By Rabbi Hershel Spalter, Chabad of Greater Dayton

Light a match and watch. The fire flares, burns down quickly, dies.

Now try it again, but have a candle ready. Strike the match and put it to the wick. The flame lives.

On Chanukah, Jews everywhere are lighting candles. They shine in our windows, light up the shopping malls; they are lit in the White House and by the Eiffel Tower. Families gather together and sing the blessings as they kindle the lights.

Jewish homes are recognizable on Chanukah by a menorah flickering in the window.

Actually, a menorah is not only a symbol on Chanukah, but year round as well. You can see it on synagogues. It’s a favorite icon, like the Star of David.

There is a reason for this.

We, as Jews, have a task. We were given an assignment, a goal which affects all we do and say. Our mission is to light up the world, make what is too frequently a place of darkness and evil into a place full of light that we can call home. We can do this by doing mitzvot (commandments), which illuminate our lives; by being kind, brightening the lives of others; and by inspiring others to light up the world.

That is the message of the menorah. We are the Maccabees of today, as the Maccabees were before us. They fought against a regime that wished to destroy us. Not looking to destroy the Jewish body — genocide was not the purpose — the Hellenists chose instead to target the soul, that which makes us recognize the spirituality within us. They were uncomfortable with our obsession with light, with God, with good. So they decreed that we couldn’t have what is holy to us: our Torah, our mitzvot. Trying to drive spirituality from us, they passed laws forbidding Shabbat, a day on which we are in touch with our spiritual side.

Our unquestioning dedication to the will of God offended them, so they forbade kashrut (Jewish dietary laws). Connecting to our Maker meant less connection to their ideals, so they didn’t allow Jews to permanently seal a covenant with God, through the mitzvah of brit milah (circumcision).

Then the Maccabees fought back. Not just spiritually — with prayers and the like — but also physically, with bows and arrows and swords. A spiritual response wouldn’t resolve the issue, because the issue the enemy had with the Jews was that we brought the spiritual into the physical realm: Judaism not just as a philosophy, but a distinct way of living in this world.

And so we fought a physical war, and defeated the Greeks, reconquered Jerusalem, and purified the Holy Temple.

And lit the Menorah.

Here is the climax of the story. Our story is told until the miracle of the oil — when a small flask of oil, enough to burn for just one night, was found to still have the seal which let everyone know that it was still pure. This flask was used in the Menorah, and miraculously burned for the whole eight days it took to obtain new oil. The End.

This is the end, because that is where the lesson is. The story teaches us how to counter opposition: deal with it by adding light. There may be times when war is necessary, when we must forcefully confront a deadly danger. But the final answer to the darkness of the world is to add in light. Just as every day of Chanukah is celebrated with a new candle, so should we celebrate each day by lighting a new candle, a new soul. Through inspiring others, our own light will shine on.

We can set the world on fire.

To read the complete 2014 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.