The Reverend San Aset (Sandra Fawn) was asked to lead a service at the Universalist Church in Orange, Massachusetts this last weekend. Her topic was Dedication, Miracles, and Shelter.
The Hebrew word Hanukkah means “dedication,” and the Hanukkah Festival commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
In 164 BC, a band of Jewish rebels called Maccabees, under the command of a man named Judah of the Maccabees, defeated the Greek army that had captured the city of Jerusalem in 200 BC. For awhile they had lived in peace but when a new Greek ruler came along, he forced to the Jews to live as Greeks, and did not allow them to practice their religion. Judah and his compatriots reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and sought to re-light its menorah. They found only enough purified oil to keep the menorah lit for one day. However, the oil kept the menorah alight for eight days, after which ritually purified oil was available.
To commemorate these events, the annual Festival of Hanukkah was created. Hanukkah is not an official holiday, it is not in the Torah or Bible. However, Hanukkah is an important event which celebrates freedom from oppression and freedom of religious expression.
Rabbi Laura Geller wrote:
“The miracle wasn’t that the oil lasted an additional seven days, but rather that those ancestors lit the first wick at all, without being certain that the light would last long enough to complete the rededication of the Temple. The miracle was that they took the chance, a risk, a leap of faith. They took the first step even though they were not sure they had enough resources to succeed. What is the real miracle of Chanukah? It is the miracle of human courage that empowers us to take risks for the future even in our imperfect, uncertain world. It is the courage, even in the darkest of times, to create our own light.”
Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote:
“The symbol of Hanukkah is the menorah we light for eight days in memory of the Temple candelabrum, purified and rededicated by the Maccabees all those centuries ago. Faith is like a flame. Properly tended, it gives light and warmth, but let loose, it can burn and destroy. We need, in the twenty-first century, a global Hanukkah: a festival of freedom for all the world’s faiths. For though my faith is not yours and your faith is not mine, if we are each free to light our own flame, together we can banish some of the darkness of the world.”
Legacy of Caring
Despair is my private pain
Born from what I have failed to say
failed to do
failed to overcome.
Be still my inner self
let me rise to you
let me reach down into your pain
and soothe you.
I turn to you
to renew my life
I turn to the world
the streets of the city
the worn tapestries of
brokerage firms
crack dealers
private estates
personal things in the bag lady’s cart
rage and pain in the faces that turn from me
afraid of their own inner worlds.
This common world I love anew
as the life blood of generations
who refused to surrender their humanity
in an inhumane world
courses through my veins.
From within this world
my despair is transformed to hope
and I begin anew
the legacy of caring.
~Rev. Thandeka
Home and Sanctuary
Hanukkah means dedication, and refers to miracles–the miracle that a candle was lit, that the light burned far longer than anticipated.
We need a national Hanukkah, a dedication to illuminating the many in need of shelter, adequate housing, recognizing the right to a home, the right to a personal sanctuary space, and acknowledging that the numbers of those precariously housed and unhoused is growing beyond anything imagined.
“Homelessness is a profound assault on dignity, social inclusion and the right to life. It is a prima facie violation of the right to housing and violates a number of other human rights in addition to the right to life, including non-discrimination, health, water and sanitation, security of the person and freedom from cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment.” United Nations Office of Human Rights (2021)
Homelessness is one of the most egregious violations of the right to housing, requiring human rights responses; It is unthinkable that so many nations around the world – including our affluent nation – have taken decisions that have led to increasing homelessness.
In 2016 the UN Special Rapporteur urged all governments to recognize homelessness as a human rights crisis and commit to eradicating this global phenomenon by 2030, which was in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Sadly in this society there are people who spend their lives tearing each other down, making unnecessary comparisons, ridiculous posturing, ruining careers, reputations, and adding to mental and behavioral health issues. Society creates an expensive world with unaffordable housing, expensive automobiles and services that many cannot afford. We live in a world where how much you earn seems to be more important than treating another person fairly.
