Today is the first day of Hanukkah. In the darkest time of the year, instead of cursing the darkness, we kindle a flame.
This year, we need that flame more than ever. We need hope. We need healing. We need light.
I am feeling this personally ever more poignantly because, yesterday, a great light was extinguished that diminishes our world considerably. My teacher and rabbi, David Ellenson, died suddenly at age 76.
Rabbi Ellenson was an unparalleled scholar, a gifted and compassionate teacher, and institutional leader, and — above all else — a caring, loving, gracious, and compassionate human being.
David brought his whole self to the classroom and was known, loved, and admired for his near encyclopedic recall of names and dates, his ability to connect the many disciplines he had mastered, and his great big loving heart that he poured into his scholarship, his work, and the relationships that mattered so much to him.
He was an amazing mentor and friend who encouraged me to move to Israel to work for the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion when he was its President and then, when I told him it was time for our family to return to America to be closer to family, he guided me towards Stephen Wise Temple because he knew the community well from his many years teaching at the College in Los Angeles.
He taught me a great deal of Torah but above all else, he modeled for me that רַחְמָנָא לִבָּא בָּעֵי (Rachmana liba ba’ay): “God wants the heart.”
Tonight as you light your Chanukiah, dedicate one of the two candles to a beloved teacher, a person who touched your soul, shaped your worldview, and helped make you the person that you are.
Long, long after they leave this world, long after their light fades away and they leave this world, their spark will continue to shine on, bringing light to the darkness through you and those whose lives you touch.
V’chein yirbu – may the light only increase…
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Yoshi
