The miracle of Hanukah with boxes of those worthless Hanukah candles in the foreground

Who would have thought to stock up on candles? But these days in Texas that seems to be a new necessity. So I searched the house and found one mostly-used-up candle and …

Now people who know me know I hate Hanukah. And yes this has to do with our “rolling blackout” predicament.

To celebrate Hanukah, you really don’t have to do much. Light a few candles. One candle each night to light the others starting with one candle the first night, two the second and so on. To light a week’s worth of candles, you get a box of 44 candles. They’re small candles that last maybe 15 minutes each.

But what if I add the wax to existing, almost-burned-down-to-the-base candles? I could hope for a Hanukah miracle. This year I apparently got bored with lighting Hanukah candles on the second night and found a mostly unused box with the rest.

That myth of the Hanukah miracle

Hanukah celebrates a battle victory to regain control of Jerusalem, but once Judea was taken by the Romans about 200 years later, Jewish leaders came up with the myth of the Hanukah miracle: When they won the war and retook the temple in Jerusalem, there was enough oil to last one night. But it would take eight nights to get to the oil from — well wherever it was you got oil back then. Obviously not from Texas then and not from Texas now.

But then a great miracle happened, according to the legend. The oil that should have lasted only one day lasted eight — the miracle of Hanukah, which we know never really happened.

I took the mostly unused box of Hanukah candles I found and as I was adding Hanukah candle wax to the one almost-burned-out candle I had, I wondered, “Could this could be a Hanukah miracle? I only have enough wax for the candle to burn for one night. Could these Hanukah candles burn for eight nights and be a great Dallas miracle and make me suddenly believe in the miracle of Hanukah?

Long story short — the oil burning eight days back then was a myth and the candles this week burned about 15 minutes.

No Hanukah miracle. No Dallas miracle. Fix the power mess.

— David Taffet