South Hills Lights event celebrates Chanukah
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum lights the top candle on the ice menorah during the Festival of Lights celebration.
Richard Bubin, founder of Ice Creations in Wilkins Township, works on a special South Hills Lights menorah.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Rikel Rosenblum, daughter of Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum, uses one candle to light another during the celebration.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
A member of the Ohio Burn Unit entertainment troupe wows the South Hills Lights crowd.
Jonathan Fischer of Scott Township provides music during South Hills Lights.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Candles gleam atop the ice menorah.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
The ladder of Dormont Fire Department’s aerial truck towers above the South Hills Lights crowd.
Chanukah may have arrived earlier than usual this year, but its message of spreading light throughout the world remains the same.
The eight-day festival starts annually on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, and by the Gregorian calendar, that means the holiday lasts from sundown Nov. 28 through nightfall Dec. 6.
Commemorating the Jewish recovery of Jerusalem and rededication of the city’s Second Temple more than 2,000 years ago, Chanukah – an alternative spelling is Hanukkah – features the lighting of candles on a nine-branched lampstand, the menorah.
“Candles are a very big part of Judaism and even a bigger part of Chanukah,” Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum said Wednesday during the annual South Hills Lights celebration, held in the parking lot of Dormont Pool.
Presented by Chabad of the South Hills in Mt. Lebanon, for which Rosenblum serves as director, the event featured a menorah produced on the spot by master carver Richard Bubin, atop of which four candles were lit.
Rosenblum talked about their significance in the context of spirituality.
“When you use something physical, it is diminished. The more money you spend, the less you have. The more gasoline you use, the more empty your tank becomes. The more food you eat, the more you have to restock your pantry,” he said.
“But spiritual things increase with use. If I use my wisdom to teach, the student learns and becomes wiser for it. If I share my love with another, I become more loving, not less. When you give a spiritual gift, the recipient gains and you lose nothing.”
In a sense, candles function along similar lines.
“When you use one candle to light another, the original candle remains bright,” Rosenblum said. “Its light is not diminished by being shared. On the contrary, two candles together enhance each other’s brightness and increase light.”
As he spoke, candles were distributed in the crowd.
“By lighting your candles, there is the endless supply of light in your soul,” he asserted, “and you will never run out of goodness.”
Despite it starting to rain as evening approached, South Hills Lights drew a large crowd to take part in the celebration, which also featured the dropping of chocolate candy from the ladder of the Dormont Fire Department’s aerial truck, along with a performance by members of the Ohio Burn Unit, a troupe that entertains using fire.
Major sponsors of the event were JKS Financial, located in Banksville, and Dormont Borough.
“They are the ones who reached out to us after acts of hate and wanted to make sure that we felt included as part of the Jewish community and the borough community,” Rosenblum said about Dormont officials.
“They have been our partners in this event and in other events throughout the past five years. We feel extremely lucky to have you as our neighbors, and it’s a real tribute to the leadership of Dormont.”