Rededication

Among the strange things I noticed today, the menorah at Key Food frozen in time, still marking the 7th day of Hanukkah, and while I waited to cross 15th St a car topped with a menorah made of pvc tubing drove by, and this menorah marked the 7th day of Hanukkah as well. So back to the 7th day then. I'm glad, because Hanukkah ended too fast. I know, its not an "important" Jewish holiday, I know, this miracle has been debunked, the stunning event was not the miracle of self-multiplying oil but the fact that the Maccabees were able to rehabilitate their temple so quickly after it had been sacked. The celebration consecrates the act of rededication, an act of will, an act that can happen anywhere at any moment inside anyone's skull when one makes it a temple, when one dedicates being to the unseeable and unsayable, to the infinite mystery occurring symbolically in the nothingness of the void that hangs between the tips of angel's wings. But we can spice it up with fire.

One night we watched the candles burn for a long time to try to hear any stories they might tell. One flame burned astonishingly tall, twice as high as the others, and seemed to split its tip into three sections so that it resembled a little spirit dancing as it reached its arms up to heaven. It did that dance for a very long time, surprising us with its growing height again and again, with this brave display of the will for transcendence. The little flame danced a remarkable performance, I have to give it its due.