Seeing Hope When So Much Feels Hopeless

As the hostages have been released, we have learned of the inhuman, barbaric way they were treated. One hundred and fifty are still being kept captive. Our soldiers remain on the front, fighting for their lives and our lives. The enormous spike in antisemitism in this country and around the world is alarming, frightening and deeply concerning.

When we consider the reality right in front of us, it is hard not to despair or grow despondent. Israel is surrounded by enemies who seek her demise. Jews globally are the target of increasing antisemitism and disdain. Watching person after person speak at an Oakland City Council meeting last week, defending, excusing, and glorifying Hamas, accusing Israel of killing its own people, sympathizing with terrorists, can make you feel hopeless and make the situation feel beyond repair.

How can we find hope when so much feels hopeless?

For one thing, we can find strength in the holiday of Hanukkah. There is a law that is unique to Hanukkah. One who can’t light for himself or herself but sees the candles lit by someone else nevertheless makes the second blessing “who performed miracles for our fathers.” This is unique to Hanukkah. When you see someone put on Tefillin, take a lulav, or blow shofar, you don’t make a blessing. Only on Hanukkah do you make a blessing when seeing someone else perform the mitzvah. Why?

Hanukkah is defined by our sense of sight, as we recite after lighting the menorah, “The candles are sacred; we don’t have permission to benefit from their light but their entire purpose is simply to be looked at.” Hanukkah is the holiday of seeing.

The different Jewish holidays correspond with our different senses. On Purim our hearing is heightened as we listen to the Scroll of Esther. On Passover our sense of taste is sharpened when we eat matzah and marror. On Hanukkah, we evaluate our sense of sight, testing how well we see.

Our eyes can be a liability. We often feel that “seeing is believing.” If I can perceive and observe it, it is true. If I can’t, it is not real. Following this rule, we have dismissed and disregarded the most precious truths and realities in our lives. There are ideas, feelings, thoughts and dreams that are authentic and genuine, despite the fact that they can’t be seen or observed.

The Jewish Sages describe the Greek empire and Hellenist influence as choshech, darkness. In expounding on the opening verses of the creation story in Genesis, the Midrash Rabbah says that the verse “darkness was on the face of the deep” refers to the exile of Greece that occurred during the Hanukkah story. Moreover, the rabbinical sages taught that darkening our eyes was the goal of our Greek oppressors. They wanted to make us believe that something is only true if we can see it. They worshipped the body, the aesthetic, the visible form. Our enemies proclaimed that one must look at the facts and face the reality.

Jews are only here today because throughout history, we have refused to see only the surface and instead we have employed a vision, a capacity to see beyond, to dream of what could be. One can live with their eyes open, have perfect vision, and still be cloaked in darkness. On the other hand, it can be pitch black all around and yet a person can see absolutely clearly.

During the story of Hanukkah, the Hasmonaeans didn’t just see the physical reality – their few numbers, weak army, and impossible task. They saw the mighty hand of God, they saw the obligation to fight, and they saw Divine protection that would accompany them.

#Jews have succeeded in retaining hope and optimism because we choose to have vision instead of sight, imagination instead of observation.

Jews have been charged as a people to not simply look at what is in front of us. If we had, we would have given up long ago. We have faced impossible odds, we have confronted impossible challenges. Nevertheless, we have succeeded in retaining our hope and our optimism because we chose to have vision instead of sight, imagination instead of observation.

What if Moses looked at the might of the Egyptian empire and never challenged Pharaoh to let his people go? What if the Maccabees had only considered the facts and never revolted against the Greek oppressors? What if in 1948 and 1967 the brave men and women of Israel had conceded the impossible chances of overcoming the many nations, people, and resources that sought to obliterate them?

The People of Eternity will be Victorious

There is a message plastered all over Israel right now, hanging on billboards, posted on buses, displayed on bumper stickers. It has become our motto of this war – עם הנצח ינצח, the people of eternity will be victorious. We don’t look at odds, numbers and likelihoods; we aren’t intimidated or scared by predictions of pundits or plans of pernicious actors. We are the people of eternity, we see differently than others, we believe in what will be, not what is.

Residents of cities from the south who were first decimated and then displaced have not given up, given in, they are not abandoning their posts or moving to a more comfortable or safer environment. They have vowed to return, to expand, to build and to further settle. They are members of the Am HaNetzach, the eternal people who don’t accept what is but define what could be, who don’t just see what is on the surface but who have a vision for lives of virtue and the triumph of Jewish values.

If you look on the surface, there is so much to fear right now. But over the last nearly eight weeks, if you look a little closer, if you wear your “Hanukkah glasses” you will recognize that we have merited to view things that our people have never seen before. Our vision to be a united people is becoming fulfilled, the dream of a spiritual awakening is taking place, the hope for a resurgence of a connection to our homeland from Jews around the world is happening.

When you light your menorah, take the time to gaze at the candles. Use the light to dispel all the darkness. Allow it to illuminate your life, feel at the core of your being that the people of eternity will prevail.