Chanukah is more than a festive nod to an oil lamp burning beyond its physical limits, and more than a child-appropriated holiday. Chanukah celebrates the Maccabees refusal to commit acts that would have betrayed their faith.
Similarly, the Chanukah menorah itself, lit for eight nights, is more than a ritual object. Every stage of a persons life participates in the act of lighting the menorah. Wherever you are on times continuum, all the places you have been come together. It matters not whether you are surrounded by young children or grandchildren or standing alone in an empty house. Memories ignite. Images coalesce from here, there, everywhere. Your childhood. College. Yeshiva. Your wedding. Holding a loved ones hand. Letting go. Healing. Remembering that special smile, or that special poem. Its all in the menorah.
Some people never clean their menorah. They let the wax flow and freeze into rivers of memory. By design, their menorahs accumulate colorful remnants of Chanukahs past. For it is not one isolated season that the menorah illuminates, but all the seasons of life. Its all there, in the menorah.
