Happy Eight Days of Chanukah Message - Day 3

Have a Green Chanukah!
 

Yesterday, we looked at various modern ways of interpreting the Chanukah miracle and the many midrashim, or interpretative stories, that surround it.

 One more way of understanding the miracle is that hidden within that very first Chanukah experience was a vital message for today: the need to conserve our natural resources, especially oil. As Rabbis Arthur Waskow and Jeffrey Sultar of The Shalom Center point out, the Talmudic legend that for the Maccabees, only one day’s oil met their needs for eight days' worth of oil, reminds that conservation is possible. If we find the courage and the creativity to change our lifestyles in order to conserve energy, the resources that we have will sustain us. Conservation is a miracle!

Just as tradition teaches us that the mitzvah of Chanukah is not simply to light the Chanukah menorah, but also to publicize the miracle, so this lesson of conservation teaches us not only to take action to conserve resources, but to let the rest of the world be inspired by whatever actions we take. 

The Shalom Center has developed a program called the Green Menorah Covenant for taking action to heal the Earth. This covenant involves taking time after lighting your menorah each evening, to dedicate yourself to making the changes in your life that will allow our limited sources of energy to last for as long as they are needed, and with minimal impact.

Suggestions that rabbis Waskow and Sultar have made include:

1.     Call your electric-power utility to switch to wind-powered electricity. (For each home, 100 percent wind-power reduces carbon dioxide emissions the same as not driving 20,000 miles in one year.)
2.      Choose Shabbat or one other day per week not to use your car, or to carpool. On all other days, strive to lessen driving: Cluster errands, use public transportation, car pool, don’t idle your engine beyond 20 seconds…
3.     Encourage your workplace to conduct an energy audit. Many utility companies will provide them free or at a very low cost.
4.     Urge town/city officials to require greening of buildings through ordinances and executive orders. Creating change is often easier on the local level.
5.     Urge state representatives to increase subsidies for mass transit.
6.     Your idea here….
7.     Rabbi Jeff Sultar is the director of The Shalom Center’s Green Menorah Covenant. For more information on the covenant, contact Rabbi Sultar at greenmenorah@shalomctr.org.
 
Together, let us give our planet a Happy Chanukah!