CUMMING, Ga. — It’s day two of Chanukah, and celebrations within the Jewish community continue. Monday evening, Chabad of Forsyth and Congregation Beth Israel are hosting the annual Chanukah Spectacular.
“We're going to be lighting the menorah,” Rabbi Levi Mentz said. “There will be leadership from our community there present, hundreds of people will be coming out to dance, to eat latkes and donuts, to sing all the wonderful Chanukah songs. There will be a live DJ, fire juggling. It's called Chanukah Spectacular for a reason.”
Chanukah started and runs for eight nights. Mentz says the festival of lights is a Jewish tradition, but the message is universal.
“The message of the Chanukah lights is that it's just one candle, but one candle could expel an incredible amount of darkness.” Mentz said. “A lot of times, we feel like in this world there's growing darkness, or in our homes, or in our personal lives. The answer always is to add in positivity, add in light. What can we do now to make this world a better and brighter place? It's easy to complain, but the message of the menorah is to take action, and it all starts with a little bit of light.”
The first candle was lit Sunday. The second will be it Monday evening, and so on.
“Every night of Chanukah we add another light, and the message is that we can never become complacent and to sort of say ‘look at my past achievements. Look what I did last night. Last night, I lit the menorah, there was one light.’ But every day that God gives us, God essentially is asking us to do more, to be more. So every day we’re charged with the directive to add more light.”
Monday’s event starts at 6:30 pm at the Collection at Forsyth. The program, which will run about 90 minutes, is open to everyone.
“There's something beautiful about this time of year where it's a little bit cold and everyone comes out in their coats and scarves,” Mentz said. “Starbucks always makes a beautiful donation of hot drinks for everyone, and we come together around the menorah. It's just this warm, beautiful feel-good event where we come together, embrace each other, and remind ourselves that it's always going to be our unity that will be the source of our blessings. This is a community unity event bringing together the entire community with unconditional love and acceptance.”
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