An empowering billboard on Route 17

Sometimes things sit in our heads for years until they pop out. In a way, our mind mirrors our belly: anything that goes in eventually will come out. Whether it’s an idea we read, heard, or watched, it might sit dormant for a long time, but eventually it will resurface.

This happened to me a few weeks ago.

I was looking to do a billboard campaign for Chanukah. I got into billboards around covid, when a friend suggested we run a billboard with the slogan “Think good, it will be good.” He felt that people were scared, and seeing this chasidic slogan would lift their spirits.

With little experience in the topic, I started doing research. I discovered that rates could be prohibitively high, but it was during covid, and very few companies were spending money on billboards, so we got an incredible deal.

The response was tremendous. We got phone calls from people all over the country, telling us how that message brightened their day and made them feel better.

We got a great location right on Route 80 in Hackensack, and because no other company wanted to take the billboard after us, it stayed on the highway for months, bringing this empowering message to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of drivers.

The impact of that first billboard campaign stayed with me, so when another opportunity arose in 2024, I knew we had to seize it. With Chanukah right around the corner, it was clear that it should be Chanukah-
related, so my first inclination was to choose the greeting “Happy Chanukah.”

Then something popped into my head. It was a teaching of the rebbe, about Chanukah candles, that I learned years ago. The rebbe highlighted the surprising fact that although Judaism is filled with mitzvot related to candles, the Chanukah candles are the only ones meant to be lit in the darkness.

The Shabbat candles must be lit only before sunset; the Holy Temple candles were lit in the morning. But the mitzvah of the Chanukah candles is to be fulfilled at night.

Such is the nature of the Chanukah candles, the rebbe explains, and the nature of our struggle and responsibility as Jews to bring light when it’s dark, not to give in to the darkness surrounding us, but to venture out into the dark world and bring light into it.

And somehow, this slogan came out:

“When it’s dark outside, you be the light!”

We designed a beautiful banner with a picture of happy children lighting the menorah, including a Happy Chanukah wish from Chabad of Hackensack, and started our campaign on a billboard on Route 17.

The response has been tremendous, not only from drivers who saw the message on the highway but also from thousands of people who saw a billboard picture on social media. It hit the spot.

Thinking about it, I can see the parallels between the message we ran during covid, “Think good, it will be good,” and this Chanukah message, “When it’s dark outside, you be the light.” Both messages are very similar because both are so empowering.

Typically, when we face challenges (as big as a worldwide pandemic or October 7th, or as small as a personal challenge in our lives), the worst feeling is that we are just helpless. Then come chasidic teachings to tell us: No! You are never helpless! You have the power to make a change!

I hope to remember this message myself and to keep reminding others about it. Because the most important thing we can do is to realize our power and to start shining bright, always.

Mendy Kaminker is the rabbi of Chabad of Hackensack and an editorial member of Chabad.org. He welcomes your comments at rabbi@ChabadHackensack.com

Opinion