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Everlasting Light, far other than martial prowess is that wherein we rejoice this day. Not the triumphs of that ancient war but the new consecration of that altar is that which we commemorate. The folly of all war is that which we have learnt. Then and now and always it hath been: “Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6) | |
How vain, in that day, was the strife of the factions, how futile the wars of the nations, how barren the victor’s gain! | |
O Father, scanning history’s tome we perceive it: not in light but in darkness are all contentions bred. Were men not blind to their fellowmen’s thoughts, there would be no strife. Did men understand their fellowmen’s intents, there would be no strife. Even as the Maccabees, according to their vision, did the right, their foe also, according to his vision, did the right. | |
In the end, the light that was needed shone. Intents long concealed were revealed. Then did the strife cease, factions becoming comrades, foes becoming friends, and conflicting thoughts fusing at last into the calcium gleam of truth with new illumination for the groping minds of men. Thus hast Thou taught us, O Father, how no strife can be in Heaven’s name; no strife is of that which endureth. | |
O in those ancient struggles, may we see the type of our own dissentions and grow in the wisdom of peace. | |
May we prefer the endurance of injury to the inflicting of injury, warily rejecting every passion-wrought pretext masking as a just reason for harming our fellowmen. | |
And, Father, we also have need of rearing anew altars fair and pure. How oft amid life’s warfare does the altar within us become defiled, our unholy moods and unworthy deeds being the despoiling Syrian hordes. May new altars of nobler resolves, statelier purposes and larger thoughts be ever consecrated within our bosoms, the inward light of the spirit shining with an eightfold splendor in the solemn dedication hour. | |
And may our minds be dedicated to the world’s ever-growing light. Though but a taper be added day by day, how luminous the shining sum of them! | |
O Light Supernal, the consciousness of Thee is a glowing taper within us; brilliant the luster when darkness encircleth, though oft but dimly noted in prosperity’s noonday glare. When the winter time of trouble is upon us and the hours of gloom are many and the hours of daylight few, O let the light of consecration beam. Radiant in our hearts be the certainty that, as in the world of sense so in the world of spirit, the day whose night is longest is the day whereon the sun’s return begins. Life and warmth will again transfigure the frozen earth. | |
O Infinite Sunshine, return Thou unto us. Be Thou our soul’s springtime prepared for in the bleak winter. Be Thou our soul’s summer, for the summer of eternity art Thou blazing with life and beauty and joy, flawless and everlasting. Amen. |
This prayer for “The Feast of Light and Dedication” by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach is found in his, Prayers of the Jewish Advance (1924), on pages 37-39.
Source(s)
“[Ḥanukkah] the Feast of Light and Dedication — a prayer by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach (1924)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)
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