ST. CHARLES, MISSOURI (KMOX) - The Chabad of St. Louis is inviting people of all faiths to take part in this year's Chanukah celebration, starting Thursday. The annual Festival of Lights continues until December 18th with a host of events planned, all socially-distanced, of course.
"This year, for anybody who wants to celebrate Chanukah, we will give them a free Menorah kit so they can celebrate it fully with the lighting of the Chanukah lights." Regional Director Rabbi Yosef Landa says they hope to distribute up to ten-thousand of Menorah kits this year. He says people from other faiths regularly participates with the Jewish community, but he thinks the message of light and hope resonates more in this year of pandemic. "It's a little challenging time now to increase the light,... the Chabad Rebbe would always emphasize has the quality that it always defeats the darkness." A Rebbe is the Hasidic equivalent to a Rabbi.
To get your free Menorah kit, and find out about the schedule of community events, visit the Chabad of St. Louis website:
www.ShowMeChabad.com/Chanukah
Events include lighting of Missouri's tallest Menorah, Thursday, December 10 at 6 PM at the Chabad Center 8124 Delmar Blvd. St. Louis. Chanukah Main Street is held at 5 PM at Berthold Square Park on Main Street in St. Charles each night from Thursday through December 18th. A Car Menorah Parade is set for 5 PM Sunday, the 13th at the Chesterfield Mall Parking Lot.
The Jewish Festival of Lights celebrates the victory of an over-matched Jewish people against the Syrian Greeks. The miracle is there was just enough lamp fuel for one night, but it lasted for eight nights, thus the eight nights of Chanukah. That's how is signifies light defeating the darkness. The word is also spelled, Hanukkah. As for Gentiles celebrating it, Rabbi Landa says, "Essentially it's a message of freedom. It celebrates the world's first battle for religious liberty, for people to be able to practice the way they choose. And it resonates so well with what America stands for."
© 2020 KMOX (Entercom). All rights reserved.