Thanks to God for the Miracles on Hanukkah and Each Day of Our Lives

Hanukkah Means Dedication

Today the Jewish people are celebrating the second of the eight days of Hanukkah.  This sacred festival recounts the first known battle for religious freedom.  The Syrian Greeks imposed their pagan faith upon all the Jews of ancient Israel and compelled them to bow down to the Greek god Zeus that had been erected in the one Jewish temple in Jerusalem, 2175 years ago.  The faithful Jews refused to bow down to Zeus or King Antiochus.  The Jewish people would only bow before the King of Kings, the holy one blessed be He. 

When the Jewish people were victorious they knew that they owed their thanks to their faith and belief in the one God.  As the Jewish prophet Zachariah proclaimed, our battles are not due to human strength, “not by human might and not by human power, but by the spirit of God.” 

The name of the holiday Hanukkah, means “dedication,” because we rededicated the temple to the true God of the universe, the Almighty, and not to a false god, pagan idol, or statue.  Our sages did not name the holiday, Victory of the Greeks, or Human strength overpowers pagan god…because the true hero of this battle, was the God of Truth, the God of religious freedom.  Judaism does not permit the coercion of our faith upon others.  We are to lead by example, and not by undue pressure or force.

The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is inscribed with the verse from the Jewish Testament, the Book of Leviticus: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”  Judaism and the preeminent holiday of Passover, recounts the liberation from bondage by the ancient Hebrews against Pharoah and his taskmasters.  Moses appealed to Pharoah on behalf of God:  “Let my people go (from you Pharoah, a mere mortal tyrant) so that they may serve Me (the one God of the Universe). 

What is the first thing we learn about this God of the Universe?  That He wants man to be free from slavery, whether that slavery is a false religion or a human taskmaster.  Rather, we are all to be servants of the one God, who commands us “to love our neighbors as ourselves.”  The verse that occurs 36 times in the torah, the Jewish bible is: “Be kind to the stranger, because you remember how you were mistreated when you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Throughout human history we have learned about the harm caused by coercive self possessed leaders.  We have witnessed the recent death of the leader of North Korea, who lived a narcissistic lifestyle of pleasure and excess while his citizens, men, women and children, starved and died in the streets.  He is merely one of countless examples of such self absorbed leaders, lacking in compassion for his own people, we could draw from human history.   

When the Jewish people chose their human ruler, an earthly king, he was obligated to follow Jewish law almost the same as any other Jew.  He was judged by our Prophets and most often criticized for not obeying God’s law sufficiently.  Human leaders are to rule with humility, acknowledging that they are not God.  All human leaders have term limits, as they all are terminal!  Only God is eternal and only God’s law ultimately rules this universe.  May we all learn the message of Hanukkah…the importance of dedication to the eternal values of humility under God, liberation of all mankind from slavery, and love for our fellow human beings.  

Gershon Weissman is the Rabbi of The New Shul of the Conejo www.tnsconejo.org  818-851-0030.  Rabbi Weissman has served the Jewish community for over thirty years.  He is a member of the Conejo Valley Interfaith Association (CVIA) which meets monthly and welcomes clergy and representatives of all religious faiths.