 |
|
May 25, 2012
Mark Clayton: Is Hillary's State Dept. hacking Al Qaeda? Not quite
Erika Bolstad: Temple cancels Wasserman Schultz speech
The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman: The former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, whose members included the likes of Julia Child, is back with contemporary Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Sweet Noodle Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread
May 24, 2012
Jeff Jacoby: The peace process battered Israel's reputation
Michael Muskal: 'Pro-choice' position hits record low, according to poll
Chris Farrell: Are We in a Tech Bubble?
The Kosher Gourmet by Penelope Wall: PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS --- hold the steak!
May 23, 2012
Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts
Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You
Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide
Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Dec. 27, 2005
/ 26 Kislev, 5766
Rediscovering Chanukah
By
Rabbi Yonason Goldson
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's more than a shame that Chanukah has become diluted to the point where potato latkes and jelly donuts excite many
Jews more than the lights themselves.
It's not hard to understand how children, with their feverish expectation of presents
eclipsing the true meaning of the season, fail to think deeply into meaning of the day. And it's not hard to understand how
children might never look beyond the message of their favorite Chanukah toy, the dreidel, tattooed with the letters nun,
gimmel, hei, and shin as a superficial and simplistic acronym for neis gadol hayoh sham — "a great miracle happened there."
But why, as we grow older, don't we ask if there's anything more?
As for the dreidel, it truly strikes a dissonant chord that the sages of a people so rich in cultural wisdom and so steeped in spiritual symbolism could have composed no better a message than "a great miracle happened there."
If the Passover matzah
symbolizes exorcism of one's inclination toward evil, if the shofar blast on Rosh HaShonah symbolizes the eternal cry of the
soul to be reunited with its Creator, if the sukkah hut symbolizes the clouds of glory the guided and protected the Jews through
their 40 years of wandering in the desert, is it possible that they dreidel could offer no more profound insight into the
significance of Chanukah than "a great miracle happened there"?
And if there is a deeper message, what is it?
EXILE UNDER FOUR KINGDOMS
The Greek domination that opens the story of Chanukah was only one of four exiles spanning the last 2400 years of Jewish
history. Before the Greeks came the Persians; before the Persians came the Babylonians.
And, after a brief autonomy following Greek rule, the Jews found themselves subjugated by a power far greater than the sum
of the first three: the Roman empire, under whose exile the Jews remain until today, 15 centuries after the fall of Rome.
But first to Babylon.
BABYLON — ATTACK UPON THE SOUL
Frightened by the prophecy of Jeremiah that the Jews would return to their land after 70 years, the Babylonian king
Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and exiled the people from the Land of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar
understood that if he attacked the nefesh, the soul of Jewish people, if he cut the Jews off from the source of their spirituality —
the Temple and the Land — then he could severe their connection with the Almighty and nullify the prophecy of 70 years.
In fact, he was right. But he was also wrong, for the Jews retained a spiritual connection that Nebuchadnezzar failed to
anticipate. Although separated from their homeland and their Sanctuary, they could not be separated from their Torah, the
spiritual wellspring that keeps the nefesh of the Jews connected to their G-d no matter where we may find themselves
scattered throughout the world. Jeremiah's 70 years culminated with the famous writing on the wall, interpreted by the prophet
Daniel, which foretold the death of Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, and the fall of Babylon.
PERSIA — BATTLE FOR LIFE ITSELF
The Persians, who conquered the Babylonians, attempted a much more direct approach. Harboring a bitter grudge against
the Jewish sage Mordechai, Haman, viceroy to the king of Persia, conceived a plot to exterminate every Jewish man, woman,
and child within the Persian empire. Where the Babylonians had tried to cut off the nefesh of the Jewish people, Haman would
act far more boldly to cut down the guf, the physical body of the Jewish people.
When the Jews, by disregarding the counsel of their spiritual leader, Mordechai, forfeited the merit of divine protection
against their enemies, Haman had his chance. But when the Jews repented the tables turned, and it was not the guf of the
Jewish nation that was destroyed but Haman himself who swung from his own gallows.
GREECE — ASSAULT AGAINST THE MIND
The most subtle strategy, however, belonged to the Greeks. Also learning from the failure of their predecessors, they
attempted to destroy neither the Jewish nefesh nor the Jewish guf. Instead, they embraced the Jews with open arms,
welcomed the Jewish nation into their empire, and sought to subsume the Jewish people beneath the surface of their culture.
