It’s very rare that I should be moved by watching a speech given by a politician.

And yet that's exactly what happened to me when I watched a powerful speech from New South Wales Premier Chris Minns on the last night of Chanukah. He was at Bondi Beach in Sydney, speaking at a huge menorah lighting and memorial ceremony taking place at the exact location where terror had reigned just one week ago.

I expected feel-good platitudes of unity to a bunch of microphones and reporters. Instead, I saw the enormous crowds of 20,000 people standing together! Despite their fear, they came back to the same place. For the same reason.

They did not come to pretend it didn’t happen. They came to say it happened, but it will not define us.

Premier Chris Minns clearly understood the crowd was not only grieving, but gathering to make a statement of Jewish pride and Jewish eternity. He thanked the Jewish community because, “on this last night of Chanukah, you have reclaimed Bondi Beach for us.”

But then I heard him ask a question that made me think I was listening to a Torah class, not a political speech.

“Tonight, we light the eighth and final candle of the Chanukah menorah, and it compels us to ask, what will we light tomorrow? How will we carry this light forward when the candles are no longer burning?”

He’s right. That is the real Chanukah question.

Because while the candles are burning, it’s easy to feel inspired. It’s easy to feel proud. The music is playing, the children are smiling, and the flames are shining their natural light.

But tomorrow comes. And the menorah is put back on the shelf. What will we light then?

He then announced a campaign inspired by the Chabad rabbis he had met, and whom he called “incredibly persuasive” asking the wider community to respond to darkness with one act of goodness. One mitzvah. One more light.

“One Mitzvah for Bondi” is a government initiative calling on every person, of every background, to take on one concrete act of goodness in honor of the victims and as a path toward healing.

Think about how Jewish that is.

Not because the world suddenly learned a Hebrew word.

But because the Jewish way is not only to survive pain, but to build from it. To turn that obstacle into the foundation stone of something even better than before.

In the last week, many thousands have already come there to perform a mitzvah. To put on tefillin. To say Shema. To do something holy in the place where something horrific happened.

In fact, a new Chabad House has already been established at the exact site of the Bondi Beach attack, in portable structures, with plans for a permanent building. The Chabad house will be called “Ohel Eli and Yaakov,” in memory of Rabbis Eli Schlanger and Yaakov Levitin, the two Chabad Shluchim murdered there.

This is not only resilience. This is transformation.

Which brings me to one of the greatest characters in the entire Bible, the righteous Yosef, in this week's Torah reading.

Yosef’s first greatness is that he remained holy and loyal to G-d, even though he was in a distant land and difficult exile. Torn away from everything familiar and sold into slavery, he refuses to lose his identity and become just another Egyptian. He remains the child of Jacob, a Jew through and through.

There is another side to Yosef's greatness that makes him even more relevant to our lives.

He carries no grudge. No bitterness. No lifelong resentment toward his brothers.

When the brothers who sold him are finally bowing before him, at his mercy, Yosef could have made them pay. Instead, he speaks with a heart that is whole. He tells them not to feel bad about what they did because it was not them, but G-d who was guiding his story, even though it hurt.

The ability to forgive and still love is the holiest kind of strength. Not only self-control, but inner freedom.

But there is yet a third aspect to Yosef's ultimate greatness.

He does not only protect his Judaism. He projects it. He brings G-d consciousness into Egypt.

When Pharaoh first pulls Yosef out of the pit, looking for someone to interpret his dreams, Yosef does not hide his faith to sound impressive. He says clearly, “Not I, but G-d will answer” (Gen. 41:16).

Even in the palace, in the center of power, Yosef speaks about G-d as real and present. He may be Egypt, but he will brings G-d into this place as well.

In Yosef's story we see the full Jewish response to exile in three steps.

Stay holy inside. Don’t become corrupted by your environment.

Stay soft inside. Don’t become bitter because of your pain.

Then bring that holiness outward. Make the place you are in more aware of G-d than it was before you arrived. Become a “light unto the nations” and shine your light in a way that leaves a mark on everyone around you.

That is what we saw at Bondi. After a tragedy that could have caused people to hide, they did the opposite. They returned. They gathered. They lit all eight candles. And they refused to let the story end with trauma.

They answered with an increase of light. So much light, that the non-Jewish Premier is the one encouraging every single Australian, regardless of religion, to do one more Mitzvah. To respond to evil with kindness and light.

The Shluchim of Sydney didn't just remain immune to the suffering and pain of exile. They transformed that negativity into holiness.

So to repeat Premier Minns’ question: What will we light tomorrow?

The thousands of bouquets of flowers at Bondi Beach Pavilion have already all been cleaned up and disposed of. But the lights we ignite from that darkness, will shine forever and ever.

So pick one real, concrete act of Judaism and make it your “tomorrow candle.” Pick one real, specific act of kindness and make it shine.

Light Shabbat candles tonight and make your home a house of light.

Put a coin in a charity box before you pray, or before you walk out your front door. Say a blessing slowly before you eat, and let it remind you that your life is not random. Put on tefillin, even once, and say the Shema with focus on what is really true in life.

And if you want to really do it right, take it one step further, and do it in a way that spreads. Invite someone else to do one mitzvah too.

As Rabbi Yehoram Ulman stood at the beach, he was unequivocal in declaring “that darkness does not get the final word. Light will win.”

Because that is how darkness loses. Not with rage. Not with despair. But by turning that pain into a light that will shine forever.

Good Shabbos, Shabbat Shalom!
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