December 26th, 2024

Last night we lit the first candle to open our celebration of Hanukkah. Usually, my preparation for the holiday involves planning all sorts of special events for my students, making sure teachers have ḥanukkiyot so that they can light in their classrooms, and arranging for the special additions to our school tefillah. And while we certainly had plenty of special Hanukkah programming and learning before adjourning for the break, celebrating is happening entirely in the context of home and our shul community. It’s a nice change, one that enables me to be a little more in the experience of the holiday. 

At the same time, Hanukkah feels somewhat different this year, with it falling so late on the secular calendar. We’re already looking ahead to the next thing, the flipping of the year to 2025 and all of the anticipated newness that goes along with it. 

My less over-programmed Hanukkah calendar makes me want to hunker down and savor each moment of the holiday, but I can’t help but be drawn out of that mindfulness, at least some of the time, as I see the end of 2024 just on the horizon. In striving to find a balance between these two ways of experiencing the holiday, I’m drawn back to the blessings we said last night. 

On each of the days of Hanukkah, we recite two berakhot when lighting our candles: 

1. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ׳יָ אֱ׳לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶׁל חֲנֻכָּה. 
   

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, whose mitzvot add holiness to our lives and who instructed us to kindle the lights of Hanukkah.

1. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ׳יָ אֱ׳לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁעָשָׂה נִסִּים לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בַּזְּמַן הַזֶּה.
   

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, who made miracles for our ancestors in those days at this season.

These two blessings root us to both the rituals and the backstory of our Hanukkah celebrations. Saying them upon lighting the ḥanukkiyah, the most powerful and recognizable symbol of Hanukkah, heightens our awareness of the holiday, now helps us keep it at the front of our minds.

On the first night, like with all other holidays, we add another blessing alongside our regular candle lighting berakhot. 

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ׳יָ אֱ׳לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, who gave us life, who has sustained us, and who has brought us to this time. 

This blessing, familiar as it is from so many other parts of our year and of our lives, speaks to the looking-forward-ness that, at least for me, is part of my experience of this year’s Hanukkah. The arrival of a new year always causes us to look back at what has been and to imagine what will be. It gives us pause as we acknowledge those things in our lives and in the world that feel unresolved. It helps us to notice how we’ve grown over the past year and shines a spotlight on those ways we still wish to grow and change. 

This year those inclinations feel even stronger, as we anticipate a new year where there is much change coming down the pike. Our third blessing last night reminds us that we’ve made it this far, that we will God willing be ready to meet what’s next, and that we will have more opportunities throughout the year to say this blessing’s words again and again. 

May this Hanukkah be one that is filled with light for all of us, and may that light carry us into a new year that brings us more justice, more love, and more peace.

Shabbat shalom and Happy Hanukkah!