PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM WHEN THE LIGHT DID NOT GO OUT: Judea, one of the original names of the Land of Israel, has known many rulers and much desecration. Throughout history, and in spite of many attempts to destroy us, the Jewish people have endeavored to maintain the integrity of our homeland where our people and our faith was allowed to prosper. The story of Chanukah is but one of these tales... Around 200 B.C., Judea came under the control of Antiochus III, the Seleucid Kng of Syria. In spite of the violent clash of two civilizations, Judaism and Greek Hellenism, and unlike many kings before him, he allowed the Jews who lived in Judea to continue practicing the Jewish religion. Jews lived scattered among the land and in small communities which turned Jerusalem into the center, the heart. After years of shared civil existence among the citizens of Judea, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, proved to be less kind towards the Jews. He outlawed the Jewish religion, including any observance of the Sabbath, circumcision, kosher slaughter, and Jewish prayer in the Temple and ordered the Jews to worship Greek gods. In 168 B.C., his soldiers attacked Jerusalem, killing thousands of people and desecrating the city’s holy Second Temple by erecting an altar to Zeus and sacrificing pigs within its sacred walls. Mothers who circumcised their sons were flung from Jerusalem’s walls to their deaths. A ninety year-old man named Eliezar was executed for his refusal to eat pork. Many Jews were seduced by the virtues of Hellenism and many feared punishment by the Greek rulers. Amidst this war against the Jewish people and the Jewish faith, an air of rebellion emerged when Mattathias, a Jewish priest, refused to sacrifice to a pagan god in the town of Modiin. Along with his five sons, they led the Jewish people in a struggle for liberation against yet another monarchy determined to destroy them. The family of Mattathias became known as the Maccabees, from the Hebrew word for hammer, because they were said to strike hammer blows against their enemies. (Jews refer to the family as the Maccabees but they are more commonly known as the Hasmoneans.) Like other rulers before him, Antiochus underestimated the will and strength of his Jewish adversaries and sent a small force to put down the rebellion. In 164 BCE, Jerusalem was recaptured by the Maccabees and the Temple purified, giving birth to the holiday of Chanukah. According to the Talmud, Judah Maccabee, the son of Mattathias, and the Jewish people found a small flask which contained only enough oil to light the menorah for a day. Miraculously, the oil lit the menorah for eight days. The miracle, of course, was not that the oil for the sacred light - in a little cruse(vial) - lasted as long as they say; but that the courage of the Maccabees lasted to this day. Let that nourish my flickering spirit. - Charles Reznikoff This incredible event inspired the Jewish sages to declare the yearly eight-day festival of Chanukah, Dedication, on the 25th of Kislev כה לכסלו, in honor of the re-dedication of the Jewish Temple and the renewed independence of a Jewish State. For these reasons, we kindle lights each year and proclaim “Nes Gadol Haya Sham:” The Great Miracle Happened There to remember the days of Judah Maccabee who fought for the right to be different, to be Jews. Hanukkah is here, the season of light. Its time to celebrate the ancient miracles, our victory over spiritual darkness. But how do we celebrate when things feel so dark? Where is the light? In our world, righteous men are massacred while wrapped in prayer shawls, their lives snuffed out as they stand before God in fervent prayer. In our world, Jewish women and children walk in fear on the streets of France. Iran gathers strength. Isis raises a black flag of evil. And with all this, life goes on. Catchy holiday tunes keep playing, buy one get one free!......the force awakens This complacency feels like darkness. Sometimes we need reassure ourselves. Its easy to feel this way in December when the day ends at four and the sun shines thinly and the air is cold. You tell yourself its just a trick of the light. But its not just that. Its the silence where there should be outrage. Its the tacit agreement that allows evil to flourish. Humanity seems to be turning a blind eye, and the world spins and spins. But the Jewish people are not complacent. We are fighting back. Just as in days of old, when darkness looms, we fight back with the eternal light of Torah. In shuls and schools we are learning the ancient texts and extrapolating new meanings. In basements and living rooms, free loan societies flourish, medical referrals are made, home-cooked meals are brought to the hungry, visits to the sick, comfort to their families. Money is being raised to support the poor, to support our army. Prayers are said for the sick and injured. We are celebrating Shabbat with renewed vigor and reaching out to our fellow Jews to join us. In the time-honored way of the Jews, the network of goodness, of tikkun olam, repairing the world, spreads and grows, reaching further and further into the hidden corners of the earth, the darkest corners of our hearts. We are gathering merits and spreading kindness. We are lighting up our world. Hanukkah is coming and our children look at us with sparkly eyes. Like Jewish children everywhere, they dont know about the darkness, they believe in the light. They want to hear the tale of heroes, of brave men and women who refused to submit. They want to hear the ancient story of the Jews and they want to feel it in themselves. So we will tell it to them. But we will also tell them that the light doesnt shine for free. That just as in days of old, there is a war we need to fight. A battle against complacency, against the slow incremental slide toward darkness, the dimming of our souls and our hope and our faith. Its a war we fight all our lives with the world and with ourselves. We will tell them that it isnt hard to get lit up; its hard to keep shining. Miracles come to the worthy, to those who earn their light. Its Hanukkah, so we will remind them that He who created darkness also created light, and He is still in charge. We will whisper to them, Let the One who made their lights burn then, do it for us now, bayamim haheim bazman hazeh. The world changes but He has not changed. We will tell our children that we are the tiny lights. We are gathering the kindling. We are fanning the sparks. And we will show them the picture taken in Germany in 1931, by the wife of Rabbi Akiva Posner. A menorah standing on the windowsill with a Nazi flag waving in the air behind it. On the back the righteous woman inscribed, Death to the Jews, thus says the flag. The Jews are eternal, thus responds the light. We will tell our children, its a dark world. You must be the light. We will tell the same thing to ourselves. TODAY IS THE EVE OF CHANUKAH. TODAY THE FIRST CANDLE WILL BE LIT. Daniel 11:31-33 31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. 32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do [exploits]. 33 And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Daniel 7:25 25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. John 8:12 12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. THE JEWISH NATION IS FOREVER! JERUSALEM IS FOREVER THE ETERNAL CAPITAL OF ISRAEL! Shalom, Thad and Sue
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 12:31:36 +0000
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