Musia Slavin

As the music shifts from haunting niggunim to jubilant song, the Boyaner Rebbe lifts the torch in hand, and as the flame catches the bundle of oil-soaked cotton, all of Meron seems to erupt in sacred joy. Yet the Boyaner dynasty, and its historic chazakah over the hadlakah, almost didn’t survive — until a remarkable chain of events restored the crown and returned the tradition to the famed rooftop bonfire It was Zos Chanukah, 1984.

Photos: Elchanan Kotler Since the release of Yair Elaytzur’s “Od Yoter Tov,” the song about Hashem’s love and goodness has become a banner of optimism and hope among all sectors, a source of strength through more than a year of war and national trauma.

My business had been open only a few years, and I knew it had a lot of room to grow. I deliberately hadn’t taken it there, though. I had a whole brood of little children at home who needed my love and attention, and I was determined from the start to keep my family front and center. But baruch Hashem my product had been steadily gaining popularity, and was bringing in solid revenues.