Hanukkah message

As we approach the New Year and celebrate the holiday of Chanukah, the state of world affairs as it pertains to our lives and the Jewish people seems quite daunting. The Jewish state is surrounded by tens of millions of Arabs who have not as yet come to terms with Israel’s existence and who support those who seek its destruction. At the top of the list is Iran and its Holocaust-denying President bent on developing nuclear weapons that not only threaten Israel, but the world. The tide of anti-Semitism that is sweeping across Europe continues to pick up momentum. Jewish communities from Paris to Padua feel the mounting threat coming from radical Muslim youth and increase in Islamic fundamentalism across the Continent. In America, the unemployment rate is staggering and the list of families that mourn continues tragically and painfully to grow with each passing day as more and more of our brave men and women become casualties on the streets of Kabul and across Afghanistan. And, in spite of the never-ending chatter from the United Nations, America ostensibly stands alone.

While there is truth in the saying that there is security in numbers, the Jewish people have proven to be the exception to the rule, and the holiday of Chanukah, is a clear example of this fact.

Two thousand years ago, the Israelites were besieged and then subjugated by one of the greatest forces in the civilized world, the Seleucid Greeks, whose origins were rooted in the empire of Alexander the Great. They dictated that the Jews were not permitted to pray, were not permitted to keep the Sabbath, were not permitted to practice circumcision, and were to abandon public displays of Jewish life. The Greeks desecrated the Temple, erected Pagan statues in the “Holy of Holies” where the Ark of the Covenant had stood, and occupied Jerusalem and its surroundings with a massive army. As we all know, the Jewish people, armed with not much more than their passionate faith in God and commitment to maintain our Jewish way of life, prevailed, and saved Judaism and the Jewish people from extinction, giving us the joyous holiday of Chanukah.