Column: As Hanukkah begins this year, take off your coat

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Winter has officially arrived in Hampton Roads. The temperatures have dropped, the wind cuts sharper, and darkness falls earlier each evening. When the chill sets in and the cold becomes unbearable, a Jewish parable says that you have two choices: You can bundle up in a warm coat, or you can build a fire.

Both will keep you warm. But only one warms others.

This is the choice at the heart of Hanukkah, which begins this Sunday evening.

Every winter, as the days grow shortest and darkness arrives earliest, Jewish families around the world light candles. One flame on the first night. Two on the second. By the eighth night, the menorah blazes with light against the winter darkness.

If you’re not Jewish, you might know Hanukkah as “the Jewish Chr