Popularised by Chabad, parodied by South Park and promulgated by thousands of gananot from one end of this country to the other, it has drummed itself into the Chanukah-consciousness of our generation.
Not to be outdone, our musically-minded member Max Stern has provided his own arrangement of this seasonal earworm. For 77 seconds of undiluted fun, just click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Now there is not much new or brilliant left to be said about the holiday of Chanukah, right? I think that maybe many old and grizzled rabbis like yours truly would probably agree with that statement. Over sixty years of writing and speaking about Chanukah should pretty much exhaust the topic, shouldn’t it? But then again that would be selling Chanukah short.
There is always a fresh insight that illuminates all the
holidays of the Jewish year and Chanukah is certainly no exception. Reminiscing
with myself (something that we senior citizens do often) about my own life and
past, I was amazed that somehow a lawyer from Chicago ended up being a rabbi in
Jerusalem. How did this happen? And how did the Jewish state itself happen—not in
terms of history, facts, personages, dates, places and wars but in the amazing
fact that such a state flourishes and progresses in spite of all odds, past and
present, against its existence?
The rabbis of the Talmud taught that people to whom wondrous
things occur do not really recognize those events as being wondrous. It is part
of the weakness of human nature to have such limited understanding. There has
to be a flash of insight, a commemorative act, a tradition of being able to
look past the trees to the forest, a spirit of almost childlike wonder in order
for the amazing to truly be believable in the eye and mind of the beholder. I
think that this is essentially how we have to look at Chanukah – as the
historical event, as the commemoration of that event and of the traditions and
customs that so endear this eight day festival to all of Israel.
Jewish tradition and the rabbis of the Mishnah took an astonishing
event that many people would view as being ordinary or natural, restoring it to
its truly wondrous state. The story of Chanukah is that of a small and
apparently weak nation overcoming a mighty army. It records a triumph of
monotheism and Jewish tradition over pagan culture and practices, of the small,
pure lights in the Temple that overcame the flaming torches that were far from
pure, and of the vitality and resilience of Israel over those who would wish to
snuff it out. It is all wondrous—but only if one views it all as being so.
The rabbis in their holy perspective of Jewish life and
events elevated the mundane and seemingly ordinary to the realm of the miraculous
and eternal. That is basically the main lesson that Chanukah teaches us: we are
a special people who live a miraculous existence with constant wonder
surrounding us, yet it is all encrusted in seemingly natural and ordinary
occurrences.
To delegitimize the story of Chanukah and to treat as just
another ancient war of the Grecian period is the same tactic that the world
uses today to delegitimize the State of Israel and our rights to our ancient
homeland. If the wonder of it all is lost and forfeited, then so is our
struggle for existence and independence.
Chanukah is thus the perfect holiday for children for it
requires this perspective: to be made wondrous, miraculous and thereby
meaningful and beneficial. Chanukah is not for the jaded and empty spirited.
Its candles flicker only for those that see the fire of Torah, tradition and
morality that lies beneath their small surfaces. One who is privileged and
able to see the wonder of the events that occurred to us “in those days” will
also be able to discern the wonders that we encounter daily here in Israel “in
our time.”
Shabbat shalom and Chanukah same’ach, Rabbi Berel Wein
Tonight we begin to light our chanukiyot to mark the miracles of Chanukah. So this week we feature two divrei Torah from Rabbi Wein on Chanukah, as well as a devar Torah on parashat Miketz.
Our holiday prayer acknowledges the miracles that the Lord performed for us long ago in our struggles and wars against the Greeks. We understand that, in all wars, unforeseen events occur and that, both on the level of the individual soldier and of the general outcome of the war, there is adequate scope for people to feel that miracles occurred. However, on a deeper level I think that the fact that the small band of Jews who were still devoted to Jewish tradition and Torah values actually went to war for their spiritual survival is itself to be judged as being miraculous. Good people are often peace-loving, being averse to violence and certainly war. The good therefore tend to let themselves be persecuted and intimidated by evil forces rather than stand up and fight for their values and their survival. Chanukah teaches that there are times when our survival spiritually as a people – as the chosen people – depends on our willingness to fight for our cause and our future. When that happens, it is natural to feel that this is all part of the rational world which we supposedly inhabit. However, again on a deeper level I think that such a response borders on the miraculous and that the prayers of this holiday reflect this in a most positive and clear fashion.
