Menorah Lighting ceremony brings community together
Posted: December 21, 2014 1818
On Sunday. Dec. 21, on the sixth night of Hanukkah, approximately 70 people came to Wilcox Park in Lynnwood to be part of the Menorah Lighting ceremony. The Chabad Jewish Center of Snohomish County, in collaboration with the Lynnwood Diversity Commission, organized the event.
Director of the Chabad, Rabbi Berel Paltiel, officiated and lit the 9-foot-tall Menorah.
The sound system stopped working before the ceremony, but that didn’t stop the Rabbi and the mayor of Lynnwood, Nicola Smith, from delivering their speeches.
Candles, chocolate coins, dreidles, coffee, and jelly-filled donuts were offered to each person who attended.
Photographer David Carlos was at the ceremony.
Rabbi Berel Paltiel: “We shouldn’t ever underestimate the power of a good deed, the power of a ‘Good Morning,’ the power of a small mitzvah. The power of a positive attitude. We think, ‘How is that going to help in a world full of hate, so full of divide, so full of confusion?’ The answer is, the menorah tells us: Don’t underestimate the power of light. The best way to fight darkness is with one small candle of hope and optimism and light and love.”Lynnwood Mayor Nicola Smith, addresses the crowd before the lighting ceremony. “Our commonality of being human and diverse, should guide us with strength and purpose and reflection in the promise of a better and enlightened tomorrow….It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”The 9-foot-tall Menorah.Celebrants lighting their candles before the Menorah is lit.Rabbi Berel Paltiel sings “Dreidle, Dreidle, Dreidle, ” with his daughter.Celebrants holding their candles before the Menorah is lit.
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