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We need a do-over for the last 2 months. Hanukkah is made for the moment.
(JTA) — We need a do-over for the last two months since Oct. 7.
Of course we’d all love a time machine to take us back to that morning, to avert the horrors that would unfold in Israel. But that’s not what I mean. Let me explain.
In the book of 2 Maccabees — one of the main texts about the events leading to Hanukkah — we read a letter of Judah the Maccabee. In it, he says that, because the Greeks desecrated the Temple before Sukkot, the Jews were not able to celebrate Sukkot that year. But now since reclaiming the Temple, he says, we are going to celebrate Sukkot in Kislev. Basically: the Greeks forced us to reschedule Sukkot to December.
Hanukkah — which means dedication, and refers to a dedication of the Temple that traditionally happens on Sukkot — is the holiday of do-overs.
Later in history, in the early modern period, Hasidic writers would say that Hanukkah represents the real closing of the gates at the end of the High Holidays. Not Hoshanah Rabbah (which this year was Oct. 6), but Hanukkah represents the end of the High Holiday period.
For me, the attacks of Oct. 7, occurring at the very end of the High Holiday period, served to displace the ending of that period. There was no ending — we just went forward into a horrifying future. Many people have reported that in places like Kfar Aza and Kibbutz Beeri, there are still Sukkot standing — also in other places in Israel — there was no pause at the end of this holiday season.
Hanukkah is a holiday specifically designed to give the Jews a “do-over” in a year when our Sukkot and end-of-holiday feeling was ruined by a war. It is, honestly, strangely and perfectly resonant right now.
And as we start Hanukkah, I want to suggest some ways that we can experience this holiday as a bit of a “do-over” — that we can “celebrate Sukkot in Kislev.”
First, we can allow ourselves to detach from the news in one way or another. Maybe deleting Twitter from your phone, maybe turning off the TV, maybe maybe using your phone’s settings to limit the amount of time it lets you spend on a given app.
Second, we can allow ourselves to feel joy. We need to feel joy. We need to feel a sense of celebration. It’s not a betrayal of memory or of what is going on — it’s actually a way of connecting, a way of saying, “We Jews feel joy even in a time of stress, we bring light even in a time of darkness.”
Third, we can be proud and not afraid. The core mitzvah of Hanukkah is lighting a menorah in front of one’s house so that we can “publicize the miracle.” So put a menorah in your front window and proudly express your Judaism. Don’t be deterred by Jew hatred to cower. Hanukkah represents precisely the creation of a space to bring light despite the many fears and challenges around doing so. Celebrate it proudly.
May this Hanukkah, two months to the day since Oct. 7, be a holiday in which we fill our lives with light.
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The post We need a do-over for the last 2 months. Hanukkah is made for the moment. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Treasure Trove remembers the entertaining Jan and Lillian Bart, top fundraisers for Israel Bonds
Jan Bart (1919-1971) began his career as a cantor, but became a popular entertainer and Yiddish recording artist who dedicated his career to raising funds for Israel.
Bart was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States in 1930. He had a long-running radio program in the New York area, appeared on the Milton Berle television show and starred in the Yiddish film Catskill Honeymoon. One of Bart’s best-selling records was Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish.
When the State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948, Bart dedicated his life and talents to raising funds for the new country. He started by pleading into a megaphone from the back of an open station wagon that the existence of Israel was central to the survival of the Jewish people, and that funds were desperately needed.
When the Israel Bonds program was initiated in 1951, he was asked to sing at the first meeting in Miami. He combined songs and stories with his gift as a fundraiser resulting in events that regularly raised double and sometimes triple the expected return. Over a 20-year period, he appeared at more than 2,200 Israel Bond events in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia and raised more money for Israel than any other entertainer.
Bart toured with his wife Lillian, who was also an accomplished singer. In November 1965, the Barts toured Toronto with Israel Bonds which arranged a performance at almost every synagogue and organization in the city.
During a 22-day visit, they gave 30 performances for multiple Bnai Brith lodges and synagogues, including Shaarei Shomayim, Beth Emeth-Bais Yehuda, Beth Sholom, Clanton Park, Shaarei Tefillah and Beth Tzedec, as well as for groups like Pioneer Women, Hadassah and Mizrachi and several mutual benefit societies.
At the end of the tour, the Barts received a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and letters “in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the 1965 State of Israel Bond Campaign in Toronto through their magnificent interpretation of the lyrics from Fiddler on the Roof and their heart-warming message conveyed to every organization and synagogue in the Jewish community of Toronto.”
The way that the Toronto Jewish community united 60 years ago is an example for us today.
The scrapbook has recently been donated to the Ontario Jewish Archives by the Barts’ daughter, Judy Bart Kancigor, a California-based food journalist and the author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family.
The post Treasure Trove remembers the entertaining Jan and Lillian Bart, top fundraisers for Israel Bonds appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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PA Security Forces End Standoff with Jenin Battalion, Enter West Bank Camp
Illustrative. Palestinian demonstrators call for an end to clashes between Palestinian security forces and terrorists in Jenin, in the West Bank, Dec. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
i24 News – The Palestinian Authority on Friday reached an agreement with the jihadists of the Jenin Battalion, ending a six-week standoff in the northern West Bank terror hotbed.
The Jenin Battalion is a local jihadist militia affiliated with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
The PA’s engineering and civil defense crews will begin dismantling explosives planted across Jenin, Palestinian media reported.
A Palestinian security source told i24NEWS that not a single weapon has been handed over by the Jenin Battalion to PA security forces.
The post PA Security Forces End Standoff with Jenin Battalion, Enter West Bank Camp first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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With Hamas Yet to Name 3 First Hostages to Be Released, Netanyahu Slams Violation of Agreement
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Hamas violated the terms of its agreement with Israel even before the ceasefire went into effect, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out on Saturday.
The jihadist group failed to submit to Israel the names of the three hostages slated to be freed on Sunday, in contravention to the terms of the ceasefire stipulating that this information be communicated 24 hours in advance.
“We will not move forward with the outline until we receive the list of hostages to be released, as agreed. Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement,” Netanyahu said some three hours after the names should have been submitted. “The sole responsibility lies with Hamas.”
The post With Hamas Yet to Name 3 First Hostages to Be Released, Netanyahu Slams Violation of Agreement first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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