We too live in miraculous times. There is no other way that we can characterize the events of the past century of Jewish life except by recognizing the miraculous and even supernatural guidance that has steered us through this turbulent period. We are living examples of the Talmud’s statement that one who experiences miracles does not recognize the course of events as being especially miraculous. But, based on rational expectations and patterns of history, no event that has befallen the Jewish people over the past century can be considered normal or rational. One such event is that, through the presence of the state of Israel, the Jewish people rose up to defend their faith and national destiny and, for the first time in millennia, actually took up arms to defeat enemies who sought our destruction. This is part of the story of age-old miracles that are relevant and alive in our time too. The message of this holiday is subtle and enduring. We should be cognizant of our miraculous status and be grateful to the Almighty for having allowed us to see this as we participate in our own modern ongoing miracle.
Shabbat
shalom and Chanukah same’ach, Rabbi Berel Wein
If you could not attend the Yom Iyun—or did attend it but
want to relive the experience—we are now delighted to be able to share with you
the links to the five presentations. They are as follows:
“The flames of history and the light of destiny”, Rabbi Yaakov Glaser here
“Chanuka—a celebration of the power of Torah”, Rabbi Anthony Manning here
“Service and sacrifice—the heroism in life and death of Maoz Morell”, Eitan and Varda Morell here
“Total victory? The miracle and meaning of Chanuka”, Rabbi Joel Kenigsberg here
Rabbi Berel Wein’s closing remarks here
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Since posting the above, we have received a personal account by our member Pessy Krausz, who attended Gevura. She shares with us the following impressions:
Rabbi Joel Konigsberg, opening this event before an eager
audience of participants in our increasingly packed hall, commented that, in
contrast to other festivals, we celebrate Chanukah during the darkest, coldest
nights of the year. We celebrate our progression out of the darkness of living
under pressure to assimilate, into the light of our victory of resistance.
Finally to find pure oil after an arduous hunt for it was like receiving a kiss
from Hashem. And we too felt our hearts touched by inexplicable miracles in our
Swords of Iron wartime situation.
Rabbi Yaacov Glaser followed with a lively presentation
backed by a superb handout, The Menorah of Chanukah: The Flames of history
& the Light of Destiny. He commented on Aaron’s special role in lighting
the Menorah and focused on it as a transcendental, universal symbol. On Pesach
we are defensive, running away from enemies; on Shavuot we accept the Torah.
Then on Chanukah we show how we initiate. Refusing to accept our Temple’s
defilement, we courageously search for pure oil. Small wonder then, that Israel
bravely does not accept what others impose on us.
Rabbi Anthony Manning, backed by a well-researched handout,
Halachic and Hashkafot Issues in Contemporary Society; Chanukah: a Celebration
of the Power of the Torah, opened a fascinating window into the Book of the
Maccabees. This work describes how the Jewish people, despite being so few in
number, were roused to face their many enemies, this being reminiscent of our
combat situation in the current Swords of Iron campaign. Chanukah is also a
time of transition from reliance on prophecy to the era of the Chachamim, our
Elers, achieving continuity while transmitting the ‘Light of the Torah’
throughout the generations.
Rabbi Berel Wein focused on the brave Nachum Gam Zu, whose name reflected his famous saying, “Gam Zu LeTovah” (“Even this is for the Good”). Maintaining this attitude though he experienced enormous physical suffering and the dangerously imminent arrival of brutal Roman soldiers. When faced with the likely collapse of his flimsy house, Nachum Gam Zu refused to leave saying, “While ever I am here there, my place will remain intact”. Rabbi Wein compared this to the security of Medinat Yisrael. While ever we are here, our country will remain intact. Most of the audience, being olim themselves, clearly share the view that we are partners in securing the safety of our beloved country.
Varda and Eitan Morell then movingly described the gevura of their son Staff Sargent Maoz Morell, who tragically succumbed to wounds sustained fighting in Gaza. Despite being a person of few words, he nevertheless left a heritage through his practical deeds. One of the sayings he had shared with soldiers under him one has been converted to a sticker that recalled the few calls his parents were able to make to him. His response (roughly translated from the Hebrew) was “All’s well with me – That’s it – My update!” Said his mother: “Maoz was killed as a hero fighting our enemies … because of people like him, going and doing what they need to be doing, they’re making sure that something like what happened with the Nazis will never be able to happen again”.
