The holiday we know as “Chanukah” has another name. It is “Chag Orim.” The names are very different. Chag Orim is translated as “Festival of Lights”. Chanukah means inaugurate or construct (spelling?) like chuanukat habayit (inagurate a house) or chanukat hamishkan (inaugurate the tabernacle) or as in Maoz Tzur- Chanukat hamizbeach (inaugurate the altar)

What is the difference in the names? The first name refers to purely a spiritual entity- the flame which is synonoumous (spelling?) with soul or spirit- nefesh. The flame of torah, the flame of knowledge. This is the ethereal side of the holiday. The second name refers to a more physical construct, building a house, building a tabernacle, building an altar.

The Shikker Dovid would like to suggest that this holiday teaches us that our goal is to blend our spiritual growth and development with our physical growth or building. We must cultivate the nefesh of the flame with the growth of the “chanukas” of lives. Building the physical and cultivating the spiritual.

Happy Hanukah.