CTeenConnection

Chanukah is my favorite holiday. In my opinion, it is the best Jewish holiday there is.It is a time spent with family, we light the menorah, we eat, we party.  On Chanukah, the light of the menorah decorates our windows, our streets, our living rooms. On the eight days of Chanukah, we notice fire everywhere we go to. Even though Chanukah is already over, there is still a lot we can learn from this amazing holiday.

Chanukah is called the festival of lights, not only because of the candles we light in our houses, but also because of the candles we light in others.

It’s a wonderful sentiment, but it only lasts for eight days. What happens when it’s all over? With the end of the holiday, life goes back to normal and the party comes to an end, storing our menorahs and Chanukah candles away for next year. .  Next year we’ll light candles again and feel their warmth as we did before. It’s true, in a full year’s time you’ll be feeling the coziness of the fire the candles of Hanukkah give off. One full year from now.

Does that sound a little depressing to you? Because it does to me. Waiting till next year for the first night of Hanukkah to spark a flame seems anticlimactic.  Everyone has days when we wish to have a light to spark us, inspiration to get us off our butts and get to work, days when we wished we didn’t store the Menorah till December. Do we really have to wait until next year to feel the flame again?

Maybe the lesson of Chanukah is not that the flames lasted for only eight days, but that they should continue to inspire us even when they are no longer flickering. So, how does one maintain the fire of Chanukah? Starting the fire is easy; keeping it going is the tricky part.

Maintaining the fire is a two step recipe. Take fire and give it fuel. This Hanukkah we all have a little of the candle light within us, inspiration we took from the holiday. Keep it. Don’t let it give out. Hanukkah might be over today, but that doesn’t mean you need to go back to regular life, just as you left it before Hanukkah started. We all have a little flame inside us right now, bring it with you everywhere you go. Light up whatever room you go to, be the warmth you need when it’s snowing outside, but most importantly, spread your flame. Spread the inspiration, hand it out to everyone, it will become fuel to your own flame. This year, let us all shine bright, let us all be the inspiration.