Indeed, “Never again”, the participants murmured.
In sum, this Yom Iyun has given us the courage to face traumatic events while being more aware than ever of the miracles of Chanukah. We’ll endure and win together with insight, Gevura and, dare we say, Latkes! L’Chaim! Am Yisrael Chai!
Some members of Beit Knesset Hanassi, who daven with precious and much-loved siddurim that came on aliyah with them from distant shores, have found that V'aneinu Borei Olam is not in their siddur, or is tucked away somewhere in the back where it's difficult to find, so we have posted it here:
וַעֲנֵנוּ בּוֹרֵא עוֹלָם בְּמִדַּת רַחֲמֶיךָ, בּוֹחֵר בְּעַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל, לְהוֹדִיעַ גָּדְלוֹ וְהַדְרַת כְּבוֹדוֹ. שׁוֹמֵעַ תְּפִלָּה, תֵּן טַל וּמָטָר לִבְרָכָה עַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה, וְשַׂבַּע אֶת הָעוֹלָם כֻּלּוֹ מִטּוּבֶךָ, וּמַלֵּא יָדֵינוּ מִבִּרְכוֹתֶיךָ וּמֵעֹשֶׁר מַתְּנַת יָדֶךָ. שָׁמְרָה וְהַצִּילָה שָׁנָה זוֹ מִכָּל דָּבָר רָע, וּמִכֹּל מִינֵי מַשְׁחִית וּמִכָּל מִינֵי פוּרְעָנוּת, וַעֲשֵׂה לָהּ תִּקְוָה וְאַחֲרִית שָׁלוֹם. חוּס וְרַחֵם עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל תְּבוּאָתָהּ וּפֵרוֹתֶיהָ, וּבָרְכָהּ בְּגִשְׁמֵי רָצוֹן, בְּרָכָה וּנְדָבָה וְחַיִּים וָשֹׂבַע וְשָׁלוֹם, כַּשָּׁנִים הַטּוֹבוֹת. וְהָסֵר מִמֶּנּוּ דֶּבֶר וְחֶרֶב וְרָעָב, וְחַיָּה רָעָה וּשְׁבִי וּבִזָּה, וְיֵצֶר הָרָע, וָחֳלָיִים רָעִים וְקָשִׁים וּמְאֹרָעוֹת רָעוֹת וְקָשׁוֹת. וּגְזוֹר עָלֵינוּ גְּזֵרוֹת טוֹבוֹת מִלְּפָנֶיךָ, וְיָגֹלּוּ רַחֲמֶיךָ עַל מִדּוֹתֶיךָ וְתִתְנַהֵג עִם בָּנֶיךָ בְּמִדַּת רַחֲמִים, וְקַבֵּל בְּרַחֲמִים וּבְרָצוֹן אֶת תְּפִלָּתֵנוּ
May Hashem in His infinite mercy grant our prayer.
In this, the seventh lecture in the series “The Jewish World 1880-1914”, Rabbi Wein focused on “Zionism, Socialism and Tradition”, looking at concepts and philosophies rather than geographical considerations. He actually structured his lecture around not two but three mainly Jewish movements that opposed the continued existence of Jewish life: Zionism, Marxism and Secularism. All three of these movements, he noted, are still around today but exercise a much lower level of influence on traditional Judaism than was the case a century or more ago.
Many traditionalists gave up waiting for messiah and looked
at three possible substitutes:
1. Secularism: the secularists
held no belief in God or Heaven, rejecting the prospects of a world to come and
of an afterlife. Up till then, even among traditionalists there were varying
degrees of personal observance—but hitherto there had been no official movement
away from God and religion. In the wake of the secularist movement, entire
generations of pure secularists were born, scientifically oriented and holding
the belief that utopia would be achieved only through knowledge. In the 19th
century, scholars believed they could achieve ultimate knowledge. Now, Rabbi Wein
noted, they accept that, the more they know, the less they know.
