Ezekiel's Gifts for Hanukkah of Hope

Ezekiel did not know about Hanukkah since that all happened several centuries after he lamented Jerusalem’s fate during yet another war for its survival. But he knew a thing or two about what happens when tyranny takes over and hot headed leaders prefer violence over co-existence. And he knew that we have agency to spread the light. Maybe his words help us on this second night of Hanukkah, mid bloody war with all its terrible violence - how to be better at being human and prevent future suffering? 

This past week we read the chapters in which the prophet mourns his people’s tragedy along with his personal grief for his dead wife, fusing private and public grief as a woven message of mourning and memory. He teaches us something here about the power of collective action to heal personal and public trauma. He reminds us that we must take time for grief and sorrow, to console each other, to gain strength from ancestral wisdom and from each other’s love, before we begin to rally in rage and slowly rise from our rubble. 

He also reminds us to fight against the governing bodies and world forces that humiliate and dehumanize others, clinging to power, resisting freedom and justice, demanding total control instead of forging new alliances and brave new bonds. 

 Ezekiel rallies against his own king and all the kings of the neighboring nations - blaming them for cruelty and callousness, and for their betrayal of solidarity and common sense. He even calls out for revenge - not handled by humans but somehow managed by the divine. We may not like the sound of that but we can understand the anguish and the rage that the rupture he lived through helped cultivate. 

What of his prophecies do we still hear today and which ones can we hold up as helpful? 

Ezekiel is an exile and refugee, uprooted violently from his home, and his words reach us on this day with pleas for not forgetting our path - and helping to create ones that are better. 

However we embrace the ancient story and traditions of Hanukkah this year-- I hope that we echo Ezekiel’s words and prioritize humility - not losing sight of what we imagine sacred, worth defending, and insisting on -- and yet knowing that there is a bigger story here, and more complex than just one narrative, and history, 

Time, come what may, will show us how and who will persist, how survival matters, and what will help us live, love, heal, and hope - and rise. Let there be light.  Shabbat shalom and a meaningful holiday of lights.

I invite you to light up each night with more candles, for peace, consolation, homecoming, healing and hope:

Let There Be More Light