2nd Night of Chanukah... In All Kinds of Weather

In the rain or snow... it's Chanukah and we light the menorah no matter what kind of weather sort of like the U.S. Post Office. Above is San Francisco.. below is Paris.



Chanukah is a time of miracles and to remember miracles. It is a holiday of light. It's a holiday that pulls people together, families, friends and communities.

On the darkest, longest nights of the year we light up the darkness.

People give presents or money to their children as is their custom but sometimes our children give presents to us that light up our lives. Such was a present I received tonight, out of the blue that took me a bit out of the darkness that I have been fighting since the murders of so many people in Mumbai, India. Close to 200 people were killed in the attacks including six people who were targeted in the Chabad House who were brutally tortured and then killed.

It's hard going into a holiday of happiness such as Chanukah when your heart is heavy and to be happy and celebrate in the way we normally do when nothing this year is normal. And, yet... I light the menorah or watch my kids light the menorah and we spend time together and I remember all the times I lit with my baby brothers and my parents when I was a child.

And, we go online and look at pictures from menorahs being lit in all parts of the world. In Frankfort where my ex-husband's family was from many years ago ...there is a menorah lit again. In South Korea, for the first time a menorah was lit in public. In Spain, where Jewish women and men were burned at the stake for being Jews and anything Jewish went underground for centuries there is a menorah burning tonight in public. In Greece, in Paris and everywhere across the globe it is Chanukah and menorahs are burning, people are celebrating and it is a holiday that commemorates how we moved on even when things were bleak after the Great Temple was destroyed, a small, vial of pure oil was found and able to be lit and burned for eight nights.

It is in fact a holiday that celebrates being a survivor, of being able to go after tragedy and rebuild and to remember.

My daughter Miriam gave me a gift card last night from one of my favorite stores ;) and I gave another daughter a silver bracelet tonight. My son Levi is out looking for presents for my brother Ronnie while I mailed another one out to my brother Jay. We give, we receive, we give... we share love and memories. I ate potato latkes tonight with my daughters as we lit the menorah as my sons are out at various parties.

I received one of the best presents I could ever receive tonight from a son far away. He gave me inspiration, hope and gratitude that he found a way to do something special that needed to be done that could help others. Sometimes, our children surprise us and even when we think we are beyond being surprised or amazed...they do it again and again. Awesome. I'll post on it later this week but I just wanted to say that Thank God for children... they are our future, they are our destiny. They build on what we do, surpass it and keep going.

They are like the little oil that survived the Temple's destruction ... they make miracles happen.

This is a picture of a survivor, little Moshe Holzberg who was found by his parent's side, covered in blood crying and who was saved by his caring babysitter Sandra who ran out of the destroyed Chabad House in Mumbai. Around the world, we saw pictures of him crying in her arms on CNN and FOX, we heard him sobbing for his mother at the funeral service. We are thankful for the miracle of his survival and yet we have had such sad visuals stuck in our mind.

Here is a picture of little Moshe lighting a menorah for the first time in his grandparents home in Israel. It is a beautiful picture, sweet but bittersweet, compelling and beautiful.

May he only remember happiness...and may his life never be touched by such sadness again. May we all be blessed with miracles and happiness and light that lights up the darkest of nights.



I give thanks tonight for the blessing of this child's survival and for my own children who inspire me constantly with their deeds of goodness and kindness.

Happy Chanukah... Serve the Lord with Joy!

Do Acts of Goodness and Kindness and Give to the Charity of your choice.
Where I am giving tonight... www.chabadindia.com

Night... Bobbi from my house to yours...