About

Lighting Our Way/Hanerot Hallalu was commissioned by Adath Jeshurun Congregation of Minnetonka MN in partnership with Kantorei Chamber Choir of Minneapolis, MN.  Cantor Joanna Dulkin of Adath Jeshurun, Music Director Adam Reinwald of Kantorei, and I all wanted to create a choral work for Chanukah exploring the larger importance of the holiday. We found a beautiful poem by Rabbi David Evan Markus which reinterprets a traditional Chanukah text, Hanerot Hallalu (These candles that we light). Markus’ poem asks us to reflect on the wonders of the world as symbolized by the lights, and how we now need to be partners with the Divine in making the world a better place: “…for the wonders/we will do with You/for our descendants/and for our ailing planet/in these urgent days/for times to come.”

The full text is given below in English and Hebrew. In the piece, the first verse is sung in Hebrew as the opening and closing of the piece, with the second verse sung in English as the middle section.

The piece was given its premiere by Kantorei in December 2024, with Cantor Dulkin as mezzo-soprano soloist, and Adam Reinwald conducting.

—Gerald Cohen

Score

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Text

By David Evan Markus, based on the traditional Chanukah text

Haneirot hallalu
anu madlikin
al hanisim
v’al hat’shuot
v’al hanifla-ot
shena-aseh imkha
l’tze-etza-einu
ulolam cholah shelanu
bayamim d’hofim haeileh 
l’atid lavo.

K’mo kohanim kedoshim
nitzhu lahanoch
et olamam hatamei,
b’chol sh’monat y’mei ha-Hanukkah
haneirot hallalu
kodesh hein,
V’ein lanu r’shut
l’hishtameish bahein
ella lir’otan bilvad
k’dei l’hodot
lish’mekha
al ha-nisim
v’al haniflaot
v’al hateshuot.

May these candles
that we kindle
be for the miracles
and for the salvations
and for the wonders
we will do with You
for our descendants
and for our ailing planet
in these urgent days
for times to come.

Just as generations of old 
whose audacity rededicated
their world defiled, 
for all eight days of Chanukah,
may these candles we light
fill us with holiness.
We claim no power
to use them
except to see them,
to inspire gratitude 
for Your name,
for the miracles,
and for the wonders,
and for the salvations.

Performances

Premiere: Kantorei Chamber Choir, Adam Reinwald, conductor, Joanna Dulkin, mezzo-soprano; Shoreview and Edina, MN, December 2024