Jacqueline Morris' Chanukah Message for 2025

Every Chanukkah, I am always reminded of how much I have to be thankful for and not everyone has the same opportunities that I have.

So, a few years ago, I started doing eight things for others during the holiday season in honor of the eight nights of Hannukah. These are things that I go out of my way to do. I prepack nutritional bags of food in my car so I can pass them out to people asking for food on the street. I have helped someone at a restaurant in the middle of my meal to help jump their car. I have taken someone homeless outside of a grocery store and paid for him to have as much food as he could carry. I have helped wrap presents at a homeless shelter for their holiday party. I have helped water a neighbor’s outside plants when they were away for the holidays. I have paid for an emergency surgery for someone’s dog who couldn’t afford it. I have gotten out of bed and driven an hour in the dead of night to feed someone’s dog because their flight was cancelled and it was another 18 hours till they got home and the dog sitter already left. I have given work to someone asking on the street, we hung up all my Chanukah decorations for hours, he left with a full meal, extra food, and, of course, paid for his help. I met a woman who just moved here and hadn’t gotten any clients yet for her dessert catering business yet, so despite being a baker myself I had my fist ever holiday dessert party, that I have now had for the last seven years, and she got two other clients from that evening that used her baking for their events later.

In this message, I have written the word “I” many times, in the future I hope they will be “you.” I challenge everyone who reads this article to help others during this time for there are many who need it. It’s a reminder that tzedakah is not the word for charity but for justice and we should all strive to bring justice into this world for G-d cannot make us all born equal.