Candles for Newtown

In memory of the victims of Newtown, Connecticut, Rabbi Roos opened with these remarks at last Friday night's services, which included Consecration of our first graders and our communal Hanukkah candle lighting. His sermon this week will directly address gun regulation and what we can do.

There is great joy and pride in this room tonight. It is Shabbat. It is the seventh night of Hanukkah. We celebrate as two students become b’nai mitzvah, leaders in our community, and we consecrate the newest class of Torah students, our first-graders. This will be a service and a night worthy of such great celebration. But outside these walls there is a darkness so heavy that no amount of candles can dispel it. Newtown, its victims and their families is too much to bear and we carry them with us in our hearts and into this sacred space. It is impossible and it would be wrong not to. So as we light the menorah, let us understand that these candles we kindle tonight are symbols but they are not a solution. They symbolize a great truth that is at the heart of the Hanukkah miracle: these candles do not light themselves, even if they last eight days once lit. Light does not come into dark places without somebody striking a match and lighting the flames. So too the world does not become better without us doing something about it. The world does not heal itself and it does not fix itself. Hanerot Hallalu, If these lights publicize any miracle tonight it is that we should leave here redoubled in our commitment to heal the wounded and fix what’s broken.

We take a moment of silence in memory of Newtown’s victims and to reflect on our commitment to change what’s broken in this world.