The first time I saw Chanukah candles as a child, I was confused. I had never experienced a Chanukah that I could remember, because in the concentration camp, there was no menorah. I didn’t understand that these lights weren’t the yahrtzeit candles I was accustomed to. I didn’t yet perceive that these lights weren’t mourning departed souls and spilled blood, but celebrating our rich history, our triumph and victory as a nation.

Every night, they added another light…it was perplexing to me, until someone finally explained it to me, the small orphan.

Not all candles are for yahrtzeits, and Yiddishkeit isn’t only about marking death, he told me. Yiddishkeit is mainly about celebration, about light and life and marking our blessings.

~ R’ Yisroel Meir Lau