Chabad NWA is hosting a menorah lighting at the Bentonville Square on Sunday, Dec. 21, at sundown, which is approximately 5:05 p.m. Sunday is the eighth night of Hanukkah, so eight candles will be lit.
This past Sunday, Rabbi Mendel Griesman lit the first candle on the menorah to celebrate night one at the Fayetteville Town Center. He spoke with Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis over the phone earlier this week.
The first night's lighting ceremony took place just hours after the tragic Bondi Beach shooting in Australia, which officials confirmed to be an anti-Semitic attack. Rabbi Griesman says the Northwest Arkansas community came in droves to stand in solidarity with the worldwide Jewish community at Sunday’s event in Fayetteville.
Rabbi Mendel Griesman: We have had a menorah lighting in Fayetteville for probably 20 years. Some years we did it on campus. Recently, more recently, we've done it in the Fayetteville Square. My estimate from where I was standing is that there were roughly between 120 and 150 people, which is probably twice as many as we get every other year. And I attribute the large turnout specifically to the people's resilience and desire to show up in the wake of the difficulty that we all experienced on Sunday.
Jack Travis: How did that feel to see so many people come out to stand in resilience?
Rabbi Griesman: You know, I've always told people, especially in the in the last two years, which were, which were interesting in our country, you know, to see so much anti-Semitism and Jew hatred and the Jewish people respond to these types of things with… we don't let our enemies knock us down. We don't go into hiding. We stand up tall and continue doing what we do in stronger and more powerful measures.
And you know, the connection and involvement of the Jewish community in the last two years has been amazing. And on Sunday, I was a little bit nervous at first because, you know, when people get scared, sometimes they just don't want to show up. They don't feel safe. We did our part to get the police involved and had a beautiful presence.
But it was so reassuring and so heartwarming to see that the goodness within people and the commitment to to stay true to who they are and practice their faith publicly is strong. And there were so many people that I don't ever see at events, uh, people of the Jewish community that are not terribly involved and not very involved. And they're not, um, regulars, if I may say.
But they came out because they felt they had to be there, and there were dozens of non-Jews who came out simply because they wanted to show support. There wasn't a lot of time between the events, and the lighting was just a couple of hours, pretty much late Sunday morning, early Sunday afternoon. But people that heard about the event just wanted to be there.
And I've always said for the last two years that the voices of evil and ugliness are very few, but they're very loud. The voices of goodness and kindness are so much more, but they're quiet. And what we need to change is the… the sound levels. We need the voices of goodness and kindness and love and acceptance and tolerance to be heard loudly and when enough good is heard, it drowns out the negative side. And that was what I enjoyed seeing is that the voice of good is strong. And that was beautiful to see.
Travis: What do you hope people took away from that experience? Maybe about the tradition of Hanukkah.
Rabbi Griesman: Hanukkah tradition is unique in a sense that it's the only holiday that from its inception, we were instructed and encouraged to practice this publicly. You know, when Jews eat the Passover Seder, we do it in our homes. When we pray on high holidays, we do it in the synagogues. Hanukkah was always about bringing it out to the streets, and people would light the menorahs at their doorposts. When it was easy to do that, their windows.
Today, it's in the public sphere, in town squares and malls and on top of cars, on billboards. And the reason I believe for that is because the message of Hanukkah, it's not uniquely Jewish. It's universal. And that is that you know how Hanukkah is celebrated, right? We commemorate the eight-day holiday with the candelabra and the Holy Temple. At the time, they would light the candles with olive oil, and they only had enough olive oil for one night, and it miraculously burned for eight nights.
And theoretically, we should have lit a menorah for eight nights to remember the miracle. But we don't do it that way. We start with lighting just one candle on the first night, and then the second night we do two, and on the third night we do three, all the way to the eighth night when we illuminate the entire menorah. And that idea is that that light is growing naturally. The only element in the world that grows itself infinitely is fire. It's light. It can grow from one to the other, and it doesn't take away.
When one candle illuminates another candle, the first candle doesn't lose anything. If I have a glass of water and I give you a half, I have a half. If I got a flame and I ignite your flame, I lost nothing. And that idea is that your goodness can inspire somebody else's goodness is something every person in the world needs to hear. And that's the message of Hanukkah. And that's why it's so public. Because we want everyone out there to know that. Don't keep your goodness hidden. Let it touch someone else. All you need is to come in contact with another person with a little bit of light, and that will illuminate them.
And that message is something the world needs to hear. And that's why Hanukkah has always been celebrated outdoors in public. And if I may say so, it's probably the most widely celebrated Jewish holiday, even amongst non-observant Jews. Because that is the core of who we are. We don't let darkness overcome us. We bring that light and we spread that light, and we just want people's goodness to be heard and seen.
Travis: And the public will get another chance to celebrate that light with Chabad next Sunday, the 21st in Bentonville. Can you tell me about what people can expect and should plan for with the eighth-night lighting?
Rabbi Griesman: Yeah. So? So we do lighting ceremonies. They're outdoors. They're not very long. We, uh, we get together and, we say a couple of prayers. We sing some Hanukkah songs. Uh, this possibility, we can have some public officials, give us greetings. Hadn't confirmed yet. We're working on that. And, we're going to light the candles. We typically serve latkes and donuts. Um, those are latkes are potato pancakes fried in oil. And donuts, of course, are made in oil. The idea was foods that are connected with oil to commemorate the miracle of oil.
I found that although it's probably our shortest celebrations that we make throughout the year, some parties, people take much longer. But the fact that people stand together outdoors and sing a Hanukkah song has a huge impact on people. It makes them feel part of a larger energy — energy of good.
And that's what people should anticipate to feel. Come to be uplifted, come to feel connected, come to feel that you're not alone, that there's other people here, um, fighting for the right causes. And we encourage everyone to, you know, old Jewish households to light the menorah in their own home because, you know, there's a saying that charity starts at home and I say illumination starts at home.
If you're not, if you're not active, if your goodness is not active, you can't inspire others. So we encourage every Jewish household to light the menorah at home, but also to come out and show solidarity, show support and show who you are as part of a larger group. There's a huge effect it has on people, and I'm sure everyone that will come out there Sunday will feel that energy.
You know, in the Jewish tradition, uh, the word for a commandment of God is the word mitzvah. You may have heard that word. Typically, a lot of people translate the word mitzvah as something kind or something good. But the word mitzvah literally means a commandment of God. But it also means it has the root of the word in Hebrew, which means attachment, togetherness, because a mitzvah has the power to connect Jew and God and connect us to each other.
And when somebody is out there and does a mitzvah, a commandment of God, he not only does something good, but he also connects, he or she connects themselves to God and to and to fellow Jews and to fellow human beings. So everyone that's hearing my voice, if they can go out there and do another mitzvah, do something good, do something kind. You will not only do something right, but you will feel that you're connected to something bigger than yourself. And ultimately, that's what keeps us going.
The awareness and the realization that we are part of a very powerful good force. And that's what I want everyone to take from this from this Hanukkah. You know, good will prevail. A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness. A little bit of kindness goes a very long way. And people need to stop being shy about being the voice of goodness and speak up and say the right things. And you'll be surprised to see what type of effect it has.
Rabbi Griesman stated any Jewish household without a menorah that wishes to obtain one for Hanukkah may contact Chabad NWA at info@jewishnwa.org.
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