Happy Chanuka to all!
We light our chanukiot (or "menorahs" to be imprecise) in ascending order; each day, we add another candle. A nice thought I heard today as to why we do this, instead of starting with 8, and descending to 1, or lighting 8 every night, or any other order of lighting, is the following:
Us Jews are into healthy growth. We're not into super fast, super high jumps, although they are cool to watch.
When all those rabbis talk about building ourselves up to the individuals we can become, they refer to a slow and thorough process. Each step must be carefully calculated, carefully thought through, and planned out to be appropriate and firmly-rooted in sensible goodness. It ain't easy, but it's worth it.
This is something our chanuka lighting-order can remind us - go up and up and up, but not just 8 levels; reach for the stars!
Blessings to all for a light-filled chanuka, and a growth-oriented life that starts now!
smiles,
yosef
ps. these thoughts were adapted from a beautiful lecture given by Rabbi Menachem Greenblatt at Missouri Torah Institute, Chesterfield, MO.
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