Housing, a home, is the basis of stability and security for an individual or family. The center of our social, emotional and sometimes economic lives, a home should be a sanctuary—a place to live in peace, security and dignity.
Housing is increasingly viewed as a commodity; and housing should not be a commodity, it is most importantly a human right. To be adequately housed means not having to worry about being evicted or having your home or lands taken away. It means living somewhere that is in keeping with your culture, and having access to appropriate services, schools, and employment.
75 years ago, adequate housing was recognized as part of the right to an adequate standard of living in article 25 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States signed the Universal Declaration in 1948. Other international human rights treaties have since recognized or referred to the right to adequate housing, protection of one’s home and privacy.
50 years ago, in the 1970s, homelessness was considered dire and increasing, and this was likely due to many in the mental health system who were thrown out of their residences without a safety net.
35 years ago in 1988, the Unitarian Universalist Association made a general resolution, Housing for the Homeless: “Recognizing the inherent worth and dignity of every human being, we as Unitarian Universalists hold that access to affordable, habitable housing is a fundamental right in a just society.”
The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has underlined that the right to adequate housing should not be interpreted narrowly. Rather, it should be seen as the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity.
Adequate housing must provide more than four walls and a roof. A number of conditions must be met before particular forms of shelter can be considered to constitute “adequate housing.” These elements are just as fundamental as the basic supply and availability of housing.
Housing is not adequate if its occupants do not have a degree of security which guarantees legal protection against forced evictions, harassment and other threats.
Housing is not adequate if its occupants do not have safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, energy for cooking, heating, lighting, food storage or refuse disposal.
Housing is not adequate if its cost threatens or compromises the occupants’ enjoyment of other human rights.
Housing is not adequate if it does not guarantee physical safety or provide adequate space, as well as protection against the cold, damp, heat, rain, wind, other threats to health and structural hazards.
Housing is not adequate if the specific needs of disadvantaged and marginalized groups are not taken into account.
Housing is not adequate if it is cut off from employment opportunities, health-care services, schools, and other social facilities, or if located in polluted or dangerous areas.
And today, in the cities and in our small town, there are more and more homeless or precariously housed individuals. I have made the acquaintance of some of these people and personally saw one woman (Donna) be refused service on the local bus. She was crying by the side of the road and had no way to get to the YMCA where her winter clothing was being stored. All she needed was a ride, which we gave her. There is a young man who walks around town, sometimes wearing only shorts when it is very cold, and I became concerned about him. I introduced myself to him and we are now acquaintances. Ray never asked for anything from me and acknowledged that he was grateful for the free food and clothing obtained from Orange Gives Back (OGB). Donna also receives food and clothing from OGB. However as the weather is getting colder, I worry about them, especially when it was in the teens and 20s last week. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw them together the other day. Somehow they survived the cold, this time, and now they are gathering together to support each other.
If we can learn something from the homeless it would be money does not make you happy.
Community can help bring some happiness to ones world, even for those without adequate shelter or housing.
Somehow we need to light the way towards finding and creating shelter, housing, security and sanctuary for those in need. I don’t have the answers, just the question – what can we do?
Light of ages and of nations,
every race and every time
has received thine inspirations,
glimpses of thy truth sublime.
Always spirits in rapt vision
passed the heavenly veil within,
always hearts bowed in contrition
found salvation from their sin.
Reason’s noble aspiration truth
in growing clearness saw;
conscience spoke its condemnation,
or proclaimed eternal law.
While thine inward revelations
told thy saints their prayers were heard,
prophets to the guilty nations
spoke thine everlasting word.
Lo, that word abideth ever;
revelation is not sealed;
answering now to our endeavor,
truth and right are still revealed.
That which came to ancient sages,
Greek, Barbarian, Roman, Jew,
written in the soul’s deep pages,
shines today, forever new.
~ Samuel Longfellow
Albert Einstein wrote,
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”