Rededicated
This week we begin the celebration of Chanukah. And though the word “Chanukah” translates to “dedication,” we know from the story that the Hasmoneans worked to rededicate a ransacked Temple to a functional holiness. Yet when we rededicate a thing or ourselves to something, we seek to do far more than merely recreate the original. In many ways, a rededication is a kind of “teshuvah”— a kind of assessment of what was and commitment to something new, or in this case, renewed. We use the opportunity afforded by catastrophe, destruction, or a rebuilding of ruin to improve what’s forged and to amplify our commitment to both the object and the process. Thus, a crisis can become the birth pangs of better times and a brighter future.