My aunt Susi asked if I would write a poem about Hanukkah.

Below is what I wrote. Happy Hanukkah, and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Why We Light The Candles
by Jonathan Kraft

Most of what I know of Hanukkah
comes from just two Hanukkah songs.
The lyrics and tunes are kind of catchy,
they stay in my head half the year long.

There is a song that I remember
I used to sing as a younger child.
It went something a little like this,
the melody quite mild:

Oh Dradle Dradle Dradle,
I made it out of clay
And when it’s dried and ready,
oh dradle I will play.

Still I can sing this fun quick song,
though I learned it many years ago.
I don’t remember how the dradle game works,
but that is one of the songs that I know.

I used to know more Hanukkah songs
But I don’t remember what they were.
At the moment I know only one other,
and it is sung by Adam Sandler.

It is called the Hanukkah song,
played on the radio, and kind of newish,
the lyrics talk about people well-known,
who know Hanukkah, and are Jewish.

As a child who was Jewish, Sandler thought
there were so many songs about Christmas.
They numbered in the thousands, (and
the playing of these songs was generous).

Not that he minded hearing them, but
wanted Hanukkah songs that everyone knew.
So he came up with his own song and lyrics…
And his Hanukkah songs dream has come true!

And here’s the lesson I take from that
as we join in Hanukkah and Christmas.
Yes, here’s the lesson I learn from this,
something to consider for all of us.

The dradle song, it stuck in my head
because someone wrote it long ago,
and then they shared it with many others,
and that helped the song’s recognition to grow

If the person who wrote that song
had kept it to him or herself,
or if Adam Sandler had written his song
and then set it on the shelf…

if they had decided to hold their songs back
because of their fear of what others would say,
then I would know neither of these songs,
and the world would be less bright today.

We light the candles at Hanukkah,
and we put lights on the Christmas tree
to make the world a little more bright,
and to remind us all to see…

that the gifts we have that are the greatest
are the ones which we have inside,
and we darken the world a little bit,
if we are afraid and we hide.

This season reminds to make time to notice,
that what our life here is all about, is
sharing YOU with others, no matter what.
Reach deep inside, shine your inner light out.

When we share what’s unique about us
shining what’s inside, given us from above…
Then we know the meaning of the season,
and we make the world better through love.