I hope everyone had a great Hanukkah!

I just read an article in the Jerusalem Post that I thought you might be interested in. It's about the "Green Hanukkia" campaign that was going around during the holiday. Going Green is a huge movement now in the world-- JVibe even produced a "Green Issue" recently. But how far is too far to "go green?" The Green Hanukkia campaign was to encourage Jews to light at least one less candle during Hanukka to help the environment. The article mentioned that they found that "every candle that burns completely produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide." The campaign suggested not lighting the shamash because it's not required for the mitzvah, but there has been a lot of controversy about this being sacrilegious. Some argue that "[environmentalists] should be fighting the [diesel] trucks instead of Judaism," while others feel that the campaign has good intentions, but is reaching out to the wrong group of people. Rabbi Benny Lau of Jerusalem's Ramban Congregation said that "tikkun olam [fixing the world] must be done by adding more light and not by adding more darkness."

What do you think? Post a comment!