The most dangerous and most insidious weapon ever to be directed against the Jews was perfected by the Greeks:
assimilation, the attack upon the seichel — the Jewish intellect and the Jewish mind.
Greek culture celebrated the physical and the material, raising artistic expression and architectural design to previously
unimagined sophistication and beauty. The Greeks exalted the human body, their perfectly toned and trained athletes
performing Olympic feats naked before adoring and inspired crowds. Indeed, Greek philosophy perceived the human form
and the human psyche as the pinnacle of creation, with no higher being and no higher authority to rival the perfection of Man.
In their arrogance, the Greeks created a pantheon of gods remarkable not for their kindness or their mercy or their grace, but
for their lust, their vengeance, and their spite. The most base human impulses became not only glorified but deified through the
Greek gods and the myths extolling them.
The external beauty and indulgent pleasure of Greek culture exerted a powerful magnetic pull over all Greek subjects, and
the Jews were not impervious to its assault. But whereas other pagan peoples lacked a commitment to virtue and morality, the
substance of Judaism has always called for every Jew to aspire toward moral and spiritual self-perfection. By insinuating their
culture into the everyday lives of the Jews, the Greeks undermined the ideological foundations of Jewish belief and Jewish
practice, gradually ensnaring the minds — the seichel — of many Jews.
Thus were born the Hellenists, Jews who sought to bond the externality of the Greeks with the substance of Judaism, a
marriage that could only result in the ultimate extinction of the Jew and his culture. But the Maccabees, rising up to meet the
threat against the Jewish mind, drove the Greeks out of Jerusalem, rededicated the Temple, rekindled the lights, and restored
the purity of Jewish practice, Jewish tradition, and Jewish culture to the land.
ROME — THE SUM OF OUR FEARS
Finally came Rome, a culture that produced no innovations but borrowed from the peoples it conquered as it spread its
military and political influence across most of the civilized world. As pagan as Babylon and Persia, as materially self-indulgent
as Greece, Rome mimicked not only the nations it subdued but also the tactics employed by its predecessors against the most
culturally stubborn of all its subjects, the Jews.
Like Babylon, Rome tried to destroy the nefesh of the Jewish people by destroying the Second Temple. Like Persia, Rome
tried to destroy the guf of the Jewish nation through pogroms and violent decrees. And, like Greece, Rome tried to destroy
Jewish culture through assimilation, attacking the seichel of the Jews. The Roman strategy, therefore, may be characterized as
hakol, a combined assault against the nefesh, guf, and seichel of the Jewish people.
Until today, long after the decline of Rome, assimilation remains the greatest threat to Jewish survival.
THE SECRET OF THE DREIDEL
The word Chanukah derives from the Hebrew word chinuch — Jewish education. Our greatest defense against spiritual,
physical, and cultural attack is the knowledge of our own beliefs and the commitment to our own traditions that endure only
when they are founded on a solid education of Jewish thought and practice. The flames of Chanukah symbolize the light of
self-knowledge and the wisdom that comes from knowing what it means to be a Jew and how to live as a Jew.
The dreidel does indeed recall far more than the simple formula that "a great miracle happened there." It reminds us of the
tactics employed by the four kingdoms that sought our destruction. The letter nun recalls the Nefesh of Israel that the
Babylonians tried to cut off. The letter gimmel stands for the Guf of Israel that the Persians tried to cut down. The letter shin
echoes the Seichel of Israel that the Greeks tried to corrupt. And the letter hei stands for Hakol, the combined efforts of
Rome to destroy us on every front.(1)
Yes, a great miracle did happen there. But to see nothing more than that shallow message is to miss the profound depth of the miracle itself, to see the dreidel, the lights, and the miracle of Chanukah as a Greek would see them.
To see them as a Jew, with all their complexity and substance and beauty, is to truly appreciate and truly commemorate Chanukah in all its glory.(2)
(1)The gematria (numerical equivalents) of the letters of the dreidel — nun (50), gimmel (3), shin (300), and hei (5) — add
up to 358, equaling the gematria of nachash (snake), the influence of which has dominated the world since the Snake in the
Garden of Eden convinced man to sin, as well as the gematria of Moshiach, whose influence will ultimately conquer and
replace the influence of the Snake in the End of Days.
(2) Adapted from the Chassidic classic, B'nei Yissasschar
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Rabbi Yonason Goldson teaches at Block Yeshiva High School in St. Louis. Comment by clicking here.
© 2005, Rabbi Yonason Goldson
|
