For the first time in many years, Hanukkah (Chanukah) begins today:  Christmas Day!  Although Hanukkah is a minor holiday on the Jewish liturgical calendar, its proximity to Christmas has, historically, tended to magnify its meaning in the Western world.

    And what is that meaning?  Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple after it had been profaned by the Seleucid emperor Antiochus Epiphanes (he sacrificed a pig on the inner altar) in the second century B.C.E.  It is often called the "Festival of the Lights."

    Indeed:  the Light.  The light and faithfulness of God, the Creator's continuing gift and bestowal of life and illumination to human beings.  Hanukkah reminds us that each day we walk in the grace of an infinitely remarkable light, a light without which we would not be.

    The light of a personal God.

    To our Jewish brethren:  enjoy the eight nights of lights!