This evening (Saturday night), the seventh Chanukah candle was lit at the Western Wall Plaza in the presence of: the rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz; the US ambassador to Israel, Mr. Thomas Nides and his son Max Nides; the director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Mordechai (Suli) Eliav; assistant director to the Israel government legal advisor, Dr. Gil Limon; Commander of the Western Wall Police, Yisrael Aviv, and the public.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz: Tonight, we light the Chanukah candles. Small candles that banish great darkness. Candles that are the clearest symbol of our identity and our mission – to repair the world in the kingdom of G-d. We bless and are grateful for the historical and wonderful miracle that occurred right here above us, at the Temple, when the oil that the Hasmoneans lit illuminated the Temple for eight straight days. But no less, we bless and are grateful for the incredible miracle that 2,400 years after this event, the descendants of those same Hasmoneans are standing in the same place, speaking the same language, learning the same Torah, keeping the same tradition and heritage and adding another link to the incredible and eternal chain of the Jewish nation.
Ambassador Thomas Nides: For me, the honor is really in being here at the Kotel — at the foot of the very site of the Chanukah miracle. In the end, Chanukah is not just about remembering the miracles of the past, but about brightening the future.