2. Socialism and Marxism. In 1846,
a Jewish apostate, Karl Marx, came up with a new philosophy based on the
premise that all human history reflected class struggle, not national or
religious differences. Religion, in his view, was the opium of the people,
comforting the masses and deadening their sensitivity to reality so that they should
be better equipped to accept the poverty and hardship under which they lived. Marx
maintained that society, not individuals, should own the means of production—even
though this was against human nature, which is to be acquisitive.
Communism, Rabbi Wein pointed out, is the ultimate utopianism. but 200 years of
experience have demonstrated its failure in practice. Many Jews loved it—and regarded
it as their second Talmud, being the only people to make it work in the form of
Israel’s early kibbutzim. Kibbutz life was built upon the maxim of “to each
according to his needs, from each according to his ability”—the ultimate
utopian ideal. Marxism is ultimately a cruel philosophy because of its belief
that the end justifies the means, this being an invitation to dispose
ruthlessly of one’s opponents, as has been done by Stalin and Chairman Mao. The
Left is still strong in Israel, Rabbi Wein concluded, but socialism is not as
pernicious as it once was: the Histadrut no longer owns the country.
3.
Zionism: in all of its forms,
this is a highly complicated doctrine. At heart it is an intrinsically
religious idea, that of Jews returning to an ancient homeland. But it was sold to
prospective adherents as a species of nationalism, not as a religious ideal
and, in doing so, it encountered great opposition from Jews in the religious,
secular and Marxist sectors. The great achievement of Zionizm has been to keep
secular Jews within Israel and to accommodate their secularism.
Divisions within the ranks of Zionism were apparent when the British Secretary
of State, Lord Palmerston offered Theodore Herzl the chance to establish a
Jewish state in Uganda. Herzl welcomed this offer, but European Zionists were
aghast: even though many of them were secularists or Marxists, this was
unacceptable to them.
The religious community opposed Zionism because it was seen as nationalist and
anti-religious. Charedim are still fighting this battle, even though the State
of Israel is 77 years old and 8 million Jews live here. But now there is also
the phenomenon of Religious Zionism – Eretz Yisrael al pi Torat Yisrael –
and the concept of Zionism as we know it today embraces even religious
socialists and their kibbutzim.
Rabbi Wein concluded by asking: “How do we deal with residue
of the turmoil of the 19th century that continues today?” He
confessed that he had no answer.
Being a member of Dorot is not all fun and games. Each concert
performance is the product of persistence in practice and of patience in rehearsals
when striving for perfection. Week after week, whatever the weather, sopranos, mezzos and contraltos gather together to run through a large repertoire with Jewish themes--mostly penned by Dassie herself
Listen to the Dorot Choir and you will hear the combined
efforts of some 40 women, of whom eight—that’s a full one-fifth of the choir—are
members of Beit Knesset Hanassi. Come and support them at their next concert at
the Begin Heritage Center on Monday 20 January 2025 (see poster on the right for
details).
Our member Gita Freud has shared with us two recipes which,
she points out, don’t have to be eaten only on Chanukah because they work just
as well throughout the year. The first, for all the year with the exception of
Pesach, is for scones:
Ingredients
1 lb (454 gm) flour (Gita prefers
the pre-sifted)
4 tsp baking powder
2 oz (57 gm) sugar
3 oz (85 gm) butter
2 eggs
Approximately half a cup milk
Approximately 2-3 oz (57-85 gm) raisins or sultanas—or even chocolate chips
Method
Pre-heat oven to 175 Celsius.
Mix the dry ingredients with the butter to a crumbly mixture.
Add the eggs and the milk.
Mix till all the ingredients come together into a smooth ball.
Roll out to about 1 cm (0.4 in.) thick.
Cut into small rounds.
Bake at 175 degrees for 12 minutes.
Serving recommendation
Cut in half and spread with
strawberry jam and a dollop of whipped cream.
First, a word about words and spellings. The first use of the English spelling 'doughnut' dates back to 1809 in relation to small nut-shaped balls of fried dough; the currently popular toroidal shape was not known till the 20th century. The spelling 'donut', now almost universal in the USA, was rarely used before 1950 but became prevalent following the establishment and rapid growth of the Dunkin' Donuts franchise. The Hebrew word sufganiyah is however of nobler pedigree: it can be traced back to Mishnaic times when the word sufganin was used to describe cakes made with a spongy dough (Challah 1:4. Curiously the word is only found in the plural, proof that you can't get away with eating just one of them).
