The celebration of Hanukkah, one of the brightest and most joyful Jewish holidays, which fills students’ everyday lives with special meanings, warmth, and a sense of spiritual growth, has begun at the Dnipro Yeshiva-Ktan named after Rabbi Levi-Yitzhak Schneerson, the leading educational institution of the Dnipro Jewish community for boys.
The Hanukkah holiday program at the yeshiva-ktana is designed for all days of the holiday, a separate event is prepared for children every day, which helps them to rethink the ideas of Hanukkah in a new way and live them not only through words, but also through personal experience. On the first day, the students watched a video address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in which he addresses the children, explaining the peculiarity of the Hanukkah holiday as a process of constantly adding light to the world.
In his address, the Rebbe emphasizes that every additional light and every mitzvah performed increases the amount of light in the world, bringing it closer to the Liberation and Coming of Moshiach. This profound, yet accessible conversation for children became an important spiritual part of the beginning of Hanukkah week and set the right inner mood for the entire holiday.
After watching the video, the boys took part in a creative and joyful activity – they decorated Hanukkah donuts, which they could not only enjoy within the walls of the yeshiva, but also had the opportunity to take some home to share the atmosphere of the holiday with their families and continue the Hanukkah mood with loved ones.
“It is very important for us that children feel from the very beginning of Hanukkah that light is not an abstract concept, but something that each of us can add with our actions, our mitzvahs, and our attitude to the world,” says the director of the yeshiva-ktana, Rabbanit Hana Segal. “We try to make every day of the holiday filled with meaning, joy, and lively participation of children, and we are sincerely grateful to the Jewish community of Dnipro and its Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky for their constant support, care, and the opportunity to create such warm and meaningful holidays for our students.”
