Israeli Soldiers Are the Modern Maccabees

By Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg

EDISON, New Jersey — Chanukah, is a minor holiday in our calendar that has been made into a major holiday by Hallmark and Mattel toys over the years. Nevertheless, even …though Chanukah is a minor holiday like Purim it has a very and important lesson for us particularly as Jews in America today. There have been many attempts to physically annihilate the Jewish people most notably that of the Nazis in the 1940s and that of Haman in Persia some two thousand plus years ago. All those attempts thank G-d have failed.

Article 22 of the Hamas Charter describes the diabolical and insidious nature they ascribe to Jews. “They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution, and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there ….They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments and paved the way for the establishment of their state. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.”

The Chanukah story takes place in Israel approximately 2,000 years ago. The Syrian Greeks controlled that part of the world at that time. They were not interested in annihilating the Jews as Haman and Hitler were but rather causing them to totally assimilate and leave the Jewish faith. This is just as dangerous or almost as dangerous a threat. For if we do not survive as Jews then what value does Judaism have?! The Jews of that era fought valiantly to survive and drove the Syrian Greeks out of the Temple. They then rededicated the Temple, found oil for the Holy Menorah and therefore we have the festival of Chanukah. Chanukah means rededication as they rededicated the Temple at that time.

We face a different threat today and that is voluntary self destruction. The assimilation rate here in America is frightening. We are threatening to destroy ourselves. Let us use this Chanukah season, which begins the evening of December 7, not only to sing songs, eat latkes and light the Menorah but rededicate ourselves to the real message of Chanukah: the survival of the spiritual aspect of the Jewish faith.

Fellow Jews. If Israel is attacked on all sides and loses, we Jews around the world are next. The Israeli soldiers and civilians and the hostages are dying kiddush hashem so that we may live. Please put out flags, posters, and ribbons as a symbol of support.

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Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth-El in Edison, New Jersey and is the author of Theological and Halachich Reflections on the Holocaust, among other books. He serves on the New Jersey State Holocaust Commission and chairs the Holocaust Commission of the New York Board of Rabbis.