I've always loved this holiday, and the whole season. It's a time of light. NYC at night is like some sparkly wonderland. Plenty of those are Xmas lights, but if you walk around certain neighborhoods you'll also see menorahs by every other window, and giant ones in parks and squares.
It's very different, coming from Dayton, Ohio where Chanukah is much less celebrated due to its far smaller Jewish population. As a kid my family, as was our custom, didn't light the menorah by the window, but in the doorway (one thing about Judaism- there are
a lot of different customs). Yet you are still supposed to publicize the miracle of Chanukah, if you can, so my father came up with an idea that was certainly a first in Dayton, and quite possibly the whole country. In the front tree-lawn, he made a menorah…
out of torches. They were the kind you could get at a garden store, to keep the mosquitoes away. I loved helping my father light them. They made thick golden flames that glowed across the whole block. Neighborhood kids came to watch. People slowed down in their cars to gaze. Our homemade outdoor menorah grew brighter by the day till all eight giant lights gleamed in the night. Holiday magic…maybe it's a cliché, but that's what it was.
There's a Jewish saying, "A little light dispels much darkness." Happy holidays, and may this time of many lights make the world so bright we forget, at least for a while, what darkness is.
