One of the most important messages of Chanukah, which begins tonight, is choosing to uphold your values, even when everyone else is doing the opposite, and even if your very life is at risk. The Chanukah story takes place among the Syrian Greeks, a people who worshiped the human body, striving for physical perfection, physical pleasure, and intellectual pursuits. The spiritual world was deemed so yesterday, unimportant and extraneous. A small band of observant Jews refused to abide by the pressure to conform, and instead upheld their religious and spiritual standards. In the end, the small triumphed over the many, and the miracle was twofold: they won the war against the Syrian Greeks’ great army, and they won the spiritual war as well. A flask of pure olive oil, the only one left in the Temple that was not contaminated, burned for eight days instead of one, symbolizing the spiritual light that remained alive.
These same pressures to conform are very real today. We are faced with tough choices on a daily basis. Our kids are torn about how to respond to social pressures; should they badmouth a friend because it’s the popular thing to do? Should they take drugs because it’s the cool thing to do? Should they stand up for their beliefs, even though they might be mocked? We are challenged with ethical and moral decisions, major and minor, throughout our lives.
How we deal with these decisions is a determinant of our internal moral and ethical code. I believe that it is in times of crisis that people’s true colors show up. How do you deal with anger? Death? A big move or change? Shady business practices? Are you self-centered or other-centered? I don’t want to know how a doctor performs with routine care. I want to know how he/she has shown up when there is a unique situation, a crisis, an emergency. It is in those split seconds that we draw from our deepest core. It is in those moments that a person’s true character is revealed.
This Chanukah, I invite you to do an internal check-up. Is there any place in your deepest core that needs a little repair? Shine a light on your spiritual self, and spread that light out to others. It’s contagious. One light illuminates many.
Happy Chaunkah to all my Jewish readers, and happy season of lights to all who don’t celebrate Chanukah. May you all be blessed with the ability to reveal your hidden light so that all the world can bask in it’s glory!
Will you leave a message of light and hope to my readers? Please share one spark so that others can shine in your light. Thank you!
