What a great time as over 200 Uptownians celebrated Chanukah!
After many requests, here is the speech:
Our theme tonight is the Can-orah - a menorah made from cans of food. And when we’re done with the CAN-dle lighting, the CANS will be given to the needy, mostly to the Houston food bank. In this way we will literally enact the message of Chanukah, for the spiritual will triumph over the material - the light of holiness and goodness that we kindle tonight will become physical - the very real mitzvah of feeding the hungry.
But the idea of the CAN-menorah - the CAN-orah is more than just a clever play on words. Because the word CAN itself refers to more than just a container - a passive, inactive receptacle. In that sense, of course, the CAN does nothing. Whatever significance or value it has comes from what WE put into it - and how WE transfer it.
But the word CAN is also a verb, a word of action.
I am sure you have noticed that we have borrowed from a recent theme - a theme we’ve heard these many months.
Yes, we CAN
Yes, we CAN - in both senses of the word. We CAN - the menorah, the food we will be giving the hungry.
But, more Yes we CAN is the message of Chanukah.
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts” – the message of Chanukah - that a little light pushes away great darkness, that the few CAN conquer the many, that ultimately goodness and righteousness will triumph - “tonight is your answer.”
To the extent our efforts tonight bring us a step closer to a world of goodness, a civilized world, a world “filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the water covers the ocean bed” - to the extent we are victorious over the forces of darkness and intolerance and prejudice - to that extent we are indebted to you. This menorah - this physical embodiment of “hope and change” was built by you, by your donation, your dedication, your devotion.
The victory - this victory, which is, in a way, a reliving of the victory of the Maccabbees, is your victory. It is the victory we must achieve each Chanukah, until the final victory when the Menorah will shine from the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem.
Yes, we CAN.
It’s a theme we CAN adopt, whatever our politics, philosophy or religious orientation. Because it’s not a new phrase, a new idea - there’s nothing new under the sun, after all. But the very timelessness of Yes, we CAN makes it more timely than ever.
Yes, we CAN: the message of Chanukah in times of adversity. When the Syrian Greeks wanted to destroy Judaism, to force us to abandon Torah and G-d, when the world said, give up, you’re fighting the mightiest army in the world, No, you can’t - the Maccabbees stood up and declared, Yes, we can. And they rallied the Jewish people, rededicated the Temple and earned, for themselves and subsequent generations, a miracle, a miracle of Yes, we CAN.
In times of pain, when illness, G-d forbid, seems to overwhelm us - physically, emotionally, spiritually. When treatments may be as painful as the diseases, and the questions and doubts and loneliness and fears even more painful - when despair and surrender, when quitting and hopelessness and disbelief seem the only choice, we look to the miracle of lights, we know there is, there must be hope, and we resolve to fight for life, for health because Yes we CAN - and we believe, in the deepest fiber of our beings, that the G-d who heals can heal - Yes HE Can.
Yes we can!
When the terrorists strike, when murderers mask their evil with the platitudes and turn religious truth into falsehood, when innocents are murdered, as they were in Mumbai - because they were innocent because they were living examples of goodness and kindness and righteousness and holiness - when this real, mindless evil says, you can not live, you can not thrive, you can not exist - we, Jews and non-Jews, all people who recognize G-d as the Father of us all - we rise up and say, Yes, we CAN live, yes, we CAN thrive, yes we CAN and yes we WILL exist. Yes, we can.
When Depression becomes more than mental, becomes real and financial, when thousands and hundreds of thousands become desperate to save their home, to put food on their table, to find work. When thieves and gonaffs betray the public trust and tell us there’s nothing we can do about it, that you can’t give tzedekah because the economy is in ruins, that you can’t help someone else find work because you won’t have a job - we defy the doomsayers and say Yes, we CAN live through hard economic times with our dignity intact, our humanity operative. Yes we CAN give tzedekah - even more, because more is needed. Yes we CAN!
When people say feeding the homeless is hopeless, that there’s no use in building a community, in taking responsibility for the community, tonight, you, here, know the answer. Can we build the community? YES WE CAN! Can we take responsibility, alleviate the suffering and the hunger? Yes, we can.
When the Arabs and their sycophants around the world tell Israel it can’t defend itself, we stand with Israel as it declares, Yes We CAN. When these haters and manipulators and murderers say you can’t stop us from shooting rockets into old age homes and blowing up children, we stand on the border with the IDF and shout Yes We CAN! And when they cry eternal hatred and destruction of Israel and that there will never be peace, we say there will be peace, a true and just peace, because Yes WE CAN - and YES G-D CAN.
Finally, let me borrow - and transform - another phrase popularized over recent months - Change - change we can believe in. Well, yes, we can believe in change, because everything changes - the seasons, the issues, the ballplayers - everything changes, so we can believe in change.
But there’s one change that we can REALLY believe in, because it’s the ultimate, the real, the true, the final change. And that’s the change that will come with Moshiach, the change that will transform the world, the change that will actualize the message of Chanukah - when light will completely and totally push away the darkness. In the era of Redemption, we will see real change, as the prophet declares: nation will not lift up sword against nation. Moshiach will usher in not just change, but a transformation, when there will be no war, no greed, no hunger, when the world will be filled with knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the ocean.
And do you know who will usher in that change? Who will bring Moshiach? You - all of us - because when it comes to the real change, the change we can really believe in - it’s up to us to complete the task. And if anyone asks, we know the answer - YES WE CAN!
