By: Miriam Mercado
Every 25th of Kislev (?”? )????? ,begins the Hanukkah celebration. For eight days, we light the Hanukiah, play dreidel and eat sufganiyot and levivot. We tell with great pride and excitement the story of the triumph of the Maccabees and identify with their desire to fight for their ideals. We remember the Miracle of the Cruse of Oil, and the moment the Jews returned to Beit Hamikdash and did not stop until the reinauguration of the destructed temple. This is how a new stage in the history of the Jewish people begins.
We constantly change as a movement. We seek new ideas, we develop new projects and we never settle. We always want more, to change in order to improve. We do everything in order to “revive” the light, and for it to illuminate more people with higher intensity. For us, this light is strongly related to our educational philosophy, similarly to the way the words Hanukkah / ?????) Inauguration) and Chinuch /????? (Education) are intertwined; both come from the same root )?.?.? )and share the same purpose. This light, called Hanoar Hatzioni, is generated from a never-ending supply of “oil,” an “oil” that represents every chaver of the tnua and that manages to maintain the light intense and alive. Therefore, this oil motivates us to become better people year after year; to believe and to fight for our ideals and to educate according to the values that guide us in our everyday lives, in order to build and illuminate a better world.
May we continue to revive the light and use it to illuminate the world!
Chazak Ve’ematz
