Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, in writing about the rededication of the Temple after its defilement by the Greeks, describes how the Maccabees hoped and prayed that their actions “would be graced with a miraculous fire from heaven,” as had Moses’ dedication of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and Solomon’s dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, centuries earlier.
Yet no fire came. “Every day that the miraculous divine intervention did not occur,” Greenberg writes, “was a crushing disappointment” (The Jewish Way, 267). The lighting of the Menorah by human hands and with natural fire, then, came to represent and ultimately replace the lack of divine fire descending from heaven.
Lighting the Hanukkah candles is continuing in that tradition, requiring our own human participation and initiative in the Jewish covenant. We cannot wait for God to bring warmth and light to the world; like the Maccabees, it is our sacred task to take on this sacred task. What will you do, after lighting your Hanukkiah, to help bring down the miraculous fire?
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