Dear Lab/Shul,

Holiday Greetings to you all from Jerusalem, where I arrived just over a week ago to celebrate Hanukkah and this sacred season with family and friends. 

I’m excited to be with many of you online for our Virtual Hanukkah Candle Lighting  — and looking forward to leading the second night along with Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers from the middle of the desert at the Woodstock Peace Festival. 

As we polish our menorahs, prepare the latke mix and wrap up presents – many of us also wonder: How do we turn on the lights within and beyond during these dark and difficult days in the world? Scroll down to read what Hannah Arendt’s advice from 1968 has to tell us today.. 

And meanwhile — as we reflect on our individual and collective challenges of 2024, I want to thank you for your generosity in supporting those who continue to insist on working tirelessly for hope, healing and peace.

Lab/Shul’s got a Hanukkah gift for you – as our way to thank you for being part of our nourishing network – lighting up the world with love and creativity, courage and care – every single night of the year. Check out, print and share our newly designed Shiviti poster, and place it with pride alongside your menorah: face to face, forever now, along with our God-Optional Hanukkah Blessings!

OUR GIFT: Hanukkah Shiviti & Blessings

Want to give us a gift too? Great! Please donate before the year ends, your donation will be doubled thanks to a generous anonymous donor.

WATCH: Lab/Shul’s 2024 Recap Video

We are all eager to celebrate – for some of us it’s not just Hanukkah but also Christmas and the New Year, ready to lift up beloved legacies and hallowed traditions. And yet – With the ongoing brutal war in Israel/Palestine and uncertainty ahead in the US, we need all the support we can to avoid despair and enable the bright lights to illuminate our home and hopes. 

Thankfully, our ancestors left us with the well-worn wisdom of the ages, along with helpful rituals and recipes so that we can show up and light up these long winter nights, no matter what. 

Take the thoughtful and provocative philosopher Hannah Arendt’s word for it. She knew a thing or two about facing tough times, bitter wars and authoritarian regimes — and wrote a book about it back in 1968 – “Men in Dark Times.”

Her words echo today, powerful and inspiring…

“..That even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such illumination may well come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak light that some men and women, in their lives and their works, will kindle under almost all circumstances and shed over the time span that was given them on earth. 

…Eyes so used to darkness as ours will hardly be able to tell whether their light was the light of a candle or that of a blazing sun. But such objective evaluation seems to me a matter of secondary importance which can be safely left to posterity.”

So let’s be the light that will illuminate the world — face to face, forever now, and with enough energy to last all eight nights and beyond – into posterity. Come what may. As the holidays merge this year we get to be there for and with each others’ traditions and find common ground in our shared humanity. 

I wish us all a festive season of joy and connection, with deep faith in our ability to rise above despair, lift up resilience, celebrate our wildest hopes and co-create the daily miracles that empower lives of justice,  equity, dignity and love- for all of us everywhere. 

Spark Hope Now – Light Up Peace – Repeat x8 

Hopeful Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and a much better New Year

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie
Co-Founder, Senior Clergy and Spiritual Leader