MILLBROOK — Two menorah lightings happened in front of the Thorne Building in the village as two rabbis held back-to-back celebratory events on the second day of Hanukkah, Saturday, Dec. 12.
First to arrive in front of the Thorne building was Rabbi Yakov Borenstein from Chabad of the Mid-Hudson Valley. According to Hindy Borenstein, the rabbi’s wife, he was able to secure permission from the village at the last minute to begin a celebration at 6:30 p.m.
Borenstein said that for the 6:30 ceremony Curtis Roth of Millbrook stood on a ladder and lit two candles on a portable 9-foot aluminum menorah; Borenstein then offered a message of bringing light to the world. About 30 area residents joined in the celebration, which included Hanukkah songs, music and traditional holiday food. By 7:20 p.m. the menorah had been packed up, and cars were pulling away from the curb.
A new crowd of about 30 people formed on the sidewalk for the second menorah lighting at 7:30 p.m.
Sheldon and Adele Lobel, Millbrook residents, said they noticed a sign at the library advertising the 7:30 p.m. event and were excited for Millbrook’s first evening of public menorah lightings.
Charlotte Mann said she had heard there would also be a menorah made out of canned food that would be donated to a food pantry.
The crowd was a bit restless in the cold when Rabbi Hanoch Hecht, also known as the “Six-Minute Rabbi,� of the Rhinebeck Jewish Center, pulled up some time after 7:30 with his family and set up a large, rustic, wooden menorah. Hecht had received official permission from the village several weeks before, and the event had been widely publicized, including in The Millerton News.
Hecht lit the central candle, and then two more candles, one for each night of Hanukkah. He stood to the side of the lighted candles and spoke about placing a menorah “by the window, adding one candle every night to overcome darkness in a step-by step-process.�
His words were followed by Hanukkah songs, warm latkes made by Tzivie, the rabbi’s wife, and sufganiot, powdered sugar jelly doughnuts.
