Page 44 - HaMizrachi #15 2019 Chanuka USA

Rabbi Stewart Weiss

LIVES OF FLAME AND FORTUNE

hanukah has always been without relying on any short-cuts in Often, in today’s Jewish world, we
associated with freedom, as the law. Better to wait, they decided, search for ways to streamline, tweak
Cthe upstart Hasmonean com- and thereby adhere to the very highest and adjust the law – both Jewish
munity threw off the yoke of Greek of standards. and secular – so that it becomes as
domination and reclaimed its inde- palatable as possible to our tastes,
pendence. And it highlights the 35 years ago, when I visited the without crossing the red line of
ever-present miraculous hand of G-d, refusenik community in pre- disobedience or illegality. That is
evidenced by both the against-all-odds Perestroika Russia, among the ritual not necessarily a bad thing; I was
victory in the war, as well as the little items I took with me were a number always taught that our task as rabbis
cruse, the oil that astoundingly lasted of ketubot (marriage documents). is to make Judaism as accessible and
eight full days. I offered to perform weddings for attractive as possible to the wider
couples who had married civilly, but Jewish community.
But Chanukah is also about the not in a religious ceremony, due to a
struggle for purity in an often diluted lack of Rabbis. But it is also imperative that there be
and deluded world. those select individuals who reject the
The issue was raised that none of path of least resistance and choose
We light eight lights in our chanukiah the women would be able to go to instead to always take the high road,
to commemorate the eight days it took the mikveh (ritual bath) before the people whose conduct is unsullied
to secure new, untainted oil. But why ceremony. and unadulterated, free of short-cuts
so long? One opinion is that the oil and compromises. These may be
was produced in a region four days One refusenik explained that this politicians with impeccable integrity,
travel from Yerushalayim. was dangerous for Jews in the USSR Israeli soldiers who enthusiastically
as they would be photographed as choose combat roles at the risk of
Another opinion is that due to the war they entered, and targeted as social their lives, or men and women who
and its many casualties, the people deviants and enemies of the State. As demonstrate there are no upper limits
were tamei, ritually impure, and were such, they stayed away. I explained to our ability to conform to G-d’s
required to wait seven days before to the couples that, while mikvah will and Man’s law. These rare and
they could become tahor, ritually pure. was indeed a prerequisite for Jewish outstanding personalities are the
Only then could they process new oil, marriage, the Poskim I consulted had Maccabees of history, rays of brilliant
which took an additional day, and thus instructed me that in this extenuating light that show us mere mortals the
the eight-day wait. circumstance, it was preferable for way. Models and monuments for us all
the couples to perform the religious to emulate.
The rabbis question if this delay ceremony now, and visit a mikveh
was necessary, for there is a halacha, later, when it was safe. Yaakov Kirschen (of Dry Bones fame)
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stated by the Ramban “tumah hutra once wrote: The question is not how
beTzibur” – that if the entire nation After some discussion, one of the the cruse of oil lasted for eight days;
is impure, in effect no-one is impure! women stepped forward and said: the question is how we Jews have
Thus the Temple officials could have “We appreciate your offer and accept lasted throughout the centuries! The
immediately secured new oil and re-lit that we would be allowed to marry answer, I suggest, are the living flasks
the Menorah! So why did they wait? religiously, without the mikveh. But we of pure oil and pure faith whose flame
are going to wait until we can wed in can never be extinguished.
While this permissibility did indeed a full-fledged, 100% manner, no less
exist, the victorious Maccabees did than the most observant of Jews would
not want to rely upon it. They felt that do. That day will come, we believe, 1 Bamidbar 31.
if they were going to re-dedicate the and then there will be no footnote or
Beit HaMikdash, if they were going asterisk by our names.” Rabbi Stewart Weiss is Director of the
to jumpstart the spiritual engine of Jewish Outreach Center of Ra’anana
the Jewish people, they should do so I was impressed beyond words. jocmtv@netvision.net.il

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