Chanukah Yields to Christmas

Well, Chanukah ended at sundown and the blue and white light which illuminated the Empire State Buildng during the last week or so has given way to the red and green of an Empire State Building Christmas. In anticipation of this incandescent shift, last night, I caught a last, large gasp of the "Festival of Lights" (as Chanukah is called), by heading out to Coney Island on the F train.

Of course, the fabled lights that once blazed in Coney were summer lights, not winter ones, but now -- in and around where the world's greatest amusements once stood -- there are massive, high rise, middle income housing developments built during the 1960s. And for whatever reason, the complexes attracted massive numbers of Jews, so now, as winter dawns, there is -- for eight nights -- an eerie echo of yesteryear's summer lights -- a vast expanse of 20-plus story buildings containing more windows filled with electic menorahs (Chanukah lamps) than, I suspect, can be found anywhere else in the world. (And yes, I know there's an Israel.)

Somewhere, Judah the Maccabee (whose victory against the Assyrian Greeks is celebrated as Chanukah) is smiling.

Or moldering.

Or, more likely, post-moldering.

But you get my idea -- the lights are wonderful and connect us to our lineage; to times future and past.

The bodies may (post-)molder, but the lights, ideas and connections remain. I mean, what kind of shape do you think the body of Jesus is in? But that house down the street is lit beautifully for Christmas. . . . Y'see?)

HAPPY!!!