蜜芽传媒

From: Rabbi Julia Neuberger - Senior Rabbi at the West London Synagogue:

听

Tonight is the seventh night of Chanukkah, once a small festival of lights characterised with a few delicacies, and lighting a chanukkiah, with an additional candle each night. Now, it鈥檚 being expanded into a huge undertaking, with official Chanukkah parties all over the place, and doughnuts and potato latkes (potato pancakes, deep fried, which make you fat if you even look at them), which I know you, Chris, tasted last week. 听I love Chanukah. I like the fact we give each other small gifts- we have a cash limit in my family as we don鈥檛 want to go mad! I love the candle lighting and the singing. And I enjoy the air of general celebration that pervades the air from Thanksgiving and Chanukkah last Thursday till after New Year鈥檚 Day.听 But I do worry that we鈥檙e making a small festival into a big one. After all, the underlying story is a mixture of nationalism and a mythical account of a day鈥檚 supply of oil for the eternal light in the Temple miraculously lasting eight days. It鈥檚 a minor festival, good for the children, and there鈥檚 a bit of a danger that, like Christmas has been, it will be blown up into commercial heaven- for some- with the same worry about children nagging for things they want, and a lack of a real spiritual sensitivity. So I鈥檓 challenging all gift givers in my family and beyond to give ten percent of the value of any gift they purchase to any charity of their choice. There are loads of seasonal appeals, and masses of distressing stories of people homeless and cold over Christmas. If each of my friends and family were to give just a tenth of the value of every gift they give- or receive- it might give the whole celebration more meaning, and it would certainly make the buying, and receiving, of gifts less materialistic. Anyone else for a 10% club?