ILLUSTRA TI ON BY GIORA CAR MI
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hen the moon
turns dark and the
sun turns dark, we
light a 'growing
blaze of candles:
Chanukah. When
the world turns dark because a
Great Ruler, a Great Power, a
Great Corporation is squeezing
small communities into tight
places, we light a growing blaze of
candles: Chanukah. When our
lives turn dark because we have
no hope of changing, we light a
growing blaze of candles:
Chanukah.
On each of the eight nights, as
we light the candles, we say aloud
our intention, our kavanah, the
commitment we are making to
ourselves and each other, to cre-
ate light in the midst of darkness,
ions
ka
Red
For
ARTHUR WASKO SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
hope in the midst of depression
and despair.
In our world, the smoke that ob-
scures the air, the poison that cor-
rupts the water, the myriad
threats to the lives of many
species, the enormous power of
those who carry out these degra-
dations — all these wear thin our
sense of hope and change. We
think ourselves helpless; but we
remember the Maccabees who
faced a power much greater than
their own.
Each night, before lighting the
shammas to light the other can-
dles, sit quietly in the dark, and
then say:
In darkness, be light!
And in. your light, preserve
a spark of darkness,
a spark of the Mystery
from which light grows.
Then light the shammas, and
before saying the blessings over
the first candle on the first night,
the second and first on the second
night, the third and second and
first, etc., say the following (one
each evening, as shown):
1. For sun, moon, and earth,
for the spirals of their dark and
light,
for cold and heat, for summer
a.nd winter,
for seedtime and harvest, for
day and night,
for the One whose covenant en-
twines all spirals,
I light one light.
I pledge one evening time each.
week
throughout the year
to set aside the 18 minutes o
this candle
to learn and teach what keeps
the earth. alive.
After lighting, work out witl
the other members of the house
hold which night each week yo
will reserve some time for stud
of how to heal the earth.