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Reflections on the Close of Chanukah
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| Last
uploaded : Sunday 8th Dec 2002 at 17:36 |
| Contributed
by : Sheila Raviv |
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Before you read this week's Shabbat Shalom, may I recommend that you go to the Toronto Star website
http://www.thestar.com
and look up Rosie DiManno's last article. It is
outstanding.
Sheila
6th December, 2002
Shabbat Shalom Dear Friends.
Tonight is the last night of Chanuka. Most people believe that the miracle of chanuka is that after the desecration of the Holy Temple, a tiny amount of oil, barely enough for one night, gave light for eight nights, allowing time to clean and rededicate the Temple. I don't deny that miracle, I believe that Chanuka has a far greater meaning than pure oil, Chanuka represents the strength of the few to overcome the influence of the many. Judah Maccabee and his family managed to convince the Jews to fight back, these few brave men managed to overcome the collossal Hellenic (Greek) Empire. Why? Because they believed they could. Their Jewish identity and the Land of Israel were more important than social acceptability or personal safety.
There are miracles, both big and small, all around us all the time. My husband Zvi's
father, Kalman, a man who has suffered every illness in the book, is 89 today!!!
His wisdom and determination to live has allowed him to see his grandchildren. His family begged him not to go to the uncertaintly of pre-State Israel, to stay with them. They all perished in the Holocaust and he lives in Jerusalem.
Kinneret Chaya, our very own miracle, was given a 2% chance of living. On March 30th she was on the verge of death in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, this week she will be discharged from hospital!!!! Kinneret Chaya still has to go to the hospital every day, she still has to have assistance to perform most of the tasks we take for granted, but she is alive because she fought back!!
Israel, a tiny country in the midst of huge enemies, is also not willing to sit back and die. We will survive. As Al Qaeeda, Al Aqsa Martyrs, Fatah, Hisbolla, Tanzim, Hamas or whatever you wish to call them, are trying to take away our right to life, our right to prayer, our very right to democratic freedom, we
have to resist. By the way, if you thought I was still talking about Israel, you are wrong. The directive from both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein is that their fighters and PR should still make it appear to be about Israel, to
take attention from what they do in the rest of the world.
Al Qaeeda has threatened that his weekend will see another mega attaack, somewhere in the world. Will it come in the Phillipines, where the Moslem
minority are terrorising the Christian majority? Or India where the Moslem minority are terrorising the Hindu majority. Will it come in Indonesia again? Maybe Australia because they are angry with the Aussies for clamping down on
Moslem extremists in Indonesia. The USA? Well we know they are angry with them. The UK? ditto. What about Europe? Maybe the sycophantically Arabist Europeans will be shaken out of their beliefs? Apparently even the tropical paradise of Bali or the Kenya town of Mombasa is not far enough away.
Unless........... unless we remember that miracles can happen, if only you are willing to perform them.
Wishing you a Shabbat of small miracles. Think about the big ones too...with much love from a sunny, golden Jerusalem.
Sheila
PS Yet again there was a tragedy in Gaza, reports of civilians killed but this time it was explained, not by us but by the Gazan residents.
When the tanks arrive to bulldoze the home of KNOWN terrorists (to counteract to large amounts of funds given to them by Saddam Hussein) the townspeople all rush into the house and start shooting at the soldiers. They sacrifice
their lives to create bad publicity for Israel!!! I know, it sounds so far-fetched,
almost maniacal, it sounds like the Israeli press officer is up to no good, but so help me....it is true.
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