Chanuka night 7

Tonight is the 7th night of chanuka. At this point we are feeling either sad for the fact that chanuka is almost over or maybe fighting the difficulties of the repetitive nature of these lights.

While writing the word chanuka, my phone tried to correct the word to ‘changes’. I thought this was interesting as it really is a word that fits well with chanuka and it’s messages.

Change doesn’t have to be big. In fact in the chanuka Story we learn that the small became the big. The small army defeats the Greeks. Even though they never thought they could win, they knew they had to do something. This small change was the reason for the victory. In our lives we also need to realize that to change we must start small. Perhaps this is also the message of the candle lighting. If you look at most other festivals we celebrate, they almost always have many mitzvot associated with them. Chanuka however is an almost normal day except for a few additions to davening (prayer) as well as the candle lighting. This to could show that to bring Hashem into our lives and to make a change it must be done gradually in small steps but consistent.

Perhaps one thing to do on chanuka therefore is to take a small step to keep the flame with in us and make the change we wanted to do but felt we couldn’t.
חנוכה שמח