Page 13 - HaMizrachi #15 2019 Chanuka USA

Rabbi Berel Wein

The Battle Has Not Yet Ended

here is probably no other pitfalls. Even observant Jews did fought against foreign oppression of
holiday in the Jewish calendar not wear distinctive garb or head Israel and paganism and for Jewish
Tthat has had as much material covering publicly and therefore sovereign independence and Torah
written about it as Chanukah. There displaying the lights of Chanukah in observance. And that battle has not
are many causes and reasons for this our front windows was to convey a yet ended.
seeming anomaly of a relatively minor universal idea and not merely a Jewish
rabbinic holiday receiving so much commemoration. The miracle of Chanukah is an
attention. The fact that by the nature earned miracle, so to speak. There
of the calendar it falls in the month of Again, in my youth, no-one placed is a rabbinic tradition that all of the
December – and especially this year their Chanukiah outside, near the miracles that appear in the Bible were
when it actually coincides with the door of their home. The Rabbis of built into nature – again so to speak
holiday of the majority culture in the Eastern Europe had warned that one – at the inception of the process of
Western world – is part of the reason should not antagonize the general Creation. Not so the later miracles.
it has achieved such notoriety and population by a public display of Those miracles had to be earned
attention. Jewish commemoration. This held by the sacrifice and actions of the
true even in the land of the free and Jews themselves in opposing evil,
Jews never want to be left out of a the home of the brave.
celebration and thus we have created wrongdoing and paganism. This is an
important lesson for us in our times.
our own – gifts and all – allowing us The growing strength and intensity
some latitude in participating in the of Orthodox Jewish life in the United Though we do not yet have the ability
general atmosphere of the month. States and the great amount of to purify the Temple or light its golden
candelabra, the kindling of our small
All of this is perhaps true only on acceptance and tolerance the Jewish Chanukah lights symbolizes our
the subconscious level, as it is likely community has achieved over the past determination and commitment to be
that none of Israel’s great scholars half-century have altered this behavior a free, independent and holy people,
would publicly countenance such an pattern. Most American Jews feel devoted to our tradition and our
approach. Nevertheless, realistically comfortable – except perhaps on the Torah.
speaking, one cannot help but feel college campuses of the country – in
the resonance of the general culture, asserting their Jewishness publicly and By doing so publicly, even in a society
at least in the Jewish societies of the unabashedly. where the general culture stands
Western world. against much of what we represent,
Here in Israel, Chanukah has largely we renew our purpose and mission
As such, Chanukah has been returned to its original format and in life. It is our actions that will bring
portrayed in a more universal sense meaning. It represents the struggle about the necessary miracles that
than its original commemoration against false gods, Hellenistic will be reflected in the Jewish story
perhaps warranted. In my youth, misinterpretations of Judaism and a throughout the ages. We therefore
the general Jewish representation of desire to purify the people and the thank G-d not only for the past
the holiday was that it was a battle Land through our actions and the miracles that Chanukah represents
and a triumph for religious freedom. Divine miracles omnipresent in our and commemorates but also for the
Mainstream Western Jewish society personal and national lives. current miracles, seen and unseen,
presented it as a victory for democracy known and unknown, that mark our
over totalitarian rule and completely Chanukah here does not stand for present existence as well.
universal in its message and content. pluralistic Judaism, concern for the
environment or any of the other new
This was at a time when being false gods that so invest Western Rabbi Berel Wein is Senior Rabbi of Beit
Jewish, certainly publicly Jewish, society today, and in parts of the Knesset HaNassi in Jerusalem and Director
was fraught with financial and social Jewish world as well. The Hasmoneans of the Destiny Foundation
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