Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 11/24/2004

These meditations for each night of Hanukkah are intended to stir our hearts and renew our strength. They are intended to connect inward healing contemplation with outward healing action.

Each night, before lighting the shammas (the ninth candle with which all the other eight will be lit), sit quietly in the dark. Then light the shammas, focus especially on the spot of darkness that is at the heart of the candle-flame, and say:

In darkness, be light!
And in your light preserve
a spark of darkness,
a spark of the Mystery
from which light grows.

Then light the shammas, and before saying the blessings over the 1st candle on the first night, the 2d and 1st on the second night, the 3d and 2d and 1st, etc, say the following (one each evening, as shown):

1. For sun, moon, and earth,
for the spirals of their dark and light,
for cold and heat, for summer and winter,
for seedtime and harvest, for day and night,
for the One whose covenant entwines all spirals
I light one light.

I pledge one evening time
each week
throughout the year
to set aside the eighteen minutes of this candle
to learn and teach what keeps the earth alive.
[After lighting, work out with the other members of the household which night each week you will reserve some time for study of how to heal the earth.]

2. For oil of olives, always growing,
for the trees that give us light and warmth,
I will write one letter to demand that
ancient forests not be plundered for the sake of wealth,
olive trees not be uprooted for the sake of conquest.
[After lighting, set aside time to write a letter to a major corporation that is destroying forests or a government that as an act of war is uprooting trees.]

3. [Use this kavvanah for the evening just before the Shabbat of Hanukkah.]
For the sake of rest,
return,
reflection,
restoration,
I pledge to seek a Shabbat for the earth,
a time when we will turn to see and celebrate
our work but will not
make, invent, do, act
and will instead praise all perfection.
[Set aside a time to talk with your rabbi or other community leader about sponsoring a neighborhood festival to celebrate the earth, with free music, crafts, cooking, etc. with streets, etc., closed to traffic and businesses shut down.]

4. For the sake of balancing the cold and heat
that keep our earth in balance,
for warding off the scorching of our planet
that could bring drought and flood upon all peoples,
I pledge to set aside one day each month
when I will use no gasoline.
[Work out together how to set aside one day for walking or biking so as to relieve the air of the carbon dioxide from automobiles. Could this be one day a week?!]

5. For the sake of the weak
who are trampled under foot
by elephantine power,
for the many forms of life that vanish every week
from off our planet,
I pledge to join with Noah and Naamah
to affirm God's covenant
with all that lives and breathes
to save each species from extinction
by making all of Earth an Ark of comfort.
[Write a letter to the synagogue board urging it to invite a speaker on the Preservation of Species Act.]

6. For the sake of Holy Temple,
the microcosm of our holy cosmos,
affirming that the earth is not for burning,
and that our planet is not for desecration,
I pledge to be a Maccabee of strength
against all idol
that would distract me
from the Holy Source.
I pledge to pool
my way of transportation
with another household that i
coming to this Temple.
[After lighting the candles, take time to call a friend or neighbor and begin to plan a car pool for Friday evenings at your synagogue, havurah, or temple.]

7. For light,
and for the sake of stored
reserves of life
that give us light,
for the body electric of the earth,
I pledge to seek out bulbs of light
that draw less energy from hidden
places in the earth.
[After lighting the candles, take some time together to plan how to find and buy low-energy electric bulbs.]

8. For sun, moon, and earth,
for the spirals of their dark and light,
for cold and heat, for summer and winter,
for seedtime and harvest, for day and night,
for the One whose covenant entwines all spirals --

I light all lights.