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December 2010
Hanukkah: Lights in the Darkness
The below selection is from our resource, Hanukkah: Lights in the Darkness. You can download the full materials, and more, on our Resources page.
When I was a little girl, I loved placing the candles in the menorah. My parents didn’t allow me to light the candles because I never wanted to light them in the right order. I refused to listen to the directions of others. I also loved to play with my dreidl. I would spin with the dreidl until I was so dizzy that I would fall down! This happened every time I spun the dreidl.
In looking back at my life as an addict and alcoholic, I can see that for many years my life had spun out of control because I still had refused to follow direction or listen to others. It was not until I reached out for help by seeking drug and alcohol treatment that I learned to stop spinning. Over the last thirteen years, I followed the prescribed order of my 12-step recovery program and I learned that, like the Hanukkah candles, these steps of sobriety are best done in a specific order. My new life as a recovering person was more about learning to rely on the customs and traditions that have worked so well for so many people before me. Since then, my life has stopped spinning out of control.
The miracle of Hanukkah came to me when I was in treatment and unable to physically light the candles. Yet, in my mind, I lit candles every night and I finally did so in a good orderly direction. Just a kernel of faith and prayer enabled me to visualize lighting those candles. The miracle for me was that I never could have imagined that such a small seed of recovery could create such powerful light.
The prayer of the sick person for his/her own recovery avails more than the prayer of another.
— B’reishit Rabbah 53:14
These "Spirituality Notes" are excerpts from our monthly E-newsletter. Articles are © JBFCS Rita J. Kaplan Jewish Connections Programs and may be reprinted free of charge as long as this credit line is included.
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