Despite everything he's seen or experienced as a member of the Green Lantern Corps, Kyle Rayner has trouble believing in miracles. Armed with an interstellar weapon that can create anything his willpower commands and having adventured on other planets within his galaxy and beyond, Kyle respects other's beliefs but has trouble wrapping his mind around the particular concept. But miracles comes in all shapes and sizes and one year, Kyle experienced something unexplained and impossible while fighting a group of Nazi skinheads who had desecrated and robbed a temple on the eve of Hanukkah.
In DC Universe Holiday Bash #1 (1997), a story by Michael Jan Friedman and Roger Robinson has the young Green Lantern running late after helping to stop a local oil spill, exhausting much of his power ring's power to do so. As Kyle's neighbors - Nathan and his sister Becca - discuss Hanukkah and its history, Kyle shows up to reveal his knowledge of the famous Festival of Lights and its traditions, but his ego is put in check when Becca reveals she's actually the Rabbi for the upcoming service. Eventually the group comes upon a desecrated temple covered in graffiti and swastikas. They learn from a beaten caretaker who witnessed the whole thing that it was a group of hate-mongering skinheads who also stole Ner Tamid, the vessel of eternal flame yhat happens to also be made of solid gold.
Being unable to tolerate the pain and suffering afflicted on his friends, Kyle suits up and finds the skinheads by tracking the kind of spray paint they used. As the prejudiced gang celebrate their victory against their perceived enemy, Kyle makes a heck of an entrance and his adversaries move to attack, hoping their numbers will be enough to defeat him. Green Lantern boasts that this will be no challenge thanks to his ring, which proceeds to run out of power since Kyle had forgotten to recharge it earlier. Kyle is left powerless and defenseless against a group of armed skinheads, ready to beat and even kill a superhero for interfering in their business.
To make a parable out of this short story, Kyle finds himself acting as a superpowered Judah the Macabee, protecting his people from their enemies, the Nazi skinheads take the place of King Antiochus and his army in the Hanukah story. The holy temple has been ransacked, and without the vessel they won't be able to keep the holy flame burning all day and all night, thus not paying proper respect to God and this original miracle. Like Judah, Kyle faces dangerous odds as a regular man but suddenly a miracle occurs that defies what Kyle knows about his power ring and its limits. Just like a menorah burning eight days and nights despite not having enough oil to do so, Kyle's ring lights up, finding enough charge to create the constructs necessary to save Kyle's life and defeat his assailants.
As Green Lantern turns the criminals over to the police and returns the vessel to the synagogue, Becca's prayers follow his actions as Kyle later sits among the worshippers, not as an outsider but as a friend and ally. Becca says that miracles can happen whenever or wherever good people put their mind to something and that sometimes faith can be stronger than laws or logic. Earlier, Kyle Rayner said that he didn't exactly believe in miracles and yet when he put himself at risk to help others in need, the Green Lantern performed a mitzvah, the Hebrew concept of a good deed, and witnessed his own miracle in his time of need.
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