The miracle right under our nose

By Rabbi Niles Elliot Goldstein

December 2, 2009

At this time of year, when the sun sinks faster and the nights grow longer and colder, Jews around the world commemorate, through narrative and ritual, the ancient story of Chanukah - a tale of our forbears' triumph on the battlefield and of the miracle of oil when the Temple was reconsecrated. For eight nights, we illumine our homes with light. We exchange gifts. We sing songs that celebrate our survival.

But our goal shouldn't simply be to survive - it should be to thrive. We should go further and celebrate a different, deeper kind of miracle.

For years, the mantra of the Jewish establishment has been "Continuity, Continuity, Continuity." But Jewish history proves that it has been discontinuity that has often led to the most profound, imaginative, successful and long-lasting outcomes for our faith and our community. It's been the iconoclast impulse - the drive to rebel and take risks - that has served as the dynamic life force of Judaism.

Though a lot of contemporary Jewish leaders are worried about our future, our own past suggests we'll be just fine. It's not about numbers, and it never has been. Devotion, not distribution, has been our hallmark as a people. In recent years, the heads of two of the major Jewish movements debated in the press about which one could claim more affiliated members. In the face of one billion Catholics and one billion Muslims around the globe, do several thousand Jews really make much of a difference one way or the other?

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