In addition to the Latin American Film Festival, another event that I attended that I thought was meaningful was the Light Up Muhlenberg event. During this event, we held and lit candles for Hannukah, and some of the rabbis and fellow students who were friends with Ashley Goodman, made speeches about Channukah, why it is a special event, and what we can do to make it special for us. One thing that one of the rabbis and students mentioned that resonated with me was that some Jewish holidays are days that Jews are obligated to celebrate, but Hannukah is one of those that we can choose to celebrate. This is something that I did not know about before. Something else that really resonated with me from their speeches was when they mentioned that Channukah represents the distinction between power and influence, where power represents division, and influence represents multiplication. This was a really unique way of understanding the difference between controlling others and helping others. Something else that really resonated with me was when they mentioned that there is light within all of us, and that light is what helps us bring community together. I have heard this many times before, but hearing this at Muhlenberg sounded even extra special to me because it can motivate me even more to make friends while I’m in college.
The speech about power and influence connects a lot to the history that we have been learning about in class regarding Chinese History. While we focused more on Buddhism in China and Japan rather than Judaism, understanding the distinction between power and influence can help us even better understand Chinese history and its effects on tea and other commodities. In class, we talked a lot about the distribution of power between the British and the Chinese, and we clearly noted that the power was not equally divided. This is an important idea to make because it teaches us about the idea that exerting power over other nations does not represent influence, rather, influence would be trying to help other nations accept and follow your values by expressing why those values are important to follow.
In conclusion, this event taught me that channukah is meant to be a fun holiday. In the past, I would learn that channukah was meant to be a fun week of celebration, but it was important because it reminded us of the lack of oil in Egypt and the idea that in the temple there was only one light that shined for 8 days. After attending the event tonight, I also learned that channukah really teahces us about important values, how we can value ourselves in a positive light, and the importance of understanding history. It not only teaches us about Jewish history, but even religious history and the way that religion impacts the values of a nation.
