16 December 2022

Celebrating the light that
sustains and sanctifies us
through times of darkness

A Hanukkiah or Hanukkah Menorah in Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)



Patrick Comerford

The first night of Hanukkah is on Sunday evening (18 December) and will be marked in synagogues and homes around the world with the lighting of the first candle on the hanukkiah or Hanukkah Menorah late on Sunday afternoon.

Jewish families and communities everywhere will be singing songs, playing the dreidel, eating latkes and doughnuts, and lighting the first Hanukkah candle as the sun goes down.

Some synagogues, including the shul in Milton Keynes, have organised Hanukkah parties on Sunday afternoon – aware, though, they there may be competition for attention and entertainment from the World Cup final at the same time.

Bevis Marks Synagogue in London is holding its annual ‘Grand Hanukkah Candlelit Service’ on Sunday afternoon (18 December).

Cork Jewish Community has organised a Hanukkah party on Sunday evening, with games, doughnuts and latkes. Then on Wednesday (21 December), on the fourth night of the Festival, from 4:30 to 5:30, Cork Jewish Community and Cork City Council are lighting Hanukkah candles in Cork City Hall with the Lord Mayor, Deirdre Forde. On Sunday 25 December, in conjunction with the Evening Echo, the final lamp is being lit in Shalom Park, Cork.

In New York, Met Council has organised a special Chanukah event in Brooklyn on Sunday with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to benefit home-bound Holocaust survivors. The New York City area is home to tens of thousands of people who survived the Holocaust, some of whom face immense challenges and are often isolated. The Holocaust Survivor Programme provides over 3,900 low-income Holocaust survivors with financial assistance, social programmes, case management and food.

Four figures in Murano glass in a shopfront in the Ghetto in Venice … the figure on the left is celebrating Hanukkah with a Hanukkiah or Hanukkah Menorah (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

On this Friday evening, as Hanukkah approaches, I am thinking once again of the beautiful, joyful illustrations of Hannukah by the artist Michal Maron in two books I bought a year ago in the ScalaMata Gallery in the Ghetto in Venice, Riccardo Calimani’s 500 years of the Venetian Ghetto and Alon Baker’s The Jewish Festivals and Synagogues around the World.

When I visited it, the ScalaMata Gallery was filled with colourful and captivating paintings, books, cards and bookmarks presenting 500 years of the history and scenes of daily life of the Venetian Ghetto. The displays and exhibitions include illustrated Torah scrolls and paintings by the artist Michal Meron, whose paintings accompany these two books.

Alon Baker first published the Jewish Festival book 25 years ago, and when it was translated into English, French, Portuguese, Hebrew, German and Japanese it was welcomed as ‘a little ambassador of Judaism.’

In the new edition, published in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish, the publisher ScalaMata has added illustrations of the Jewish festivals by Michal Maron and also included happy or solemn occasions in some synagogues around the world.

I was surprised that the illustrations included so many historical synagogues I had visited in Europe, among them Kahal Shalom, Rhodes; Dohány Synagogue in Budapest; Bevis Marks Synagogue, London; the Italian Synagogue, Venice; the Oranienburg Synagogue, Berlin; the Old New Synagogue, Prague; the Synagogue of Vienna; Remah Synagogue, Krakow; and the Great Synagogue of Rome.

In his small and delightful, accessible and educational book, Alon Barker says of Chanuccah, the Festival of Lights:

‘Chanuccah is the commemoration of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE and rededication of the second Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by Antiochus IV. The holiday also recalls the miracle that occurred: when rededicating the Temple, they only found enough pure olive oil for the Menorah light to last one day. Instead, it burned for eight days, the time needed to make new oil. Chanuccah is celebrated by lighting an additional candle each evening on a nine-branched Menorah for eight days. Other traditions include playing with a dreidel (a spinning top) and eating doughnuts and latkes.’

The prayer included in Michal Maron’s illustration of Hannukah in this book says:

‘Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us in light and sustained us to reach this season.

‘Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to kindle the Hanukah light.

‘Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has performed miracles for our forefathers in those days at this time.’

May light shine in your life in these dark days of winter, a light that assures you of the love of God.

Shabbat Shalom



Praying in Advent with Lichfield Cathedral
and USPG: Friday 16 December 2022

‘Spend some time today asking yourself what news you need to hear from God?’ (Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar) … newspapers at a kiosk in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

The countdown to Christmas has gathered pace, the traditional counting of the ‘O Antiphons’ begins tomorrow, and there are just nine days to go to Christmas Day. Before today gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

During Advent, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, The reading suggested in the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar produced by Lichfield Cathedral this year;

2, praying with the Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace’ (Isaiah 52: 7) …the mountains near Siranda, close to the border between southern Albania and northern Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Isaiah 52: 7-10 (NRSVA):

7 How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’
8 Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices,
together they sing for joy;
for in plain sight they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.
9 Break forth together into singing,
you ruins of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.

‘For the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 52: 9) … a restaurant sign in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar:

Advent is a season for alertness and preparation – spend some time today asking yourself what news you need to hear from God? How will I recognise the messenger? What horizon do I scan to see the bearers of good news? And what does the ‘salvation of our God’ look like and feel like?

Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

USPG Prayer Diary:

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Walking Together.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Right Revd Maria Grace Tazu Sasamori, who became Bishop of Hokkaido in Japan in April 2022. She shared her reflections on this year’s Lambeth Conference with Archbishop Justin Welby.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

Let us pray for our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion. May we put aside our prejudices and open our hearts to understand our differences.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 52: 9) … Jerusalem in a painting in a restaurant in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org