Hanukkah teaches a lesson of hope and resilience – of the need, indeed, of the responsibility, to fight for the human freedoms that are all people’s right.
At the same time, the holiday’s central symbol is not a sword but a candelabra. This one holds nine candles, one of which is used to light the other eight – representing each day of the miracle. Each night of Hanukkah, Jews light this hanukkiah, as a nine-branched menorah is called, beginning with one candle and adding a candle each night until the entire candelabra is ablaze.
Ideas about God’s saving power stand deep within the Hanukkah story. But I like to focus on a different kind of miracle that I see here.
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