Spiritual Renewal: Just Add Light

We're entering a profound period in our year. The darkest time of the year, the time when festivals of lights appear in various spiritual traditions, a time of purported miracles, a time dedicated to renewal.

Last night, in a "teleclass," the author and Mussar teacher Alan Morinis asserted that Chanukah does not celebrate the military victory (of a small band of insurgents over one of the mightiest armies in the world) as the miracle. Rather, it was the sustenance that a small amount of consecrated oil provided to a single wick that was miraculous. We honor and reenact that miracle, Alan said, when we kindle Chanukah lights, seeking to rededicate ourselves to growth and understanding: the discovery of spiritual sustenance and renewal in the smallest of flames is its own modest form of miracle.

And even though most evidence suggests that Jesus was not born at this time of year, his birthday is celebrated now because  -- well, because it was more seemly, I guess, to celebrate the son of God than the Sun God. The idea of Messianic redemption dispels all sorts of darkness.

Chanukah is a holiday that centers on the home. That's where we create and share the most light, ideally. That's where our light is born and bred, kindled and shed.

An entire season of festivity has grown up around Christmas. It, too, makes the family the center of a community which in turn is the center of a still wider community.

So it gets me thinking more about the trend toward independent, synagogue-less worship. Christians have been worshipping and learning in homes for centuries. The "house church" more of an institution in Christianity than a mere trend (h/t: me True Ann-Sister).

And yet, the "house synagogue" can be said to have started with the destruction of the Second Temple. That's when the rabbis codified a system of teaching and a form of worship that could be taken anywhere, performed anywhere. They were forced to understand that giving sanctity a central site also made it vulnerable. You had to be able to find the Divine in a room, or on the run. They pared it down to its essential. Bring a few people together, have the right texts in hand, and then, just add light.

Happy Chanukah.

--T.A.