Topic Tags: light

This new poem honors the complex feeling of Hanukkah this year, 2023/5784.

“even the faintest spark of light / can reach / and illuminate us.”

“With each prayer, with each Shabbat, with each of the eight nights– / we’ll light our candles on our tables, windowsills, and hearts.”

“we remind ourselves / of eternal light at the core / of the universe”

“Which letter is my own in all of Torah?”

“sparking hope / for a engulfing glow to illuminate all peoples / through love…”

“Tonight, perhaps, don’t be in such a rush / to set up your candles against the dark.”

How do we make it through the bitterness, the darkness, the uncertainty of this time? We call on what we know from that wild, rudderless, nomadic experience of being both lost and guided bamidbar.

“When the dark comes, let it. In its own way, it offers us balm.”