One of the things that made me want to be a Jew is their penchant for tenacity.  Jews just refuse to give up!  And in the twenty plus years that I have been a Jew I have learned the secret of how they keep going…you just keep your eye on the dream.  No matter how bad it looks or who seems to be against you you just DO NOT STOP BELIEVING you can do it.  You do need to be careful that the dream you are fighting for is a righteous one. You do need to be sure that righteous cause won’t come back and kick you to bits!  But if you are sure of these two things, you push for your dream.  The Jews have been dreamers (and doers) for millennia.  In 100 BC, a Roman general called Flavius Silva tried to make 900 of them give up in the desert fortress known as Masada.  They refused.  The Roman did win the battle, but no one who knows history forgets what those Jews did INSTEAD of becoming slaves.  Someday, maybe you can come with me to Israel and we’ll take the cable car up to Masada.  There, you’ll discover the story that inspired your older sister’s will to never give you up. Tonight, I’m home having salad and watching this story.  I’m remembering those people who refused to give up their freedom.  The movie came out in 1981.

It is ok to be different.  It is ok to stand your ground and speak for what you believe in.  Chanukah is all about re dedicating ourselves to faith that the world can be a place where we are allowed to be different.  Happy Chanukah, night five – my sweet sisters.