A Chanukah Message from Rabbi Alexandria Shuval-Weiner

Banu choshech legaresh, we have come to banish the darkness, beyadeinu or va’esh. In our hands are light and fire. Kol echad hu or katan, every soul is a tiny light, vekulanu or eitan together we are a powerful light.

These are the words of one of our family’s favorite Chanukah songs, which we sing following the lighting of our Chanukiah. After we sing, we name our blessings and then share how we turn those blessings into that which fuels our way in the world. In keeping with the theme of this year’s AJT Chanukah issue, I want to share eight things for which I am most grateful this year.

1. Life: Before I place my feet upon the ground, I take a deep breath, open my eyes and thank G!d for another day of life. I pray to use it well and to strive to live in such a way as to never take that day or any of the days of my life for granted.

2. Sustenance: We are so blessed for the food that we have. Gratitude for those who toil in the earth, suffering the heat and the cold to sow the seeds, tend the fields and groves and with bended back gather in the harvest, month after month, year after year. We enjoy so much solely due to the efforts of the thousands of souls we rarely, if ever will know.

3. Liberty: I am grateful to live at a time and place and of a class where I am able raise my voice without fear of retaliation. While I am acutely aware that, in many ways, I am privileged, I embrace the responsibility to use it for the building of a more loving, peaceful and equitable world. Olam Chesed Yebaneh!

4. Modern Medicine/Science: I feel incredibly blessed to be able to safeguard my life and that of my family with vaccines that protect us from diseases and viruses that can be deadly to the human species.

5. Family: I am blessed to have been born into a safe and loving family, with siblings who care for one another and parents who supported all our passions. I am blessed to have a life partner of 30 years with whom I have nurtured and raised five incredible humans, each unique in their way. They in turn have found loving partners and have begun to build their future families. Best of all, they all enjoy being together and sharing in life’s blessings with one another.

6. Technology: This will be the second Chanukah (and Thanksgiving) that our family will be separated by the miles. The ability to stay connected with one another via Zoom, Messenger and Facetime has been a true blessing these almost two years. We have enjoyed family game nights, holiday celebrations, a wedding (that I officiated via Zoom), announcements of two pregnancies and later, via Zoom, a baby naming for our granddaughter, Aya Liv, and the brit milah of our grandson Aviv Joshua. While we anticipate the day when we will once again be gathered around the family table, we are beyond grateful for the miracle of technology that has kept us together.

7. Gift of my age: With each passing year, as I become more aware of my mortality, I have also grown in wisdom. Becoming increasingly curious about the mystery of life and of the world. Seeing the interconnectivity of all life on earth and our responsibility to approach G!d’s creations with love and awe. We are not to dominate and subdue life, but rather to walk humbly, lovingly and respectfully alongside Creation. I pray to use this blessing in ways that will assure a better tomorrow for my grandchildren.

8. Jewish Tradition & Faith: Baruch s’asah li Yisrael — this brachah, recited each morning, has always touched my heart deeply. While born into Judaism, I daily choose this faith community. I feel so much gratitude for the wisdom of our tradition, our ethics and teachings, calling us to be better, do better, to stive toward holiness in all that we are. This brings me back to the verse of our favorite Chanukah song: to banish the darkness. This is what our tradition calls upon us to be. As covenant partners with the Divine, we are agents of light in the world, illuminating the spaces where chesed, love and compassion are needed.

These are my blessings; I pray to never take them for granted. As we kindle our Chanukah lights this year, may gratitude open all our hearts, inspire us and bring forth deep love. Chag Urim Sameach!

Rabbi Shuval-Weiner is the senior rabbi at Temple Beth Tikvah in Roswell and serves as the president of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association.