A Little Hanuka Light

In the top drawer the bureau the little Hanuka candle waited impatiently. All year since last Hanuka waiting for his turn. Now it is already the seventh day, and hopes were all but gone.

The family had bought a new brass shiny Hanuka menorah with oil lamps.

When he finally heard the drawer open, his hopes rose. But the children were not looking for a Hanuka candle tonight. They were singing "sivivon , sov sov sov." They were looking for the Dredel.

As the children grabbed the Sivivon the little candle thought to himself, "I wish I were a Sivivon and not a candle." So he made a Hanuka wish. "God make me a Sivivon, please."

Then the youngest child came to the drawer to look for a Sivivon. Everyone told him that they were already gone,  but now that the candle had turned into a Sivivon the little child shouted, "Look there is a Sivivon for me after all!"

As they played, the children began to win coins of Hanuka gelt.They wanted to run out right away and buy candies with their money. The little Sivivon, that was a candle, said to himself, "I made a mistake. I should have asked to be a coin and not a Sivivon. God make me a Hanuka wish and make me a coin."

The littlest child looked down and there was a shiny new coin on the floor. "O, look, there is also Hanuka gelt for me!"

So they all ran to go out the door to buy some candy. As they reached the door a wonderful smell drifted up from the kitchen. What can that be? At Hanuka we like to eat Sufganeot doughnuts.

So they put their coins into their pockets and ran into the kitchen where there was a pile of fresh Sufganeot.

The coin in the child's pocket, that once was a Sivivon, that was a candle, said to himself, "I made a mistake. I should have asked to be a Sufganeot." Suddenly, there on top of the pile, was a fresh Sufganea with all the jelly coming out.

As they reached out to take one, the mother said, "No, no we must first light the Hanuka candles. Come over here."

So they left the kitchen and went with the mother to the salon and sat down in front of the Menorah and mother told then the story or Hanuka.

She told of how the King Antiochus commanded the Jews that they can't pray to God anymore or keep the Shabbat or circumcision. How he went into the Temple and put out the light and put an idol in there.

How Judah Macabee stood up to him and fought the Greeks and won the temple back and began to pray again. But there was no oil for the light in the temple.  And when they were just about out of hope, they found just a little oil, maybe enough for one day. But when they lit it, it burned for eight days, enough time to make more oil.

She told then that we light these Hanuka lamps now to show that we remember the miracle-the miracle that let us be Jews, to be who we are meant to be.

Then the mother said the blessing and lit a match to light the new oil menorah.

"Oy, it's hard to get the match down into the oil.

"I need a candle to be able to light this Hanukia. A Shamash, servant candle.

She looked in the drawer. "Strange, I thought there was one Hanuka candle left in the drawer?"

Then the Sufgania, the one that had been the coin, that had been the Sivivon, that had been the Hanuka candle, said, "O, I made a mistake. All my wishes were wrong.

O God, please turn me back into a Hanuka candle?"

Then the youngest child said, "Hey look! I found the Hanuka candle. What's it doing here on top of the Sufganeot?"

That night the little candle was lit and spread it's light to all eight Hanuka lights, which lit and warmed the whole family.

The Shammash servant candle spreads it's light to light in darkness. If we can just be who we are meant to be, who God made us to be, the light we spread will travel far.