Page 31 - HaMizrachi Chanukah 2021 - USA

2017 2018 2022
3,000 people, including Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and The first edition of the new Mizrachi celebrates its 120th
Minister Naftali Bennett, gather as part of Mizrachi's English language HaMizrachi anniversary since its founding by
celebration of 50 years of a reunited Jerusalem magazine is published Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines in 1902

Miracles, Midrashot and Mizrachi

CHANUI<AH AND CHINUCH FOR WOMEN

Rabbanit Shani Taragin
T he days of Chanukah were that women played a passive role in ben- With over 60 post high school midrashot
foundation of batei midrash for women.
established as holidays of 7~iJ
efitting from Hashem's miraculous inter-
illfJ:iil1 - days when we recite vention and therefore must convey grat- in Israel, more women than ever before
Hallel and prayers of thanks- itude for national salvation. The latter in Jewish history are learning Torah on
giving - an appropriate time to thank argue that perhaps women should be advanced levels.
Hashem for both past and modern mir- obligated in other mitzvot which express World Mizrachi has led world Jewry
acles. It is a time to celebrate the bayit, thanksgiving for miracles (e.g. sukkah, in strengthening our Religious Zionist
our homes, upon which the mitzvah of three meals on Shabbat).
lighting candles is predicated (in•~~ IV'~,~ values in the political, social and educa-
Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik zt"l limits tional spheres. It is a tremendous privi-
- a candle per home), and also a time to
the "they too" inclusion of Tosafot by dis- lege to work with dreamers and builders
celebrate chinuch - the rededication of
tinguishing between different command- who never cease to promote programs for
the Temple. Rabbi Shimshon Raphael
ments that include commemoration of a Jewish education and leadership-train-
Hirsch explains that the name Chanukah
miracle. Some mitzvot only peripherally ing for both men and women. Mizrachi
derives from the same root as the word
require commemoration, so not everyone recruits and trains female educators
chanoch, to educate. Jewish education
included in the miracle is obligated to through the Shalhevet two-year leader-
was threatened by a Hellenistic cultural
commemorate the miracle. Regarding ship program and the Lapidot three-year
darkness that dismissed the study of
the three rabbinic mitzvot of Chanukah program for preparing women to teach
Torah and the observance of mitzvot, and lights, four cups and megillah, however, topics of Torah shebe'al peh in Israel and
so we light the Chanukah candles, reded-
the publicizing of the miracle is central the Diaspora. These programs ignite,
icating ourselves as parents and educa- to the fulfillment of the mitzvah, thereby inculcate and proudly celebrate the
tors to battle for the continuity of Jewish requiring even "passive" beneficiaries of reestablishment of the core values the
identity. This mitzvah is incumbent upon the miracle to publicize the mitzvah. Seleucid Greeks attempted to undermine
every household and every individual in - the personal and national homes of the
the home, women included, reinforcing Women are equally obligated in publi- Jewish people.
the significance of chinuch in every bayit. cizing the miracle of Chanukah through
the chinuch of the home and the nation. On Chanukah we are reinvigorated to
Although women are generally exempt Today as in the past, women are actively restore and perpetuate inspired Jewish
from positive, time-bound mitzvot, Rabbi involved in catalyzing miracles of education as we simultaneously celebrate
Yehoshua ben Levi teaches that women redemption and restoration of family Jewish sovereignty and opportunity
are obligated in the mitzvah of Chanu- values and national destiny. Women are in our homeland. Torah education for
kah lights, for O~iJ iniN:;t ~•iJ 1iJ 'ltt, "they also among the passive beneficiaries of women is a vital component in assuring
too were part of that miracle." Rabbi the miracle of the return to Zion and are the success of this endeavor. Chanukah
Yehoshua ben Levi uses the same formu- required to publicize and perpetuate the reminds us of the Jewish woman's criti-
lation regarding a woman's obligation to chinuch of Chanukah, lighting candles cal role in shaping our people's identity
drink the Pesach seder's four cups and and igniting souls with Torah values. and destiny. On the holiday that cele-
hear the megillah reading on Purim. brates the Jewish home, our people turn
Beginning with the Mizrachi Teachers
Early commentators offer different Training College (today Lifshitz-Herzog to the Jewish woman, then~~ n1m?, the
interpretations of "they too were part of College of Education) established in foundation of the home, to participate
that miracle." According to Rashi, due to Yerushalayim in 1921, the Talpiot Beit and publicize. A member of
the active role of women in catalyzing Midrash for Teachers (1937) and Machon the Mizrachi
these miracles of redemption, they are Gold, founded in 1958 by the Torah Edu- Rabbanit Shani Taragin is Educational Speakers Bureau
obligated to actively commemorate the cation Department of the WZO, the Reli- Director of Mizrachi and the Director of the mizrachi.org/
respective miracles. Tosafot maintain gious Zionist movement built a strong Mizrachi Matan Lapidot Educators' Program. speakers

HAfv11ZRACHI I 31