The military origins of Chanukah remind
us that we are not living in the Messianic age and sometimes violence
is necessary. The violence of taking cities back from the so-called
Islamic State. The violence of being locked in rehab because your
actions are compelled by chemical demons. If a friend (or hopefully even a stranger) were about to jump, you would be willing to tackle and probably punch them. Physical, violent
intervention is unfortunately still something we need.
But we aren't illuminating toy soldiers
at Chanukah. Not so far removed from our military miracle, we
realized that violence was no longer in our best interest. Instead of
giving up on saving miracles, we decided to create light. Both the
literal light to warm our eyes, hearts and souls in the darkest time
of the year and also the productive, enhancing light of trying to be
and do good even when it is not easy. So as we are overwhelmed with
some holidays this very, creepily-warm Winter, let's be extra nice to
each other. Let's go out of our way to help someone. Let's get closer
to a time when violence is not an inconvenient necessity but a legend
we tell our kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment