Solidarity: Jewish Hanukkah and Christian Advent

We express our condolences to the Jewish people and others who were killed, injured and so deeply affected by the horrific violence perpetrated at Bondi Beach last Sunday. The events occurred on the first day of Hanukkah, an eight day celebration occurring in December that marks the miraculous victory of the Jewish Maccabees over the Seleucid Greek invaders in 139 BCE and subsequent rededication of the Jerusalem Temple. The Festival of Lights is its centrepiece, whereby an additional candle on the 9 branch Menorah is lit each day from the centre candle (shamash), symbolizing the eternal power of God’s divine light to overcome the darkness.

The similar cumulative lighting of candles in the Advent wreath expresses the same hope in Christian terms, incarnated in baby Jesus born in Bethlehem on Christmas Day. The Paschal candle will burn next to the Advent Wreath during Masses this Sunday to acknowledge that Jesus’ subsequent rising from the dead through suffering and death is God’s definitive statement of the eternal dominion of divine light over all darkness.

The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and leading rabbis have encouraged those who wish to express support to perform an act of charity as a way of penetrating darkness with the light of love. This is a poignant way to climax the Advent Season and the Jubilee Year of Hope, which ends in Australia next Sunday, 28 December.