A Great Miracle Happened HERE

Normally at this time, Jews in America start singing "Nes Gadol Haya Sham," meaning "a great miracle happened there." Today in Hebrew class, I sang "Nes Gadol Haya PO," replacing the world for "there" with "here." And as I did it, I got chills down my spine. In America I can eat the jelly doughnuts, make the latkes, and spin the dredels the same way I can do it here. But it all has a different meaning when I can put my hand on the walls of the Temple that this miracle occurred in, the temple we American Jews all talk about at home.
So, on another Holiday (actually, on Chanukkah AND Shabbat), I am thankful for many things. One, for friends and family to celebrate the holiday with now and in years to come. For the Macabbees that fought against a Greek army three times their size, for the oil that lasted eight days when it was enough to only last one day, for God, for this 5-month journey, and for the future journeys I will find myself walking.

Peter, Paul, and Mary sang "Light One Candle," and I used to sing this when I was a wee little one in Hebrew School:

Light one candle for the Maccabee children
Give thanks that their light didn't die!
Light one candle for the pain they endured
When their right to exist was denied!
Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice
Justice and freedom demand!
And light one candle for the wisdom to know
When the peacemaker's time is at hand!

Don't let the light go out!
It's lasted for so many years!
Don't let the light go out!
Let it shine through our love and our tears.

Light one candle for the strength we all need
To never become our own foe!
And light one candle for those who are suff'ring
Pain we learned so long ago!
Light one candle for all we believe in,
Let anger not tear us apart!
And light one candle to bind us together
With peace as the song in our heart!

What is the memory that's valued so highly
That we keep it alive in that flame?
What's the commitment to those who have died
When we cry out they've not died in vain,
We have come this far, always believing
That justice will somehow prevail!
This is the burning. This is the promise,
This why we will not fail!

Don't let the light go out!
Don't let the light go out!
Don't let the light go out!