Hanukkah is a Festival of Lights at the darkest time of the year. We are grateful for illumination that abundantly lights our way even at the darkest of times.
You may be challenged to find gratitude when the world is burning. Our greatest spiritual teachers encourage us to find gratitude in even the smallest things. This gives us resilience and endurance to not be consumed with grief and fear.
Judaism is all about gratitude practice. There is a teaching in the Talmud that we should offer 100 blessings of gratitude every day! As we express gratitude, we are moving out of ourselves to an awareness of the other who was the source of the blessing or gift for which we are expressing gratitude. The “other” to whom we are grateful could be… a dear friend or family member; a coworker; a beloved pet; a stranger we pass on the street; God…
Find the Light
“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is in- credible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.“
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Notice the Good
The Hebrew term for gratitude is hakarat hatov, which means “noticing the good.” Practicing gratitude means you recognize the good that you possess so that you notice what good comes your way.
Gratitude is rooted in remembrance. Therefore we must make a conscious effort to recall how others have helped us; if we don’t do this, we will forget…As a corrective against forgetting, try each day to remember at least one favor or kindness extended to you.
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Find a few key memories that bring you joy, and for which you are grateful. Share in the comments.
—Consider using these stories as touchstones for you, especially when you need help to bring you back to gratitude or “illuminate the light” when you are not feeling it.
Bringing Light to Darkness
From Our Community
Here are some hopes that are shared by members of our Hineni Spiritual Community:
I am grateful to be a woman living in a country that embraces freedom and encourages me to be whatever I want to be, a country that is safe (for the most part), where no one is shooting at me. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head, lots to eat, and family who loves me (and who I love). I am thankful for transitioning from an unhealthy relationship to a new and unfolding relationship with myself.
Linda Salzman
I’m grateful that I get to be alive to answer this questionnaire, celebrate becoming Jewish, and that I’m so very embraced by Rabbi Jill and the entire Hineni community.
Elizabeth Crouch
Shoshana Stombach
My family and particularly my grandchildren. That both my son and daughter have found life partners who are good for them. To live here, in Washington state. The Evergreen state. To be able to use my gift of music to lift others.
Franny Alexander
I am always grateful for Andy – my husband. I am blessed that we are so good together always despite troubling times I am grateful for my safe and cozy home – an old farmhouse with bucolic views.
Tonight we light seven candles.
Click here for the Chanukah Blessings to say each night.
Happy Hanukkah,
Rabbi Jill and the team
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