By Deborah Eisenbach-Budner

I am writing this on November 15, the end of what we can call Election Shiva (initial 7 day mourning period). I am wondering: does hope create action or does action create hope? Do we strive for one in order to stimulate the other? How do we do this individually, within ourselves, and together in community?

And how can we call upon Jewish ritual and life to help us at this time?

In sync with the instincts of many cultures, we kindle our Chanukah lights amidst the longest nights. And this year, Chanukah begins December 24 three days after the Winter Solstice, truly the time of least daylight. Leaving aside, for now, the complicated and problematic evolution of Chanukah – replete with religious extremism, civil war among Jews, accommodating and fighting colonialism, etc. – let us recall how it feels and what it takes to tend a productive flame.

When one tries to keep a fire going for a significant chunk of time, like half a day, it takes continual attention to the flames, the airflow, and the burning materials. Some luck helps, too. Sometimes the flames reach high, generating light and heat – sometimes too much heat - and sometimes they just don’t catch or sustain themselves. You must continually feed the fire, bringing it more fuel. No fuel, no fire. It is tedious and devoted work.

As Josh Fixler writes: “Hope is not a thing that happens to you. It is not only a noun. It is a verb. It is a thing you choose every day… Hope is an audacious choice. It is a countercultural choice. It is a revolutionary choice.” At this time of the least light, Jewish tradition enjoins us to “celebrate a miracle of light. But not only a miracle. A choice. The Maccabees found [enough] oil to last a single day, and they needed eight days to purify a new batch… And they lit the lamp anyway. That is the audacious choice of hope. To know that the oil won’t last and to light the lamp anyway.”

Here are eight candles to light in this season, just as a start. Please share what else you are doing or hoping to do with others as well.

Seek out Models of Resilience in the Past, in the World Around You.

Give yourself and maybe some friends or family members the gift of a story or song or news article about people overcoming difficult personal and/or collective hardships. Notice the cycles of plant-life and other creatures, the leaving and the returning. Notice human capacity for renewal. It is all around us, if we train our eyes to see it.

Diversify Your Information Sources.

If you notice that you are living in an echo chamber, expand your channels for input. Go out of your way, and your comfort zone, to speak with and listen to people who voted differently than you. If you are only reading the New York Times, listen to/watch Democracy Now, with Amy Goodman, and hear from a much wider swath of America, especially lesser known citizen activists who are accomplishing grassroots-level changes. Color of Change has an action orientation, focusing on injustice in the lives of people of color.  On the other end of the spectrum, listen to some podcasts on Commentary Magazine or read some articles in the National Review. This provides a great opportunity to cultivate listening skills and compassion.

Discover/Remember What You Care About and Commit to Doing Something Doable. 

There are so many needs right now, with so many critical issues we must pay attention to. Yes, give some consideration and become better informed. But, then, just pick something! Giving whatever you can to one cause is better than not doing anything because all your energy is used up by being overwhelmed. You can always shift your focus, later. We all have something to contribute. We all must do something if we want to make change or protect what we have. Talk to people about what you are doing. Ask them what they are doing or hope to do.

I have some buttons for anybody who wants them. They say “Ask: What can YOU do to help protect justice for all?”

Here, too, compassion can be helpful. Try having self-compassion for the conflict between all that we want to do and the limiting factors of our time, our responsibilities, and our resources. 

Intensify Your Acts of Chesed (kindness).

Letting somebody in before you at the entrance to the bridge, giving food, visiting a shelter, calling a relative that you usually don’t find time for - these acts help us realize that as we do acts of Chesed we bring good upon ourselves and the world around us.

Confront Systemic Problems.

Pay attention to what is going on beneath the surface, as scary or intractable as it seems. We are affected whether or not we look down there. Guilt or fear robs us of energy that could be turned into action. Whether we must confront our own oppression, or our privilege and complicity (or all of them) there are others doing this same work. Racism, Economic Inequality, Elitism, Hate Crimes (Southern Poverty Law Center), Climate Injustice (talk with Havurahnik Michael Heumann), Islamophobia (mpowerchange.org), Homophobia (Basic Rights Oregon), Misogyny (NOW, Planned Parenthood, MS, YWCA), Anti-Semitism (American Anti-Defamation League), Voter Repression (read George Palast in Rolling Stone: ‘The GOP’s secret scheme begins purge of a million minority voters from voter rolls’), Electoral Reform (learn about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which 10 states have already adopted; it has passed the Lower House in Oregon numerous times but not been adopted. Wikipedia has a comprehensive and neutral article about it).

None of it is pretty but all of it is real. And we are affected, sooner or later. (And I am just focusing on work that needs to be done in the USA!)

Keep Returning to Community.

Keep returning for your own sake. Return for the sense of connectedness and affirmation that can combat isolation and disempowerment. And for the sake of showing others that we have strength in our coming together. Whether it is protests, or coming to Havurah, or other community gatherings, it is like pirsumay nisa (see below), a way of taking in the light and bringing the light outwards.

Take a Break.

Listen to yourself. Know when it is time to turn off NPR (or whatever station) and stop checking your newsfeed. This is the eternal wisdom of Shabbat. We all need a chance to stop, appreciate, be with what is, and recharge. We do this for sustainability, to stay in the game. And we do this for the inherent goodness of noticing good and blessings in the world.

Kindle Your Chanukiah – Share the Light. 

Surprisingly, there is almost no instruction in the Talmud about Chanukah. What does exist is narrowly focused on pirsumay nisa, making public the miracle. “For the rabbis, the lights must be kindled (in the window or entryway) where they are to be displayed…. and appropriate placement of the burning lights means making them visible from the public thoroughfare … Because the purpose of the lights is to make a public statement, the only time that a person is allowed to light the candles “on his table” is in a time of danger.” (Michele Alperin, in MyJewishLearning.com)

Whether you understand this as an ancient way of saying that we have power on our side, or have been taken care of, or a contemporary way of being ‘out’ as a Jew, lighting the menorah makes a difference.

-- Deborah

PS. I was writing this through a particularly long and loud rainstorm in the dark and early hours of the morning. When I was almost done I gave myself a short break outside and guess what I saw? Yes, a huge and bright rainbow across the whole clearing sky – our quintessential Jewish symbol of hope. Quoting the Torah portion, Noach, from only 10 Days (That Shook the World!) ago: 
“And God said: 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth…; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.” Genesis 9: 12-15.

Without getting too Hallmarky on myself, and you, I was reminded that sometimes simplicity is best. Hope – that is what we can pursue. And then action follows. But, then again, I had to walk outside to see the rainbow. So, maybe action engenders hope.