When the Nazis tried to eliminate the Jewish people, killing 6 million in concentration camps, they were also trying to eliminate the Hope of all Humanity. So many humiliations and uncertainties were imposed on this people! The darkness provoked by this evil has now departed. Today the restorative lights of Chanukah substitute for it. Every year on the 25th of Kislev (in the month of December), the Jews celebrate the miraculous acts of the Eternal, our God, in the history of Israel. Israel has continued to exist, sometimes as a state and sometimes as a community, sometimes in its own land and sometimes scattered across the world. Israel is a testimony to the faithfulness and infinite kindness of the Eternal, our God, the only God.

Chanukah is an inspiration to all peoples in every type of oppression. Dictatorial governments are specialists in prohibiting the free expression of those who differ with the ideas they propose. Likewise, democracies are dangerous when they exalt the will of the majority in detriment to racial, religious and sexual minorities. In the same manner as dictatorships, they subtly eliminate the possibility of free expression by the minorities, considering them "strange" and dangerous to society, or rendering them silent in the face of the system in power. But when the candles of Chanukah shine and remind us of the great miracle which happened in the time of the Macabees, they also remind us that the Eternal acts on behalf of those who are prevented from manifesting their cultures, from freely confessing their faiths, from keeping their traditions, or from freely expressing their sexualities. The same God who gave the commandment to light the candles of Chanukah orders every one of us to be a light wherever the shadows of evil and oppression have become the norm. The lights of Chanukah are not magic. By themselves they won't eliminate evil. They are divine gifts that allow human beings, both men and women, to discern the proper path to become more humane and more inclusive of everyone.

The author of this material is Reverend Luiz Fernando Pereira Garupe, pastor of Emaús Metropolitan Community Church in São Paulo, Brazil.