(cont.)
One week after Chanukah, on January 10th, we mark the first-light-to-nightfall fast of the 10th of (the Hebrew month of) Tevet (the "fast of the fourth month" referred to in Zechariah 8:18); see
http://www.aish.com/literacy/mitzvahs/The_Tenth_of_Tevet.asp.
One of the things that the Fast of the 10th of Tevet commemorates is the deaths of Ezra & Nehemiah, who were our spiritual leaders during the critical period following our return from the Babylonian Exile, in which we struggled to rebuild both the Temple & ourselves as a nation/people. If you look at the books of Ezra & Nehemiah, you'll see that intermarriage/assimilation was a big, big problem, just like it was a few centuries later during the Chanukah period (and like it is today; see? what goes around comes around!). But Ezra & Nehemiah managed to stop this and bring about a great change & return to God, in us by words, by their oratory alone. But, several centuries later, as I Maccabees 2:44-48 tells us:
They organized an army, and struck down sinners in their anger and lawless men in their wrath; the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety. And Mattathias and his friends went about and tore down the altars; they forcibly circumcised all the uncircumcised boys that they found within the borders of Israel. They hunted down the arrogant men, and the work prospered in their hands. They rescued the Torah out of the hands of the Gentiles and kings, and they never let the sinner gain the upper hand.
,
the Hasmoneans resorted/had to resort/ to force. Something not good had happened to us in the intervening centuries. Whereas oratory alone had once sufficed, now force had to be used. Either the Hasmoneans didn't try to use words or we were so far enamored of Hellenism and so hell-bent on jettisoning our Jewish heritage and the worship of the One God that is at its heart (see my citation of I Maccabees 1:11-15 in my previous post) that their words would have had no effect, or some combination of both, but something had happened. Instead of Jew speaking to Jew, Jew fought Jew, and even if that is sometimes necessary, it is never good or desirable. It's certainly nothing to trumpet.
This is why Chanukah (apart from a rather dry & technical discussion of when to light the candles, with what, by whom, etc.) gets very little press in the Talmud and this is also why our expressions of joy on Hanukkah are rather muted (we light the candles & say festive prayers (
http://www.ou.org/chagim/hallel.htm &
http://www.ou.org/chagim/alhanisim.htm), but there is no precept to feast & drink like there is on Purim, see my previous post above); our Sages did not want to overly dwell on this shameful chapter in our history when Jews' shed each other's blood (it's certainly nothing to feast about).
Without violating my self-imposed cyber-rule of never discussing the Israeli-Arab conflict online, I'll simply say that as Chanukah approaches, I find myself thinking about this alot especially seeing that things here in Israel, from this past summer & up to our elections on March 28, are so polarized and public debate is so charged about so many things. Civility & courtesy seem to be doing not so good right now and many still, small voices are getting shouted down.
We will do this Festival of Lights a disservice if we don't learn from both its positive & negative aspects. Just as a candle banishes the physical darkness, so too must we use the 8 (count 'em!) candles of Chanukah to banish the spiritual darkness, because where the divine light shines, the darkness cannot come.
Listen to Chanukah music/see the Chanukah blessings at
http://www.jewfaq.org/prayer/chanukah.htm &
http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday7.htm#Music.
In keeping with the Chanukah tradition of eating foods fried in oil, potato pancakes (
latkes in Yiddish;
levivot in Hebrew; here's a recipe:
http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday7.htm#Latkes) & donuts are big
. So, last year, we were having
latkes for dinner one night during Chanukah. DW was frying them in the kitchen. I was sitting with Da Boyz at the table in the lounge to make sure that the
latkes were, in fact, being eaten (as opposed to being used as projectile weapons). And as I sat with Da Boyz, I told them about Chanukah and as is my wont, I waxed...
creative. I told them about Matityahu (Mattathias) and his five exceptional boys (see I Maccabees 2;
http://www.hope.edu/bandstra/BIBLE/1MA/1MA2.HTM), the most well-known of whom was Judah Maccabee. I told Da Boyz of the untimely end of Judah's brother Elazar (I Maccabees 6:32-46):
Then Judah marched away from the citadel and encamped at Beth-zechariah, opposite the camp of the king. Early in the morning the king set out and took his army by a forced march along the road to Beth-zechariah, and his troops made ready for battle and sounded their trumpets. They offered the elephants the juice of grapes and mulberries, to arouse them for battle. They distributed the animals among the phalanxes; with each elephant they stationed a thousand men armed with coats of mail, and with brass helmets on their heads; and five hundred picked horsemen were assigned to each beast. These took their position beforehand wherever the animal was; wherever it went, they went with it, and they never left it. On the elephantsk were wooden towers, strong and covered; they were fastened on each animal by special harness, and on each were fourl armed men who fought from there, and also its Indian driver. The rest of the cavalry were stationed on either side, on the two flanks of the army, to harass the enemy while being themselves protected by the phalanxes. When the sun shone on the shields of gold and brass, the hills were ablaze with them and gleamed like flaming torches. Now a part of the king's army was spread out on the high hills, and some troops were on the plain, and they advanced steadily and in good order. All who heard the noise made by their multitude, by the marching of the multitude and the clanking of their arms, trembled, for the army was very large and strong. But Judah and his army advanced to the battle, and six hundred of the king's army fell. Now Eleazar, called Avaran, saw that one of the animals was equipped with royal armor. It was taller than all the others, and he supposed that the king was on it. So he gave his life to save his people and to win for himself an everlasting name. He courageously ran into the midst of the phalanx to reach it; he killed men right and left, and they parted before him on both sides. He got under the elephant, stabbed it from beneath, and killed it; but it fell to the ground upon him and he died.
And so, I told Da Boyz, this is why we eat potato pancakes which are
flat...
...prompting DW to aim a dishtowel at my person.
Be well!
ssv
