Bringing light to banish darkness: 11th annual Menorah lighting in the Center

At the 11th annual Shelter Island Menorah lighting in the Center on the evening of Thursday, Dec. 26, in front of Police headquarters, there was up-tempo music, laughter, singing, donuts, including sufganiyah — the  jelly doughnuts served in Jewish households around the world at Hanukkah — and a call to resist darkness by bringing light.

There was also hot chocolate, which went quickly among the 50 or so people who gathered in the cold, clear late afternoon, the evening star gleaming in the black sky of late December.

Rabbi Berel Lerman of the Center For Jewish Life–Chabad in Sag Harbor presided over the ceremony, as he has for the past 11 years. The Rabbi’s young children, Miriam, Menucha and Moshe were able assistants to their father in setting up the sound system and laying out food and flyers.

Rabbi Lerman opened the festivities by noting that “if we look around the world and read newspaper headlines, we could say that we’re living in a meshugana place, a crazy world.” He spoke of rampant hatred and bigotry and that “we’re not immune from darkness here on the East End,” referring to the second time within a year that antisemitic graffiti was discovered in Montauk.

“But we must fight darkness with more light,” Rabbi Lerman said, which is one of the lessons of the lighting of the Menorah.

During Hanukkah, public Menorah lighting ceremonies are held all over the world. The tradition dates to 160 B.C., when Judah the Maccabee led a small army of Jews and successfully defeated the Syrians, reclaiming the temple and relighting the golden Menorah. According to legend, the Jews had only enough oil for a single day, but the Menorah burned for eight days, and the eight candles on the Menorah are there to remember the power of faith.

The Shelter Island gathering is an affirmation and celebration of tradition, and the power of light and spirituality, a greater power than darkness, Rabbi Lerman said. “The Menorah is a symbol of that power over darkness,” he added. “Darkness has no power in itself … Together we can dispel the darkness of our time.”

As he lit the candles with a small propane torch, aided by Father Peter DeSanctis of Our Lady of the Isle Catholic Church and Father Charles McCarron of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, the gathering sang the lilting Hebrew song, “Maoz Tzur.”

Soon, happy voices filled the air with “The Dreidel Song,” and finally the ceremony was completed with a singing of “Oshe Shalom.”

“Pray for peace, “Rabbi Lerman said. “Shalom!”