What Chanuka Means to Me

– by Mashi Weinberg, age 10 from Cheder Menachem, Kingston, PA

WHAT CHANUKAH MEANS TO ME:

“There is darkness in the world. The light has to come from within.”

What does that mean?

“There is darkness in the world. The light has to come from within.”

I keep on repeating this to myself.

How can we have been put onto earth with such… darkness?

Such bad things happen constantly!

Sometimes we feel “is this really what G-d had in plan?”

On Chanukah, I feel safe. All I have to do is light that candle of hope.

Light that candle, that candle of freedom.

By every candle which we light on Chanukah, we are filling in and fixing another hole in our void.

Just like the candle I just lit, I am also lighting a flame within myself.

I try to use that flame to bring light to the world.

As Chanukah reaches its end, I start to realize that, true, this world has darkness, and true, we might feel discouraged sometimes, but deep down I know that I can add so much more light to the world than I think I can.

Let’s look at the good now.

I have hope. We all do.

What are you grateful for in your life?

I can tell you one thing that I’m grateful for.

We were given a chance.

A chance that only ourselves as individuals can do.

Each in our own way anything and any day, to change.

To change ourselves, and to change darkness into light.

Let’s use that chance to do a good deed for another.

That is how we bring light to the world.

That is how we chase away the darkness.

We fight the evil with good.

The light recedes the dark.

Look in the mirror. What do you see?

The same person you saw yesterday!

But, no. Your soul has changed.

Every day, we have a choice to change.

How?

By having good character traits.

Use them to add light to the dark.

Inside, we shine and glimmer with light.

Just bring it to the outside.