By Daily Press staff
A local political figure is doing his part to bring the 2005 Chanukah celebration to an end.
Mayor Bob Holbrook on Saturday will welcome the crowds and light the Shamash — the servant candle of the Menorah — at Chabad’s annual Chanukah Night Live event on the Third Street Promenade.
With his participation, Holbrook is continuing the tradition of city and government officials who have participated in the yearly event, expressing the unity that the city of Santa Monica represents, and the freedom of religion of all faiths, on which America was founded.
The celebration, which begins at 7 p.m., Dec. 31, will take place in the center court of the Promenade. The program will begin with a Havdala ceremony, marking the end of the Sabbath, followed by the lighting of the Menorah for the seventh night of Chanukah. The Shamash, servant candle, with which all the other lights are lit, will be kindled by Holbrook.
Seven lights will then be kindled on the giant Menorah standing in the middle of center court, followed by celebration of live music, singing and dancing. Children will rally, reciting passages from the Torah, hearing about the miracles of Chanukah and receiving Chanukah Gelt and dreidels. Menorahs and candles will be available for participants to enable them to continue the traditions and festivities of Chanukah in their own homes.
For many non-Jewish Santa Monicans, Chanukah — both the rituals and the history — is a mystery.
This year, the week-long Chanukah celebration began on Dec. 25 and will end on Jan. 2. The holiday is highlighted by the kindling of the Menorah each night of the holiday.
“It is a holiday that enriches our lives with the light of tradition,” said Rabbi Avrohom Levitansky, director of the Chabad House. “In ancient times our ancestors rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem with the Menorah. Today, we rededicate ourselves to making this world a better and brighter place.”
Chanukah also propagates the universal message that ultimately good will prevail over evil, freedom over oppression and light over darkness.
In its Chanukah outreach campaign, Chabad of Santa Monica joins thousands of Chabad centers across the globe that are staging similar public displays of the Menorah and its symbolic lights. From Australia to Africa, Columbia to Hong Kong, New York City’s ground zero to the White House lawn, hundreds of thousands will experience Chanukah with Chabad.
Chanukah, or the Festival of Lights, recalls the victory — more than 2,100 years ago — of a militarily weak but spiritually strong Jewish people over the mighty forces of a ruthless enemy that had overrun the Holy Land and threatened to engulf the land and its people in darkness.
The miraculous victory of religious freedom was compounded by a second great miracle that took place when only one jug of sacred oil was found still pure and sealed. The Maccabees poured the one-day supply of oil into the great Menorah and rekindled the Menorah that had been desecrated and extinguished by the enemy. The small amount of oil did not burn out at the end of the first day, but continued to burn continuously for eight days, until the special process for preparing new oil could be completed.
Lighting the Chanukah Menorah serves as a reminder of those events and also serves as a symbol and a message of triumph of freedom over oppression, of spirit over matter, of light over darkness.
Today, Jews all over the world light their Menorah. Each night an additional light is kindled until, on the eighth day, the Menorah is ablaze with eight lights.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 30, 2005. Read the original PDF.