01 Dec CHANNUKAH IS IN THE AIR: THE SPOON, THE PRISON AND THE MATCH
Chanukah lights. Lights that connect us to the past, to a story that happened over 2,000 years ago, yet speaks to us today.
As we kindle the menorah, we recite the blessing “Who made miracles for our fathers, in those days, at this time.” A blessing that makes us one with our ancestors.
Antiochus and his mighty Greek army invaded Israel, with the goal of Hellenizing the Jewish nation. The Greek’s war was not merely a physical one, but a war against the Jewish neshamah. They wanted to coerce the Jews to look, act and live like the ancient Greeks. To break their Jewish identity, abandon their Torah way of life, and forget their belief in HaShem.
The Greeks desecrated the Beis HaMikdosh and its vessels. They brought in statues of pagan G-ds, and non-kosher animals for sacrifices.
While there were those who sadly succumbed to Greek influence, there was a group that stood up to Antiochus. Mattisyahu, the Kohein Gadol, called out “Mi kamocha ba’elim HaShem, Who is like You amongst the G-ds, Hashem.” In the Hebrew language, the first letters of these four words form the acronym “Maccabee”. Mattisyahu, his five sons, and the brave Maccabees battled the Greeks with courage, emunah and a prayer upon their lips.
The revolt began. They were no match for the mighty Greek war machine. HaShem made a miracle, and delivered the many into the hands of the few, the mighty into the hands of the weak.
On Chanukah, we don’t celebrate the military victory, but the triumph of the Jewish soul. The spirit of a nation who didn’t give up. We celebrate the miracle of the pure oil that was only enough for one day, but continued to burn for eight. A fire that is symbolic of the flame within our neshamos.
To this day we continue to celebrate the Jewish spirit. A spirit that survives the ages.
In our lifetime, too, we have seen modern day Maccabees. Jewish souls who defied spiritual oppression, and remained connected to HaShem, no matter what.
I.I. Cohen, a Holocaust survivor, wrote about his Chanukah experience under Nazi tyranny. Even while interred in various concentration camps, Mr. Cohen was able to keep track of the Jewish calendar. With a group of inmates, he reminisced about Chanukah celebrations gone by. Memories of menorahs, latkes and dreidels. How their fathers would light their menorahs with such fervor and simcha. They all longed to feel the warmth of Chanukah. But in a concentration camp?
A plan was hatched. One offered the small dab of his daily ration of margarine to serve as oil. For wicks, they unraveled threads from their ragged concentration camp uniforms. All they needed now was a menorah.
Mr. Cohen was somehow able to sneak in a spoon. A spoon that would serve as the menorah. With the margarine and threads placed on the makeshift menorah, they lit the “wicks” and recited the blessings. They sang the Chanukah songs, and their souls soared. Modern day Maccabees, bringing spiritual light to the darkest of dark.
Mr. Cohen survived the war. He built a beautiful family. Children and grandchildren. Every Chanukah, as he lights his silver menorah, he places his Auschwitz spoon alongside it. The triumph of the Jewish soul.
(As recorded in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, December 13, 1999)
Yosef Mendelevich was a refusenik in the former Soviet Union who spent 12 years in the Gulag for defying Communist rule and practicing Yiddishkeit. Even in solitary confinement, he kept track of the Jewish calendar, and realized that Chanukah was approaching.
Mendelevich identified with the Maccabees’ fight for spiritual freedom, and resolved to somehow have Chanukah, even in prison. He managed to get a match from one of the guards, and pulled threads from his prison garb, which he braided together to form wicks.
There were just a few days to Chanukah, but he had no idea how he would find a menorah. He eyed a broken piece of brick on his cell’s floor, and with it, etched an image of a menorah upon the cinderblock walls. When Chanukah arrived, he lodged the wicks into the crevices of the wall, and struck his match. While it only remained lit for only a few seconds, his heart was filled with renewed hope.
Mendelevich was freed as a result of massive international pressure and protests, and received a hero’s welcome in Israel. A true modern day Maccabee, who not only survived, but continued his Jewish studies, becoming an inspiration for the Russian community to this day.
Yuli Edelstein speaks about his imprisonment in the former Soviet Union. A Prisoner of Zion, arrested for teaching Hebrew to fellow Jews.
December 19, 1984. Edelstein was already in solitary for three months, when he was summoned to hear his verdict. His sentence for engaging in illegal religious activities was three years of hard labor in Siberia.
One would think that Edelstein would fall apart. Instead, he made a quick calculation upon hearing the judge announce the date, and figured out that it must be Chanukah. He hadn’t seen his wife while jailed in solitary, and had no idea when he would see her again. Twenty-six year old Yuli cried out in the courtroom, “Tanya, what night is it?”
At first, his wife didn’t get it. The guards began to whisk him away. Once again, Edelstein called out, “What night is it?” Tanya now understood. “The second night, Yuli, the second night.”
That night, Yuli held two burning matches together and stood by the prison window, holding on until the fire singed his fingers.
Yuli never gave up. His religious convictions grew stronger and stronger, even under the harshest conditions of the Soviet Gulag. After he was freed, he and Tanya emigrated to Israel, where he completely immersed himself in advocating for the needs of the Russian community. He ultimately rose to become a government minister and Speaker of the Knesset.
Another modern day Maccabee.
Three Chanukah heroes.
Three men, who like the Maccabees generations before them, fought the battle against spiritual oppression.
Three men who lit up the darkness.
Three men who made a difference.
The power of the Jewish soul.