Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Eliza McCarroll

Ner Chanukah: Light in a Time of Fear

Many of you, like me, were glued to the news earlier this week of the devastating antisemitic terror attack on Bondi Beach in my hometown of Sydney, Australia. As my own family gathered to celebrate the first Chanukah candle, a piece of the festival light was undoubtedly diminished. Bondi is the heart of Sydney’s Jewish life. An iconic beach suburb and the location of many institutions and synagogues, I spent much of my teenage and young adult years in the area, both as a Sydneysider enjoying the ocean and as a professional Jew in the community.

This week, my heart has been at home, and it is broken, though I am relieved to share that all of our family and friends are, thankfully, accounted for. I feel truly fortunate that they are safe, at this horrible time of Jews losing our sense of safety, not just in Australia, but around the world, including here in Canada.

It is saddening that this is our state of being, where the security and safety of one another is the foremost concern, instead of being able to simply enjoy the events of the holiday. My family and I deeply appreciate the many messages from you, the incredible Holy Blossom community, checking in and offering consolation. I have been passing along your love and care to them. It makes me even more grateful to be one of your rabbis.

As the famous (and my favourite) Chanukah song goes, banu choshech l’garesh, b’yadeinu or va’esh – “we have come to dispel the darkness, and in our hands is light, and flame.”

The antidote, I believe, is spreading Jewish joy and Jewish light, igniting flames of love instead of fuelling the fires of the vitriolic hatred that ultimately led to fatal violence. In Toronto, I have found much hope, light and joy in our Chanukah celebrations. Whether it was our children participating in tefilah during our Young Families celebration, the teens revelling in their glow party, the extraordinary array of our choose-your-own adventure study sessions or the incredible concert or study session during Ignite, our coming together uplifted the soul and reassures us that the Jewish future is bright.

We are instructed in the Talmud to display our Chanukiot in our windows for a reason: to share our light, in all its beauty.

So I humbly encourage that, in this dark time, we double our efforts for hiddur mitzvah (beautifying a sacred act) as we conclude Chanukah 5786: come join us tonight for our Intergenerational Chanukah Party, reach out to our numerous congregants who (also) have family ties to Australia, share a photo that represents Jewish joy, or invite non-Jewish allies to light candles with you.

Australian Jewry are shaken, but they are strong, and I have come to know that Canadian Jews share that same trait. We cannot, and will not, let darkness dispel our light, because the real miracle of Chanukah is that we are still here at all. To be afraid to be proudly Jewish would be a negation of that very miracle. My Chanukiah, gifted to me by my grandmother, has been on display in my window each night, and our Chanukiah here at Holy Blossom has stood tall for all to see.

Shalom al Yisrael, and Am Yisrael Chai – Down Under, in Toronto, and wherever we may be.

Chag Chanukah Sameach.

PS A few of you have asked if there was anything practical you could do. A small step, for those who wish, is to donate to the Bondi Community Relief Appeal, where resources will go straight to front-line responders on behalf of the Sydney Jewish community. The link can be found here.