Monday, December 7, 2015

Lights in this Challenging time.

Dear Friends,  tonight is the first night of Chanukah. In Hebrew it's called the festival of lights.  With all that's happening in the world, we can use some light now.  There is an old Chanukah song that describes how we as a collective for good can triumph over dark times. Banu Choshech Le Garesh.  Literally, we have arrived together  to chase away the darkness. Here are the words in Hebrew: 

בָּאנוּ חוֹשֶׁךְ לְגָרֵשׁ
בְּיָדֵינוּ אוֹר וָאֵשׁ
כָּל אֶחָד הוּא אוֹר קָטָן
וְכֻלָנוּ אוֹר אֵיתָן
סוּרָה חוֹשֶׁךְ הָלְאָה שְחוֹר
סוּרָה מִפְּנֵי הָאוֹר

Here is my translation adapted for our days:

We have arrived together to chase away the darkness that surrounds us
each of us in our hands has a light from our internal flame
each of us alone and by ourselves are a small but bright light
but when we join together with purpose we are a powerful and towering light
that illuminates a path through the opaqueness and uncertainty ahead
so the darkness will flee from the faces of our radiant lights

May your latkes, jelly donuts, and singing fill the world.  May our lights shine a bright path ahead.

Happy Chanukah