There is a famous saying, “It ain't over till the fat lady sings.” Although this applies to the opera, sports competitions, and the like, many people apply this way of thinking to other areas in their lives, believing that if they celebrate too early, they will jinx the outcome. Yet, it is not wrong to question this idiom. Is it true? Can we celebrate at the first moment that we see the lights of hope shining? When we see blessings in our life start to unfold, can we start to sing praises or should we wait until everything falls in place, exactly as we want it to?
When it comes to the holiday of Chanukah, we recite a special prayer that mentions the miracle of the small band of Maccabees winning the war, and the aftermath of the Jews cleaning up the temple and kindling the lights, along with our celebration that followed in the Chanukah celebration by lighting the menorah.
Taking a closer look at the prayer, we find something interesting. When it mentions kindling the menorah in the story part of the prayer, it says that the Maccabees lit the candles in the holy courtyards (in the plural), yet there was only one menorah and it stood in the interior of the temple, not in its courtyard, let alone in the courtyards, so what is the prayer referring to?
There are multiple ways of explaining this statement. We can say that they moved the menorah to the courtyard for all to see the lights being kindled—even though they didn’t know that there would be a miracle—simply to celebrate after such a long time that the menorah lay dormant. This is a nice explanation, but something tells me that the Maccabees had a little bit of fanaticism in them and would not change the law just for this reason alone. There are other explanations, but none truly satisfy.
Therefore, we must conclude that they kindled the menorah in its usual location in the inner chambers. However, once the oil continued burning the second day they immediately noticed a miracle in the making and their joy and enthusiasm knew no bounds! The Maccabees and the Jewish leaders jumped into action and placed candles and candelabras everywhere, in every holy courtyard and beyond. Once eight days passed and it become clear that the miracle had lasted for eight days, the holiday was established for an eight-day period. But the celebration did not wait until the eight days passed; the celebration started at the first moment.
The lesson for us this Chanukah to put aside waiting for the fat lady to sing. Rather, we should ask, if not now, then when? At the first opportunity that we have to give thanks, we should. If we have a reason to celebrate, we should. There is no reason to wait until times are better, if today is already good.
Happy Chanukah and Shabbat Shalom!