On the fifth night of Hanukkah, the menorah at the mall caught my friend’s eye.
“Look at those broken lights,” he said. “Only six lights are working.”
For a second, I thought my friend was messing with me. But he wasn’t kidding. He was outraged, not just on behalf of his Jewish friend, but on behalf of all Jews shopping at this particular open-air mall.
“This is some disrespectful shit,” he said. “I need to speak to someone about this. Who’s running this damn mall?”
“Um… dude…”
“I’m not messing around, Michael. Hanukkah is always an afterthought at these public holiday displays. Look at that Christmas tree. It’s gigantic and glorious. I’ll bet you every light bulb on that Christmas tree works. Y’all are getting shafted.”
“This is a menorah, dude.”
“Exactly! All the lights should work.”
“They do work.”
My friend pointed an accusatory finger at the mall menorah’s three unlit candles.
“Does that look like a functioning… what did you call it?”
“Menorah.”
“Right. D…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Situation Normal to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.