Happy Hanukkah! As we reflect this week on light and miracles, we invite you to join us for our many opportunities to celebrate together: www.WiseLA.org/hanukkah
If you are not following the new Hanukkah Fails account on Instagram, you are missing out on some of the best—and worst—of the “holiday season.” Cataloguing the various ways that retailers miss the mark on Hanukkah, I also find it a fascinating social commentary on the role that Hanukkah plays in the American imagination. I heard a wonderful interview with the creator of the account on one of my (and Cantor Emma’s) favorite podcasts—after Rabbi Yoshi’s of course.
The episode focused on the statement that Hanukkah is not the Jewish Christmas, which is even more obvious this year, when the holiday will be finished weeks before Christmas. Last year, in 2020, I wrote about my decision to “go big” on Hanukkah—not materially, but celebrating its own innate spiritual teachings. While it was written in 2020, I think the lessons still ring true, even as we are feeling a bit more free this year. As I said then, and still say now:
Hanukkah has its own story to tell, its own miracles to celebrate and its own light to shine. Major festival or not, who am I to begrudge a festival of light and joy at a time of year and in history when both seem in short supply?
— Rabbi Sari Laufer