The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer.
Our lives are brimming with little miracles. This Hanukkah, let’s take the time to notice them.
Hanukkah, which begins Sunday night, Dec. 22, and continues through Monday, Dec. 30, commemorates the victory of the few who stood for freedom over the many who stood for tyranny. It is the victory of the tiny light over the darkness; the victory of hope over despair.
While the holiday is called the Jewish Festival of Lights, we don’t commemorate it with a large bonfire or a display of fireworks. Instead, we light single candles on a menorah. They remind us that the miracles that brighten up our lives can be very small.
We can find such little miracles in our own lives, if we look carefully enough.
My wife Feigie and I are from large families, and we yearned to have many children of our own, but our journey was not to be as straightforward. After two children, we embarked on the tedious path of tackling secondary infertility. After five years of treatment and surgeries, we were finally expecting a miracle: We were having a baby, due just a week before Hanukkah 2016.
However, running on Jewish time, our baby decided not to stick to the schedule. Instead, he hung around while we prepared for our Chabad Tucson community Hanukkah celebration.
Hours before the event, my wife’s contractions began and she rushed to the Tucson Medical Center. They checked her and sent her back home. “When should I come back?” she asked. “You’ll know,” was the reply.
We continued preparing for the event. As we were about to head out to the venue, my wife said, “I’m staying behind. You go. You need to be there with the community.”
As I joined 200 Tucsonan Jews at our Hanukkah party, I kept straining to hear whether my phone was ringing over the lively music.
Hours passed, and no call or text from my wife. And then the first little miracle of the day: right when the music stopped, my phone sprang to life. “Come home NOW!” read my wife’s text message.
I grabbed my daughters, jumped into my car, and rushed down Speedway, where I experienced our second little miracle: we caught every green light. At home, my wife was ready at the front door.
When we got to the hospital, we were sent to triage. We asked the nurse where to go, and she directed us to a bed she said they had just cleaned. And then we experienced our third little miracle: over that one bed, the monitor had a photo of a Hanukkah menorah with gifts wrapped in blue and white.
And a short while later, at 9:40 p.m., our biggest miracle took place, as my wife gave birth to our son Mendel. We felt that the little miracles were a bit more visible than usual that day.
Life doesn’t always work out as planned and world events don’t always provide us with hope. But Hanukkah reminds us that we all have little miracles — perhaps some big ones — to be grateful for in our lives. And the more we celebrate the blessings in our lives, the more blessings we have to celebrate.
Case in point: this past month, right before Thanksgiving, my wife gave birth to our fourth child, a baby boy. Dovid is our family’s latest miracle.
Our lives are brimming with little miracles. This Hanukkah, let’s take the time to notice them.
