Can anyone tell me what the Chanukah story is about?

As a social worker in the Boston-area Jewish community, I asked this question to a seventh grade girls’ Rosh Chodesh group at the local Solomon Schechter Jewish Day School last year. 

Quickly, the answer came: Chanukah means “dedication,” and the Chanukah story is about the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration during a period of persecution of Jews.

Places of prayer, like the Second Temple, the mishkan (the portable tabernacle that came before the Temple), and synagogues have always been highly prized in Jewish life.  In Jewish mysticism, we learn that the body is like a temple: a dwelling place of G-d and of our soul.

My next question to the group of girls was: How should we treat our bodies if we think of them as temples?

The ideas that the group came up with included: cleaning them, making beautiful decorations for them, and taking care of them in general.

As reader, what are your ideas?

How might our relationships with other change if we thought of our bodies as temples?  Would we allow only those who respect our bodies to have access to them?  What would respect mean if we thought of our bodies not just as physical being, but as spiritual as well?

We also know of Chanukah as the Festival of Lights; Jewish tradition features four women who are considered to be “Women of Light.”  Sarah lit candles at the beginning of Shabbat which were said to burn through the entire week; Rebecca who inherited the task of lighting these candles when Sarah died; Queen Esther, who was known as the ayelet hashachar, the morning star, who brought a bright spirit to the Jewish people after as dark period of suffering; and Deborah, about whom it is said that she made candle wicks which were illuminated by a fire within her and which lighted before she even touched them.

What do we light from the fire within ourselves?