I sent out a wish tonight on the eighth night of Chanukah – almost exactly three months since I moved to Tel Aviv. I hadn’t sent out my usually wishes before the holiday and thought the last night was just as good an opportunity as the first. Looking at the words I had written (see end) and the candles I’d lit got me thinking...
The photograph of the candles held my attention. All eight of them shining brightly against the dark night, each flame going its own way. Although the candles were all formed the same way in the beginning and each pair (and the Shamash – or ‘candle lighter’) was its own colour, as the flame burned them down, they took on a different look, a different personality. The flames danced this way and that in the wind coming in from outside, never once moving in the same direction. Some burned faster than others, some dripped more wax than the others, but effectively, they all did the same thing – they shone their light for the world to see, they gave me the pleasure of seeing all eight of them burning brightly in my home, even though I had to enjoy them alone, and they made me feel part of something special, part of a tradition, a culture, a people, a religion.
Now don’t disappear...
Now don’t disappear...
