Chanukah is almost over and yet, its lessons are eternal. As a matter of fact, that the oil burnt for 8️⃣ days is for sure a miracle, but that the Jewish people is still there to celebrate it, after almost 2200 years is an even bigger miracle!

Today is the 8th day of Chanukah. Last night we lit 8 lights in our menorah, which looked so beautiful so majestical ✨

Every evening after lighting, we sing about the fact that we only look 👀 at the lights, but we make no use of them.

That is why we have the shamash which is being used to light the other lights.

And so we find that each holiday is related to a particular sense.

Poerim is related to the sense of hearing 👂 as we listen to the Purim story and the raashan.

Pesach is related to our sense of taste as we eat the crunchy matsa.

Chanukah is related to our sense of seeing 👀. We love to look at the lights as they inspire us and warm our heart and soul.

It is the Maccabim who optimized their sense of seeing. They chose what they wanted to see and they chose what they refused to see.

They refused ❌ to look at the gigantic Syrian army. They refused ❌to consider how small their army was and they didn’t look ❌at the impossible task in front of them.

Instead they chose to look 👁️ at the light, at the hand of G-d, at His protection and His help to succeed.

The lights of the menorah inspire us to see correctly and to chose what we will look at.

When an obstacle pops up, will we see a mountain of impossible scenarios 🫤 or will we search for a wonderful light that we ourselves will ignite and that G-d will bless 8 times over?

It is this unfathomable light, this G-dly aspect, that goes way beyond logic that disturbed the Greeks so much and made them want to destroy ⚔️ it or anyone who held onto it. Therefore they especially forbade those commandments that had no logic to them.

You see, Hellenist culture was about the body, about gymnasiums, about beauty, intellect, order and control and not about some pure olive oil 🏺that rises way above everything, above water, above logic and above our understanding!

It is that light that burnt miraculously for 8 days and continues to burn for almost 2200 years.

The light may not always be visible 😌. We are quite often the ones who need to break through the darkness, the impossibilities and the hopelessness and search for the light and turn it on.

But if you put this light next to darkness 🌑💥, light always wins because darkness has no substance whatsoever. Darkness is only the absence of light.

Therefore darkness, obstacles and impossibilities don’t really exist. One little push 🫵, one little match or one menorah can eliminate tons of darkness.

As we take the Menorah lights with us all year long we are inspired to see, search and focus on possibilities, on positivity and on the belief that we can make the impossible a reality, which is exactly what the Jewish nation is all about!

Chanukah sameach 💥

Bracha Heintz
Chabad Utrecht