(no subject)
Mar. 23rd, 2009 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verity83Book 28: Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Hanukkah: With Light, Latkes, and Dreidels (Holidays Around the World) by Deborah Heiligman. 31pp
A very brief book with a very long title. Another grab from the children's shelf - it is meant for a much younger audience than the previous one I read, but it is full of beautiful photographs of real children celebrating the holiday all over the world, with the story simply told. Great for early readers or reading to very young children.
What is interesting to me in learning about Hanukkah is that it has a very rich layering of meanings, the least important of which is the concept of it being Another Winter Festival. I think the most powerful and beautiful message is one that any believer should embrace, whether they celebrate the holiday or not, and that is this:
God does not need great numbers to work His purposes and preserve His faithful people (think of Gideon with his 300 men against thousands). We may be few in number, but with God on our side, what can't we accomplish? (Assuming it's something He wants accomplished, that is.)
Also, this quote from the book I read yesterday is beautiful:
Hanukkah candles stand for spirit, courage, justice, and hope. A candle gives off a tiny light, but it has the power to light another candle. And when it does, its own light increases at the moment of contact.
With that thought in mind, this song, already a favourite of mine, seems now a perfect embodiment of the Hanukkah spirit.
A very brief book with a very long title. Another grab from the children's shelf - it is meant for a much younger audience than the previous one I read, but it is full of beautiful photographs of real children celebrating the holiday all over the world, with the story simply told. Great for early readers or reading to very young children.
What is interesting to me in learning about Hanukkah is that it has a very rich layering of meanings, the least important of which is the concept of it being Another Winter Festival. I think the most powerful and beautiful message is one that any believer should embrace, whether they celebrate the holiday or not, and that is this:
God does not need great numbers to work His purposes and preserve His faithful people (think of Gideon with his 300 men against thousands). We may be few in number, but with God on our side, what can't we accomplish? (Assuming it's something He wants accomplished, that is.)
Also, this quote from the book I read yesterday is beautiful:
Hanukkah candles stand for spirit, courage, justice, and hope. A candle gives off a tiny light, but it has the power to light another candle. And when it does, its own light increases at the moment of contact.
With that thought in mind, this song, already a favourite of mine, seems now a perfect embodiment of the Hanukkah spirit.
