I woke up this morning to find amongst my email messages two messages entitled "Chanukah’s Message To All Americans" The first was sent by the my good cyberspace friend and blogger, Bruce Kesler. The second, by another valued cyberspace friend, Ruth S. King, who serves as a personal researcher for her listserv. She identifies and distributes about twenty articles/items a day she deems worthy of our attention.

Note that Bruce's piece commented and excerpted an article entitled The Body and Soul of Chanukah posted on the California Chabad's website and, as I am writing this post, I too will be linking it. If, per chance, the item would catch the attention of one of the mass bloggers, the number of those reading Chabad's analysis of the relevancy of Hanukah to our lives today will explode exponentially.

I know this is all too familiar a story but it is one which connects with the message of my favorite Hanukah song, the one I was taught in kindergarten. Yes, Robert Fulgham may have a point. In any case, I still remember marching and singing while carefully balancing a candle,"Banu Choshech Legaresh:"

We came to chase the darkness away
In our hands are light and fire
Each one is a small light
But together we are a sturdy light.
Flee, darkness and night
Flee, before the light.

In the past year, we, the small media candles, the bloggers, emerged as a sturdy light for the same reason the Hanukah candles do. Unlike the mainstream media where competition for scoops trumps even national security, bloggers cooperate and support each other by linking. Indeed, mass bloggers are the most generous. Sites like Instapundit or Real Clear Politics direct hundreds of thousands or readers to sites they deem worthy. Carnivals and Gateways similarly trawl the web for good, interesting entries and give them mass exposure. Personally, I was stunned when Andrew Sullivan emailed me to ask if I'd substitute for him. He wrote that he liked my blog and wanted to increase its readership.

Why? Some hope to make a living out of blogging. Most bloggers do it for the same reason I do, to light dark corners the MSM media fails to expose. Together, we have broken their monopoly and widened, internationalized and democratized the public debate.

Happy Hanukah and thank you so very much my fellow Maccabees.