In conversation with a friend from New York this week, he told me, “Rabbi, life is easy, but living is hard.” When I asked him to elaborate, he said, “We are born into this world without a choice. That is the easy part. What we do with our time is the difficult part.”

All we must do is look at the Chanukah story to verify his claim. The Maccabees had a choice: assimilate to Greek culture or stand proud of their Jewish identity, fight for their belief, and believe that a miracle is only possible when we work to create it together.

This is the first Chanukah in two years that all but one hostage, Ran Gvili, z’l, is home. Just yesterday, we watched the terrifying videos of the six murdered hostages in the tunnels, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, lighting the Chanukah candles, singing the blessings, saying to the camera, “Next year, we will be home.”

Those six did not make it home alive. Yet, on Sunday, evening, we will light the candles once again, one small light on Sunday. As the week goes by, the light will become brighter. On Wednesday, we will be joined by the freed Israeli hostage, Eli Sharabi, to a sold out audience of 1500 people. We will light these candles with him, demonstrating that there are Macabees in our midst today. As we recite the blessings over the candles, we thank God for the miracles that were and the miracles that continue today. This week, we will once again witness a nes gadol, a great miracle happening here. Yes, life is easy; now, let’s make living easy, too.