"The Hanukkah lights are purely spiritual and solely for our metaphysical enjoyment…avoid the urge to rush into presents... Sit and enjoy the candles. Take a deep breath, relax, converse with family and friends, or just sit alone and ponder the simple everyday gifts we get from our Creator. Most importantly, use the holy moments to rekindle your own dreams.”
—Sam Glaser, performer, composer, producer in LA
My wife Cecile and our family would agree, this Hanukkah which begins on the eve of December 7, is about the freedom to be Jewish and the light of Jewish identity and commitment and the eternal survival of the Jewish people. The holiday commemorates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem in the 2nd century B.C., by a small group of Jewish warriors (The Maccabees) after they defeated much larger Greek armies. History tends to repeat itself. Due to the Israel-Hamas war, and rapidly worldwide rising antisemitism, there is cloud of sadness and sobriety taking place. Some Jewish leaders believe that Hanukkah is needed now more than ever. Hanukkah celebrations around the globe this year include public menorah lightings, where a candle on a nine-branched candelabrum is lit during the eight-day Hanukkah season. We will celebrate Hanukkah peacefully and quietly.
The proximate cause of this war began after Hamas (means violence in Hebrew), a terrorist organization viciously attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 240 hostages. Those captured were civilians from kibbutzim that were attending a musical festival celebrating peace. They were uprooted, and many of them were raped, burned, and slaughtered, including babies and the elderly. It was the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. Hamas and Hezbollah launched missiles into IsraelI. In retaliation, Israel bombed the Gaza Strip, where Hamas used their people as human shields near and under schools and hospitals, that sadly resulted in over 15,000 casualties including women and children. Hamas’ still threatens to repeat the atrocities of Israeli civilians and their charter calls for the annihilation of Israel and its people. There was a ceasefire, humanitarian aid resumed for the Palestinians, and prisoner exchanges which was broken by Hamas and the war has resumed. As Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel (1969 to 1974) said, “You can’t negotiate peace with somebody who has come to kill you."
THE RESOLVE OF ISRAEL & PLEDGES FOR A REDEMPTIVE TRIUMPH OVER HAMAS
Maayan Schoen, Atlanta Jewish Times, a Yale University graduate, current chief of staff for the deputy mayor of Jerusalem wrote:
“Our seers were simple oracles who revealed the future, making known an inescapable reality. They were reluctant, sometimes defiant…of what might come to be…They prophesied the worse of what was to come, as well as the comfort that would follow…The worst of that was to come: we saw...on October 7th. We were captured. We were uprooted. We were raped and slaughtered…There is scant comfort these days until every hostage is able to be embraced by their family…We pray and petition for the return of our remaining captives, but it is actually in our hands to restore ourselves to the land…let us pursue this destiny, we will never be uprooted again.”
