Greetings and salutations! I hope that each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. Even with the current gloomy economic conditions in our country, I think that most of us can be thankful for family and friends with whom we can share holidays and “regular” days!
Soon, we will be lighting candles and recalling the miraculous existence of our people. Chanukkah, as we all know, is a minor festival on our calendar. The celebrations associated with it, particularly in this country, have taken on epic proportions from the way our parents and grandparents celebtrated those eight days.
Interestingly enough, though, even though it is not one of the major chagim, there is an unusual law in the observance of Chanukkah that is unique among mitzvot. The Shulchan Aruch rules that one who doesn’t have the opportunity to kindle Chanukkah lights or to have someone lighting on his/her behalf in the home becomes obligated, upon merely seeing Chanukkah lights anywhere, to recite the blessing “she’asah nissim” – “who performs the miracles.”
Surely this is exceptional. If, due to circumstances beyond one’s control, one does not eat matzah on Pesach, take hold of a lulav on Sukkot, or hear a shofar sounded on Rosh Hashanah, one is absolved of these obligations. If the mitzvah of Chanukkah lights were solely to kindle them, then the inability to do so would similarly terminate the issue. However, such is not the case. It seems that beyond the actual kindling of the lights, which is so much of what Chanukkah stands for in our minds (in addition to eating latkes and spinning dreidels), the kindling imposes an obligation upon Jews to see things in special light, to apprehend reality in a unique manner. The Jewish way of seeing, then, is formalized in the halachah of Chanukkah: one recites the blessing “she’asah nissim” – “who performs the miracles” – upon just seeing the Chanukkah lights.
When I first read about this, I was struck by the fact that, from a minor festival we get a mainstay of B’nai Yisrael’s mindset. We never give up hope and we always believe that miracles can, do and will happen. We also value, in very special ways, the minor and major days on our calendar. We learn to search and find the most we can out of each and every day that we live.
May the upcoming days of Chanukkah be ones of joy and meaning to you, your dear ones, and your friends!
-- Cantor Linda R. Semi
