Finding the Path
Julia Kholodenko and Rena Torczyner
Grade 11 students, Ulpanat Orot
Hashgacha Pratit is a term used to refer to divine providence in Judaism – in other words, when something happens that’s such a coincidence we have no choice but to attribute it to G-d’s plan. The following is a remarkable example of Hashgacha Pratit that happened to the Green family.
A young man named Avrumel Greenbaum lost his entire family in the Holocaust. After the war, he came to America and wanted nothing to do with Judaism. He was no longer Avrumel Greenbaum; now he was Aaron Green. He moved to Alabama and happened to marry a Jewish woman there. The day his oldest son Jeffrey turned thirteen, they were not going to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. Aaron decided to recognize the day by taking Jeffrey to the mall and buying him anything he wanted there. They went to a big electronics store and while browsing, Jeffrey’s eye caught something in an antique shop across the way. He was mesmerized by it. He couldn’t take his eyes off of it.
He told his father, “I don’t want anything from the electronics store. I want to go across to the antique shop.” When they got there, the boy pointed to an old wooden menorah and said, “That’s what I want for my bar mitzvah.” His father couldn’t believe it. He was letting his child buy anything he wanted in the whole mall and this is what he was choosing? Nevertheless, he couldn’t talk him out of it.
Aaron asked the shop-owner the price of the menorah, but he replied, “Sorry, that’s not for sale.” The father said, “What do you mean? This is a store.” He offered a lot of money for it. The owner said, “I found out the history of this menorah. A man constructed it during the war and it took him months to gather the wood. It survived, but he did not. It’s going to be a collector’s item. It’s not for sale.”
Jeffrey kept telling his father, “That’s what I want. All I want is the menorah.” So Aaron Green kept offering more money until the owner finally agreed to sell. The boy was so excited. He took the menorah up to his room and played with it every day. One day the parents heard a crash from Jeffrey’s room. They ran upstairs and saw the menorah shattered to pieces. The father yelled at his son for being so careless, as he paid so much money for it. Afterwards, he felt bad; he told the boy, “Let’s try to glue it back together.”
While holding one of the pieces, the father noticed a piece of paper wedged inside. He pulled it out and started reading. He had tears welled up in his eyes and then he fainted. His family threw water on him and revived him. “What happened?” they asked.
He replied, “Let me read you this letter.” It was written in Yiddish, and it said, “To whoever finds this menorah, I want you to know, I constructed it not knowing if I would ever have the opportunity to light it. Who knows if I will live to the day to see it being kindled? In all probability, going through this war, I will not. But if Providence brings this menorah to your hands, you who are reading this letter, promise me you will light it for me and for us, my family, and those who gave their lives to serve Hashem.”
Aaron Green then looked up at his family with tears in his eyes and, in a choked-up voice, said, “The letter is signed by my father.”
They were all speechless. That family recognized the hashgacha of Hashem and they came back to Torah and mitzvot. The hashgacha was unbelievable, taking a menorah from Europe and bringing it back to the family in a remote mall in Alabama.
We’ve all experienced the way Chanukah unites us – when we trade presents, fry latkes, gather around in a circle to spin dreidels under the light of the candles. Avrumel Greenbaum threw away his past, didn’t want anything to do with Judaism and his ancestors, the way they had lived. He changed his name to Aaron Green, effectively disowning himself. With this menorah, G-d is bringing him back into the arms of religion and his family, showing him that he is always part of the greater family – the Jewish nation – and that he will always be accepted, even if it takes his 13-year-old son to show him the path.
This Chanukah, may the burning candles of the menorah show us the path of unity. Spend time with family and friends, celebrate the holiday that brings us together. When you put your chanukiah in the windowsill, remember that you are spreading the miracle around and uniting the Jewish people, the family that we all belong to.
Happy Chanukah!
Searching For the Oil, Sparking the Flame
Salomon Friedlander
Grade 12 student, Yeshivat Or Chaim
The Gemara in Shabbos כא: says the following concerning Chanukah:
What is Chanukah, and why are lights kindled on Chanukah? The Gemara answers: The Rabbis: On the 25th of Kislev, the days of Chanukah are eight. One may not eulogize on them and one may not fast on them. Why is this so? When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary, they defiled all the oils that were in the Sanctuary by touching them. And when the Chashmonaim overcame them and emerged victorious over them, they searched and found only one bottle of oil that was placed with the seal of the Kohanim, undisturbed by the Greeks. However, there was sufficient oil there to light the Menorah for only one day. A Miracle occurred it remained lit for eight days. The next year the Rabbis instituted a holiday with Hallel and other special brachos of thanks.
According to the Gemara, the reason behind the establishment of Chanukah as a holiday is because of the miracle of the oil. We may, however, be able to suggest the military victory over the Greeks as an additional reason behind the holiday. Why does the Gemara focus on the miracle of the oil without mention of the military victory (which we do focus on in the al hanissim)?
The Midrash in Bereishis Rabbah 2:4 states:
The earth was astonishingly empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water”. (Bereishis 1:2) Reish Lakish applied this verse to the foreign powers. ‘Now the earth was empty’ symbolizes Babylonia… ‘Astonishingly’ refers to Persia / Media… ‘Darkness’ symbolizes the Greeks.
We may suggest that the “darkness” symbolizing the Greeks refers to the culture that the Greeks pushed on the Jews. Their goal was not to kill the Jews using military force, but to wipe out Judaism through assimilation and by outlawing Jewish practice. There was a tremendous contrast between the ideals and morals of Judaism, characterized by Torah ethic, as opposed to the Greek Hellenism shaped by hedonistic culture. Perhaps more important than the military victory was our willingness to stand up and fight for our belief in Hashem and the Torah to the mighty Greeks. The desire to fight for the light of Judaism to shine amidst the darkness of Greek culture is symbolized in the candles that we light each night of Chanukah. The Chanukah candles not only symbolize the miracle of the oil lasting eight days but also characterize our willingness to stand up for what we believe in, ultimately leading to the miraculous military victory.
Though we find ourselves in times of darkness, without the Beis Hamikdash, we can take the message of the Chashmonaim to create sparks of light. They managed to find a single jug of oil that would miraculously last for eight days. Similarly, we should know that somewhere there is a bottle of hope with our name on it. The first step is to make sure that we are actually looking for it, even fighting for it.
With this in mind, may we be zocheh to fulfill the pasuk in Tehillim 27: ״שבתי בבית השם כל ימי חיי״ “That I dwell in the house of Hashem all the days of my life” with the building of the third Mikdash.