Here’s a recipe for doughnuts with אשל (which translates in my dictionary into “tamarisk” but turns out to be another term for leben, a food or drink made from fermented milk: see Wikipedia here).
Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 eggs
2 containers of אשל
1 cup sugar
Drop of vanilla essence
Method
Mix all ingredients together.
Use an oily spoon to drop teaspoons into hot oil to fry.
Serve sprinkled with sugar.
The incident of the dispute and resultant tragedy of Yosef
and his brothers will erase any hope of Yaakov being able to remain serene and
at peace with himself. The truth of Jewish history indicates that the years of
serenity of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel were relatively few and far
between. We always thought that the creation of our national home in the Land
of Israel would be the ultimate panacea for Jewish life.
Herzl promised that anti-Semitism would disappear with the
creation of an independent Jewish state. Tragically, history has shown the case
certainly to be otherwise. In fact, the Jewish state has in many respects
exacerbated the campaign of anti-Semitism in today’s world. The longing for
serenity oftentimes blinds people to unpleasant realities and forthcoming
dangers.
Yaakov is aware of the problem between Yosef and his
brothers, but he is not proactive in preventing the violence that lies below
the surface of this dispute. His desire to rest and settle in peace in the Land
of Israel – simply to be left alone by all of his neighbors and potential
enemies – essentially prevents him from attempting to prevent the civil war
brewing in his house.
The Lord is critical, so to speak, of Yaakov’s desire for
serenity at all costs. Serenity is in the World to Come and not in this world
of problems and challenges.
The Jewish community here in Israel desires peace and
serenity at almost all cost. The desire is so strong that it has led to a great
dispute between different sections of Israeli society. The desire for peace
overwhelms all other issues and creates great rivers of division and even
violence amongst us.
The desire for peace and serenity has sucked all the oxygen
out of the other issues of Israeli life. In pursuing a goal that may currently
be beyond our abilities, we abandon the opportunity to truly achieve success
with the more mundane challenges that face us.
Ben Gurion, not noted for his great piety, said that there
are certain issues that will have to be left to messianic times for permanent
solution. Undoubtedly, he meant that certain problems do not lend themselves to
resolve currently. We are entitled to aspire for serenity and peace, but not at
the expense of the realities and dangers that face us. Yaakov’s example remain
an important lesson for us as well in our present challenges and
difficulties.
Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein
This haftarah, explains Max, features extracts from a prophecy by Amos that condemns the value system that led to our exile -- the same scale of values that led to Joseph's brothers selling him to the Ishamelites for "a pair of shoes".
Below you will find a link to a performance of this cantata by Max and his students. The first four minutes make for tough listening, before it transitions to a more lyrical theme with a subtly hypnotic effect.
The text is based on Amos 3:1-2 and 3:6-8.
For the link to the cantata click here.
For an explanation of this haftarah on My Jewish Learning click here.
In this lecture Rabbi Kenigsberg expanded on the need to the
State to provide greater factual detail in order to apply halachah with greater
precision, in particular with regard to hilchot Shabbat, where it is so
important to distinguish routine factual scenarios from emergencies. He also
raised the question as to what sources are most appropriate for resolving
she’elot on issues of national security. While Israel was an autonomous state
in the era of Tanach, Rabbi Asher Weiss has observed that one cannot pull
halachot straight out of the Tanach because its contents are not presented to
us in a structured manner in which we are made aware of relevant surrounding
circumstances. We also do not know whether applications of halachah in Tanach
reflect normal circumstances of states of emergency.
By way of a practical phenomenon that did not exist in bygone times and which is a matter of State responsibility, Rabbi Kenigsberg focused at length on the problems of cyber-defence on Shabbat. Cyber-attacks might be of obvious threat to life, such as those designed to contaminate the water supply, or they might pose risks for one of more individuals, as in the case of data capture that would enable foreign governments to identify Israeli soldiers on active service and arrest them for war crimes if they visited those countries. The rabbi discussed the applicability to these scenarios of the long-established halachot relating to extinguishing a fire on Shabbat as well as the principles that govern self-protection on the part of cities on Israel’s borders.
