Courage to Hope – The Eight Candles of Hanukkah

911 Survivor Tree photo courtesy of Hadassah.

“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” That sentiment is frequently attributed to a variety of people, including Confucius and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Most likely, it originated with William L. Watkinson, a minister who is reported to have said those words in a 1907 sermon. And so, as we approach Hanukkah, the end of 2024 and the dawn of a new year, I look forward to lighting all eight candles at Hanukkah. I will revel in them nightly, welcoming light and love and joy into my home and into my heart as I celebrate the holiday with family and friends.

There is no doubt that 2024 has been a hard year – one in which too many Israeli hostages have remained in captivity in conditions that I can’t even begin to contemplate and vile acts of antisemitism around the world have spiraled in a way I never thought possible.

From Argentina to the US, and so many countries in between, there have been a shocking number of incidents. I felt myself go cold as I walked between six police officers and security guards when I entered my synagogue during the High Holidays. How has it come to this in a suburb of Philadelphia? The state of the world leaves me feeling anxious and confused.

There is death and destruction in Israel, Gaza, Syria and Ukraine. There are more than 45 armed conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East alone. The wars don’t seem to end. And at home, here in the US, the epidemic of gun violence does not abate either.

The heated rhetoric before and since the US elections have left me reeling as I have struggled to understand why there is such a big divide in our country and why some think it serves us as a nation to perpetuate it. Why can’t we learn to recognize that in a land of plenty there should be resources for all, and that compromise is always possible?

Climate change, hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and loss–the list goes on and on. And yet, I have to have hope. It is such a Jewish concept; our texts and writings confirm that over and over again.

The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of England from 1991–2013, said, “Optimism is the belief that things will get better. Hope is the belief that, if we work hard enough, we can make things better. Between them lies all the difference in the world. …It needs no courage, only a certain naiveté, to be an optimist. It needs a great deal of courage to have hope.”

While we may not think of trees as survivors, a Callery pear tree became just that – a symbol of courage and hope. After the 9/11 terror attacks, a tree was found at Ground Zero with badly burned and broken branches as well as damaged roots. It would have been easy to discard it in the incredible piles of rubble remaining from that horrific attack, but one person saw the opportunity for renewed life.

The tree was rehabilitated and re-planted at the 9/11 Memorial in 2010. The gnarled stumps are still there, but now this “Survivor Tree” has new smooth limbs that serve as a tribute to the possibility of rebirth and regrowth.

And so, I look forward to Hanukkah and the New Year with a sense that we, too, can have the courage to hope that things will be better. With the truce holding between Israel and Hezbollah, the fall of Assad in Syria, and the belief that Hamas has been badly weakened and Iran is not as strong, perhaps my sense of hope is well-founded.

My cousin, who lives in northern Israel, reports that, since the ceasefire agreement was forged with Hezbollah in Lebanon, life seems a little more normal. People are out and about, returning to see the state of their homes, businesses and public places in their towns and settlements. Most schools have returned to in-person learning. Families are walking in nature reserves, and restaurants and malls are welcoming back patrons. It all seems hopeful to me.

And so, I’m ready to see my Hadassah friends at our Hanukkah party and to make latkes and donuts for my family, as I remember the message of the holiday. A small band of Jews were able to overcome a powerful enemy, recapture the Temple and relight the menorah, whose flame miraculously burned for eight days with a small vial of oil. They had courage and hope, and I will enter the New Year with a sense that light and peace are always possible. And that we must work to make it so.

Lana is a member of the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, a dynamic and diverse writing group for leaders and members to express their thoughts and feelings about all the things Hadassah does to make the world a better place, to celebrate their personal Hadassah journeys and to share their Jewish values, family traditions and interpretations of Jewish texts.  Since 2019, the Hadassah Writers’ Circle has published nearly 450 columns in the Times of Israel Blog and other Jewish media outlets. Interested? Please contact hwc@hadassah.org.