light and joy of Chanukah reached peak success. In the span of two days, three new public menorah displays were arranged and installed in the El Paso County Courthouse, El Paso City Hall, and at El Paso High. Dozens of Jews have reached out to procure menorahs and candles, and based on the news coming out of Australia and around the world, public menorah lightings are happening like never before. How does this make sense?
Although I have learned and taught the Chanukah story for years, and projected its message of light overcoming darkness and goodness overcoming evil countless times, this week I finally understood what it is all about. The central observance of Chanukah, the nightly kindling of the Menorah, commemorates the miracle of the one-night’s supply of pure olive oil that burned for eight nights in the seven lamps of the Menorah of the Holy Temple. However, there are fundamental differences between the way we light the menorah today and the way it was done in the Holy Temple. In the Holy Temple, the same number of lamps were lit in the Menorah every day, well before nightfall, inside the sanctuary. On Chanukah, we light an increasing number of candles each night, specifically in the evening, by a door or window to project the light outward. The reason for these differences is that the two menorahs represent two different eras. The Holy Temple represents a time when the Jewish nation experienced independence, success, peace, and tranquillity. The eight, ever-increasing flames of our Chanukah menorahs emerged from an era of persecution, terror, and darkness. When life is good and the world is bright, there is no need to increase light or make an effort to project it outward, because all is normal. A flame in sunlight is unnecessary. But when life is turbulent, evil is on the rise, and the world becomes very, very dark, we must increase in light and project it outward as well, because even one flame in darkness can make a world of a difference. Although the Maccabees heroically fought their enemies with weapons and military maneuvers, they focused the commemoration of their salvation on the miracle of the menorah lights because they understood their struggle as one of good over evil, morality over depravity, and light over darkness. Their victory was represented by the flames of the menorah, miraculously fueled by very little ritually pure olive oil. “Light Overcomes Darkness” is not a cliche punchline to wish away reality. It is the greatest acknowledgement of the overwhelming darkness so pervasive in our world today, and an urgent call for all humanity to uproot it at its core by responding to evil with ever-increasing goodness. The horrors that shook the world from Bondi Beach on Sunday brought the urgent message of Chanukah into sharper focus. When the world goes darker, we must make more light.