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What celebrating Chanukah says about the state of Jewry
By Rabbi Berel Wein
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
THE uniqueness of the holiday of Chanukah is apparent in the fact that it is
so widely celebrated amongst the Jews the world over and no matter what
their level of Jewish observance is.
It is not only that Chanukah has the
"good fortune" of always falling in the month of December that accounts for
this level of interest in it. This is definitely a factor, but I do not
believe it to be the deciding factor. I think rather that Chanukah represents
the last refuge of Jews who want to be Jewish but are unable to verbalize or
express in their actions that inner desire. So, Jews allow Chanukah to speak
for us. For Chanukah declares clearly that there is a G-d in the world, that
there are basic principles of faith and G-dly behavior that are worth great
sacrifices, that a little light can overcome a sea of darkness and that G-d
demands a certain greatness from the Jewish people and He will perform
miracles to guarantee human realization of His presence in world events.
Jews really believe in these ideas but somehow they are not publicly
expressed in our lives. It may be that in our modern world that has cast
away so much of the positive of the past, it is embarrassing to mouth these
eternal truths. Certainly in this century when Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler
and other representatives of the new, modern, progressive world, were
ascendant, the lights of Chanukah were certainly dim and the ideas they
represented were only capable of being whispered but not proclaimed. So the
Jewish person retreated into Chanukah and let the holiday itself speak for
them and their inner being and hopes.
One of the qualities of Chanukah, which the Talmud emphasizes, is the concept
of pirsuma nissa the requirement to publicize and make known the miracle
of Chanukah. Thus the lights of Chanukah are lit in a window that opens to the
outside street. In Israel we light the lights of Chanukah in the passageway
of our outside doors so that they shine on the street and the passersby. The
lights of Chanukah, the symbol of the miracle and the lessons of this
holiday, thereby become a public statement of Jewish faith and of our
deepest instincts and G-dly intuition. What we cannot say in words, either
out of ignorance, shame, or weakness, we say therefore with the lights of
Chanukah themselves. The problems in Jewish life that Chanukah records for us
are still present today in the Jewish world. The Hellenistic Jews no longer
go by that name but their program of advocating unchecked Jewish
assimilation, no matter what the cost, still lives on.
There are other Jews in our time that advocate putting all of our trust in
our own might and power, even though all of the history of the events of
this bloody century seem to deny the validity of such a strategy. There are
still other Jews that are blind to the realities of being subjugated and are
unappreciative of the benefits, spiritual and physical, of being an
independent nation. All of these groups existed within the Jewish world of
the Hasmoneans almost twenty-two centuries ago.
The victory and miracles of Chanukah stand as a stark reminder to all of us
that we have been through this trial once before. A wise people learn from
its past history. Chanukah and its lights are a powerful memory aid for all
of us. The Torah records for us in this week's reading the story of the
fulfillment of Joseph's dreams. The Torah reading of Miketz almost invariably
coincides with the Sabbath of Chanukah. The message here is also clear.
Chanukah and Jewish dreams are inseparable. In order to have a meaningful,
spiritual, Jewish life, one must be a dreamer.
One must have a maximum
vision of one's self and one's importance and contributions to Jewish life
and destiny. Without that vision, it is difficult to appreciate the lights
of Chanukah. For Chanukah not only commemorates our past, it is meant to
illustrate our future. It gives hope for our dreams' fulfillment and a sense
of confidence - Jewish confidence - that somehow all will yet be right for
us and for all of humankind.
JWR contributor Rabbi Berel Wein is one of Jewry's foremost historians and founder of the Destiny Foundation. He has authored over 650 tapes, books and videos which you can purchase at RabbiWein.com. Comment by clicking here or calling 1-800-499-WEIN (9346).
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