It seems surreal that Chanukah is ending. As we enter the time of year when normally we are just starting to prepare for such a festive Chag, this year we've already had our fill of latkes and sufganiyot. Two weeks ago my Derasha focused on the challenge we faced in pairing Chanukah with the friendly and welcome neighbor of Thanksgiving sharing our attention, instead of the garish and intrusive neighbor of Christmas. Last week we had to focus our attention to ensure that Chanukah did not get upstaged by Thanksgiving, not to mention the new national holidays Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Over the next month we face a different challenge. With Chanukah in the past, we are about to face the behemoth that is Christmas without any ammunition to fight back. Asarah B'Tevet is a meaningful fast day, but it can't compete with eggnog and Christmas trees. In Manhattan it can be a more acute conundrum. While my building put up a Menorah and a "Happy Chanukah" banner in our lobby, it will pale in comparison to the resplendent and bejeweled tree I expect to encounter imminently. Last year it was discomfiting for me to have a Christmas tree in our lobby. It felt like part of my home space was occupied by a foreign entity.  

Over the next month, it is incumbent on all of us to proactively add some extra passion and energy into our Jewish lives. Without Chanukah to provide that spark, we need to provide it ourselves. We can't pretend that the enormity of Christmas in Manhattan just washes over us and our children. So we need to counteract that not by complaining about how pervasive Christmas has become, but instead by making our Shabbat a little more interesting, our Tefillah a little more inspired and sharing Torah, stories and Jewish experiences with our children to remind them just how special it is to be a Jew. Chanukah may have passed, but just as we use the light of the Shamash to transfer the flame to the other candles, we need to pass on that spark to the month ahead.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Joshua Strulowitz