Posted in Holidays

Wow, time flies!  It always seems to get away from me with my crazy life.  Sorry I haven't blogged in a bit.  We have had the rounds of sickness going through the house.  And as all of you well know, when you are the mom in a house of sick people there isn't much time for anything else...  Then when you add in Chanukah preparations, well blogging just gets forgotten.

But I had this idea that i wanted to blog every day during Chanukah.  So while I make no promises, I am going to try!  Today is the first day so here we go!

Chanukah, while changing every year on the Gregorian calendar, falls on the 25th of Kislev every year on the Hebrew Calendar.  All of the Hebrew months have a different feel to them that permeates the air throughout the month.  For Kislev the theme is light and miracles.  Not hard to understand why, when you think about Chanukkah!

Which brings me to the point of today's thought.  One of the reasons I love Chanukah so much is that we are celebrating the miracle of the oil - not the battle that preceded it.  For those that don't know I will give the very basics of the story now, but will talk much more about this tomorrow.

The Greek/Syrian Army invaded Israel and destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.  A small rebel army -  led by Judah Maccabee (translates to Judah the Hammer) - led a rebellion against the invaders and despite being greatly outnumbered, won and drove the invaders out of their land.  When they went back to rebuilt the temple they found that all the olive oil had been destroyed - except for one vial.  They needed to light the everlasting flame but it would take 8 days to get more oil made, and the one vial would only last for one day.  However HaShem made a miracle and that one little vial lasted for 8 days so the flame never went out.

Which brings us to a general theme in many Jewish holidays "They tried to kill us.  We won.  Let's eat."

While that is certainly true when it comes to Chanukah, the celebration is because of HaShem's miracle with the oil.  We don't light candles for eight days because the Maccabees won the fight, which can also be described as a miracle.  We light candles for 8 days, we eat foods fried in oil, because of the miracle of the oil.  To me, that says something about who we are as a people.  It permeates how I raise my children.

Kislev is a time for miracles.  Throughout history many miraculous events have happened in Kislev, and I have also felt them very strongly personally at this time of year.  I hope all of you will step back and feel the miracles the month brings.