1st Day of Hanukkah | Candle #2 Tonight
This week, Rabbi Ron Stern shares some Hanukkah meditations to get you in the spirit of the festival of lights.
As we reflect on the meaning of light, and our power to bring it into the world, we invite you to increase the light this Hanukkah with our Center for Tikkun Olam Hanukkah Give Back Guide.
“Sivivon sov sov sov….Hanukkah hu chag tov!” (“Spin the dreidel, spin spin spin, Hanukkah’s a good holiday!”) say the words of the holiday ditty. Of all the associated holiday observances, why would our ancestors have chosen a game of chance and gambling to while away the eight days?
Perhaps to remind us that so much of life as all about luck. That’s not to say that we have no control over our fate—of course we do. Effort and hard work do provide their rewards. However, more than we think life is all about how the dreidel spins and falls. Take a moment to think of all the fortuitous circumstances of your life, that had they been different, things could have gone in any number of directions. If you have faced illness or hardship, how much of it was the result of chance and circumstance? Good luck and bad luck often determine the directions our lives take.
While we often cannot control what happens to us, we can do our best to manage how we react. That’s the lesson of the dreidel. Life tosses challenges and opportunities our way—sometimes we reap the benefits, sometimes we pay the cost, sometimes we miss the chance to do anything. Recognizing how much of who we are is the result of the spinning dreidel of chance can encourage us to seize the most from life’s moments and be very grateful for the blessings that have “spun” our way.
— Rabbi Ron Stern