Judaism has always been open to what the world is learning and saying. It has fallen to every generation of Jews to determine how much openness is necessary, and how much is too much. That's the miracle of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah, perhaps the only Jewish holiday that has been confirmed by the archaeological record, celebrates the singular, millennialong relationship between Jews and the land of Israel. It is the story of a civil and cultural struggle for sovereignty over its institutions. It is perhaps the most explicitly Zionist story in the Jewish tradition.

"Hanukkah represents the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil, and spirituality over materialism," Palm Beach Synagogue Rabbi Moshe Scheiner told the Daily News. "The lighting of the menorah symbolizes the light of our soul, the light of goodness and righteousness that always dispels the darkness around us."