"Which brings me to Hanukkah, the eight day Jewish festival of lights.... It recalls the moment when, two centuries before the birth of Christianity, the Jews of Israel fought for their religious freedom. Antiochus IV, the ruler of the Seleucid branch of the Alexandrian empire, had desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem by erecting a statue of Zeus and offering pagan sacrifices on the altar. A group of Jews known as the Maccabees rebelled and won, reconquering Jerusalem, rededicating the Temple, and lighting the menorah, the candelabrum that stood near the altar. It was one of the most remarkable military victories in Jewish history. And ever since, we too light a menorah in our homes.
But there’s a beautiful law in Judaism, and it applies to a day like today, Friday. On the Friday of Hanukkah we light two kinds of lights, for the festival and for the Sabbath, both of which begin at nightfall. What if we only have one candle? What do we light it as: a Hanukkah light or a Sabbath light? It can’t be both.
The answer is: we light it as a Sabbath light, because the Sabbath light symbolizes peace in the home. And in Judaism, even the smallest fragment of peace takes precedence over even the greatest victory in war. Like Alfred Nobel, Jews preferred to be remembered for peace."
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