The Ferris Wheel of Life

Last week I returned to the local school to give a talk about Chanukah to the kindergarten class. It went well, although I may have made the Assyrian Greeks sound a little like the U.S. under the current administration, you know, powerful nation invades others and imposes their system of government and morals. Anyway the kids loved the menorah lighting, hey who doesn't like to play with fire? And of course the spielen mit dreidels was a big hit.
Mrs. Jude thought I should have loaded them up with gelt too.
I said: "Why, do you think 20 years from now they are going to say ' I remember this wonderful holiday I heard about when I was in kindergarten.' and they will all decide to become Jews?"
So, some of the parents are telling me the the kindele are still going on about how wonderful Chanukah is and they want to celebrate it too. Maybe Mrs. Jude was right.
During the talk I gave a version of Rabbenu's teaching on the dreidel :
"The world is a rotating wheel. Its like a dreidel where everything goes in cycles...Everything goes in cycles, revolving and alternating. All things interchange, one from another and one to another, elevating the low and lowering the high.
To simplify this idea I compared it to riding on a ferris wheel at the fair, when you're at the top and can feel the breeze and see the whole fair you are very happy, but when you're at the bottom and have to get off the ride back into the heat and dust you feel sad, but really you should feel happy because if you are at the bottom it means that you have another chance to ride back up to the top. Mitzvah gedolah b'simchah tamid. Happy Chanukah.