From what Rabbi Kenigsberg told his audience, it appears
that there are two general principles that can be invoked when weighing up
whether to allow a breach of Shabbat prohibitions. The first is that, even if a
threat or danger is initially very small, one must look ahead and calculate how
much greater might the damage be to the public and the State if it is not
immediately abated. The second is that, if action is not taken to defend oneself
even against an apparently small loss, an enemy will learn to attack the State
on Shabbat on the basis that there will be no response or retaliation by those
who are Shabbat-observant.
This note cannot really do justice to Rabbi Kenigsberg’s presentation, which was replete with references and citations and came with printed source materials—but you can listen to it in full on YouTube here.
In the sixth of his eight-part lecture series, Rabbi Wein tackled the gradual disintegration of the Turkish-based Ottoman Empire and its impact on the many Jews who lived within its sprawling borders. This empire spread all the way from Balkans and the Mediterranean to the Middle East, Egypt, Libya and much of North Africa. Starting from the 15th and 16th centuries, this militantly Moslem even reached the gates of Vienna.
Israel, Rabbi Wein explained, was a sparsely populated
wasteland with a tiny Jewish and mainly Sephardic population. The country had
no effective economy. During the early 1800s, there was a small trickle of Eastern
European Jewish immigration; these migrants came for purely religious reasons
and had no expressed intention of founding a state. Safed, Tiveria, Yerushalayim
and Chevron were the main centres of Jewish life. When Mark Twain visited the
land in the late 1890s, he recorded that he had never seen a more desolate place.
Incidentally, there was no real connection between the Sephardi and Ashkenazi
communities, especially since the former had had no real exposure to mussar
or chassidut.
The Turks had a large Christian population within their
borders, particularly in Armenia and Syria. Moslems viewed them, rather than
the Jews, as their enemy. This, said Rabbi Wein, had the paradoxical effect of
making the local Christian churches more antisemitic than their Western
counterparts. During the 1800s, as the West started eroding portions of the
Ottoman Empire, Jerusalem grew in significance: it was no longer just a place
but had become an ideal, a vindication. Colonies were founded there by the Germans,
Russians, French and others—and the Ottomans were helpless to stop this. Many consulates based in Jerusalem claimed
they were justified in being there to protect claims of locals living in these
colonies. Curiously, at this time there was also a nascent movement among
evangelical Christians who believed that Jewish settlement was needed as a
precursor of the Christian Messiah.
Within the crumbling Caliphate, the force of inertia was
becoming impossible to overcome. Theodore Herzl had originally tried to buy
Israel for the princely sum of 15 million British pounds, hoping to get this
sum from the Rothschild family. The Turks however did not want to sell. In the 1890s,
Greece broke away from Turkish rule (this assertion of freedom was romanticised
by Lord Byron). Next, Serbia broke free from both Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian
control. Cracks also appeared at the very core of the Empire, as hostilities
increased between the Sunni Moslem majority and Shi’ite minority. Happily, the
Jews were not caught in the crosshairs of their disputes.
Returning to Herzl and Zionism, Rabbi Wein showed that the
Ottomans saw Jewish nationalism as a direct threat: it was not only European in
origin, and therefore alien, but also featured secular Jews—something that the Ottomans
regarded as a direct threat to an empire was founded on religion. Following
Herzl’s unsuccessful bid to purchase the land of Israel, the JNF set out to buy
land on a piecemeal basis and had far more success. In this way the Zionist
movement succeeded in implanting itself in the Galilee during the First Aliyah
through the establishment of kibbutzim and moshavim. How odd, commented Rabbi
Wein, that the land of Israel should be built by the non-religious.
With Jewish settlement came Jewish disputes, largely between Sephardim and Ashkenazim. The Turks gave kashrut rights to the Sephardim, which the Ashkenazim said they couldn’t accept. Disputes amongst Jews were always referred to the Turkish authorities and, since those authorities were corrupt, the arguments put before them were corrupt too. Also, the 0od Yishuv refused to recognise the new Yishuv, finding the newcomers to be so rebellious and condescending towards traditional Jews that there was no dialogue.
Just two days ago Beit Knesset Hanassi was privileged to host, together with OU Israel, a wonderful lecture by Rabbi Hershel Schachter on As...
