“Dedication to Education”
Rabbi Eddie Shostak
Menahel of Yeshivat Or Chaim
Rabbi Sacks shares a story about his father, an immigrant to Britain, who had to leave school at a young age to help support his family. Walking home with his father from synagogue as a child, Rabbi Sacks would question his father about Judaism. His father would give the same answer every time: “I never had a Jewish education, so I cannot answer your questions. But, one day you will have the education that I never had and when that will happen, you will teach me the answers to those questions.”
Sefer Malachi (3:23–24) tells us of the task of Eliyahu HaNavi, the herald of the ultimate redemption: “He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents.”
Rabbi Moshe Alshich asks how we act in order to succeed in educating our children. He said: “It is what you love that your children will learn to love.” It is the way your life reflects your loves, those are the things that our children will absorb and eventually make their own. Rabbi Sacks commented: “It is by reflecting our love for Jewish life and practice that our children will choose to commit to become engaged and enthusiastic Jews.”
Chanukah is related to the word chanuch, meaning re-dedication, referring to the re-dedication of the Temple by the Maccabees. Chanukah is also related to the word chinuch, meaning education. On Chanukah we don’t celebrate the re-dedication of the Temple, a physical building; rather, we celebrate the living embodiments of Judaism, namely our children.
As Rabbi Sacks said in Radical Then, Radical Now: “Moses realised that a people achieves immortality not by building temples or mausoleums, but by engraving their values on the hearts of their children, and they on theirs, and so on until the end of time.”
Chanukah Sameach!
Mrs. Emma Taylor
Mechanechet
In the parsha of Vayeshev that we read on Chanukah, we see the juxtaposition of Yaakov’s mourning for his beloved son Yosef followed by Yehuda–the brother who bore the brunt of responsibility for Yosef’s sale–finding a wife. It seems rather strange. The Torah uses the word vayered, Yehuda went down, symbolising how he was perceived in the eyes of his brothers. He had the opportunity to save Yosef as someone in a position of leadership in the family, but he failed.
Yehuda could have used this episode as an excuse to sink deep into the pits of despair rather he finds a wife and rebuilds. That’s not to say that he unburdened himself of any blame; he accepted the mistakes he made, he owned his yeridah, and used it as an opportunity to claw his way back up. It is no coincidence that from this union are the roots of moshiach–the individual who will bring us all up from our collective pits of pain and despair to a brighter future.
Chanukah is a time when we celebrate those that don’t give up. People who look around at the bleakness of their surroundings and decide that this is not going to define them but instead will push them to become better.
Chanukah is a time when we celebrate the small band of Maccabbees, the inferior army who not just witnessed the Greeks trying to rid the jews of their Judaism, but who were succeeding at it. They were surrounded by assimilation at alarming rates, people becoming heavily influenced by the hedonistic values of the Greek nation. In this pit, the Jewish army refused to sink deeper but instead forged onwards and upwards, clambering up and over the edge to reclaim what was rightfully theirs.
Chanukah sameach.
Noah Berger
Student, Grade 12 Yeshivat Or Chaim
It is very well known that the two miracles of Chanukah occurred during the liberation of the Jewish people from the tyrants of Hellenism and the reclamation of Jewish sovereignty over the Beit HaMikdash and Jewish life. The first miracle, the military one, was highlighted by the miraculous defeat of the mighty Greek army by a small, but determined army known as the Maccabees. This army, armed with minimal military equipment and expertise, waged a guerilla war against the formidable, well-equipped and seemingly infinite forces of the Greeks. The second miracle was more of a spiritual victory which followed after the military defeat of the Greeks. The Talmud in Masechet Shabbat (21b) recalls that after the Greeks were overpowered and defeated, the Chashmonaim searched through the Beit HaMikdash and found only one flask of oil, just enough to light the Menorah for only one day. Despite the minimal quantity of oil, a miracle occurred and the oil lasted for eight days. After this occurrence, our Sages instituted the holiday of Chanukah, an eight-day festival of praise and thanksgiving to Hashem.
There is a lesser-known miracle of Chanukah, brought down by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l, that occurred several hundred years later. In the times of the Talmud, in a city called Lod, the rabbis decreed that Chanukah should be cancelled. This was an idea that many of the rabbis of that time floated around. At that point, the second Beit HaMikdash was already destroyed and since Chanukah celebrated the rededication of the temple, what was there to celebrate? This was the rationale behind the rabbis in Lod, and Chanukah was abolished. However, the other view eventually prevailed, spearheaded by Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua who publicly defied this new decree.
This is the reason we celebrate Chanukah to this day. Why? Because although the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed and the Jewish people were sent into 2000 years of exile, our hope was not lost. We say in the song Vehi Sheamda, that in every generation there are those who rise up against us, but “וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַצִּילֵנוּ מִיָּדָם”, that Hashem will always deliver us from their hands and ensure our eternal continuity.
On May 8th of 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allied forces in WWII. At that point in time, there was not much left for the Jewish people after six million Jews were slaughtered at the hands of the Nazis, yemach shemam vizichram. However, just three years later, the Jewish people established the State of Israel, bringing nearly 2000 years of exile to a close. Finally, for the first time since the second temple was destroyed, the Jewish people had returned to their ancestral homeland as a free and sovereign people. This was the idea that Rabbi Sacks was trying to focus on: the eternal hope and yearning of the Jewish people.
And just 75 years later, the Jewish people are once again faced with an existential challenge. There is an enemy and a people who are committed to destroying the Jewish people and the State of Israel. This is their life mission, not only to wipe out Jews from the river to the sea, but from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, from New York to Melbourne and from Toronto to London. We have witnessed atrocities committed against our people. This isn’t something new, this is something that we have seen time and time again. However, every single time, we prevail and we emerge victorious.
In 5784, we have an opportunity to prevail once again. Not just for this generation, but for all generations to come. If we remain passive, Chanukah was all for nothing. But if we rise up and fight for our future, we will ensure that we carry on the Maccabian legacy. As Rabbi Sacks said, the third miracle of Chanukah is our eternal hope. Now we must put that into action. We must not remain silent in the face of an extraordinary threat and we must ensure that the Jewish people remain loud and proud.
As you light your Chanukah candles tonight, please consider this message and may we merit that the Jewish people continue to succeed in making meaningful steps towards the building of the third Beit HaMikdash and the coming of Moshiach.
