88 Friday, December 10, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Hanuka 5743 2,000 Year-Old Feast of Lights
By DVORA WAYSMAN
stituting the Greek lan-
poignant relevance to heroism and our history
guage, gods and customs.
contemporary Jewish abounds with examples.
JERUSALEM — Al- Giant amphitheaters
history.
We remember
The revolt of the Hasmo-
though it is not even men- were built for sport and the
not only the heroism of neans is the symbol of the
tioned in the Bible, Hanuka people indoctrinated with
the Hasmoneans, but spirit expressed today by
is an important Jewish fes- the hedonist philosophy
heroic acts that have Zionism. Today, in Western
tival. The word itself means that religion lay in beauty,
since paralleled it. Over society, no tyrant is forcing
"dedication," and it takes as opposed to the Jewish
and over again, we in Is- us to abandon our faith and
place each year on 25 Kis- faith which saw beauty in
rael
have seen the victory
worship strange gods, but
lev, often coinciding with their Jewish Divine law.
of a small nation against the Jews are still in great
the gentile festival of
Many Jews, known as
a larger and stronger danger of losing their iden-
Christmas. In a way, it's a Hellenizers or
one; the few against the tity in the Diaspora. Hel-
happy coincidence because "mityavim" (today we
many; the weak against lenism, in a different but in-
Diaspora Jewish children would call them "as-
the
strong; spirit over sidious form, is alive and
have no need to envy their similationists"), began to
matter.
well today.
neighbors — they have speak Greek instead of
In 1948, despite over-
To prevent our doing to
their own festival of light, Hebrew and spent their
whelming odds, the young ourselves what tyrants
no less significant and days in the gymnasium,
Israel Defense Forces de- failed to impose on us, we
enjoyable as that of their neglecting the Sabbath
Hanuka 5743
feated massive Arab armies must cling to our own
Christian friends.
and their own festivals.
idol worship. Hundreds hid press the revolt, but courage to usher in the independent heritage, customs and
For its origin, we must go Greek civilization in caves and suffocated to and clever military tactics state of Israel. Before this, faith.
seemed
to
be
a
flood
back to the Jerusalem of
death, but this bravery ac- resulted in a Jewish victory, in World War II, there was
Hanuka has broad
2,000 years ago — 165 BCE, threatening to destroy complished nothing until with Judah's first priority widespread Jewish resis-
human
significance as a fes-
the
whole
Jewish
heri-
when Palestine became part
the Hasmonean family of the purification of the Tem- tance to the brutal policies tival of liberty and religious
of the Hellenist Syrian em- tage.
of
Hitler
and
Jews
fought
Mattathias and his five sons ple.
freedom — not just for us
pire. The northern part was
The final blow came when at Modin raised a banner:
The big problem was that heroically in the ghetto but for all peoples. It is a
ruled by the ambitious An- the temple was defiled and a "Whoever is for the Lord, all the cruses of oil had been and joined partisan units in
humanistic festival par ex-
tiochus Epiphanes, who giant statue of the Greek follow me!"
defiled except one and it forests outside Polish and cellence. The symbol of
wanted to build an empire god Zeus installed, with the
would last for just one day. Russian cities conquered by Hanuka is light and the real
that would hold its own Jews ordered to worship it.
An army, small but well- The miracle we celebrate at the Nazis.
miracle is that, despite mil-
against Rome. So, in 175 Some — like Hannah and trained, sprang up, led by Hanuka is that it burned for
Israel's operation into lenia of persecution and
BCE, he tried to subdue her seven sons — resisted Judah Maccabee and his eight days until more oil Entebbe to rescue the hos-
dispersion, the light of our
Palestine by wiping out the bravely but passively, brothers. Antiochus sent could be acquired.
tages in Uganda in 1976 is people has never been ex-
Jewish religion and sub- choosing death rather than three large armies to sup-
Today, Hanuka has a another example of modern tinguished.
World Zionist Press Service
Jewish Women Have Special Role in the Traditions of Hanuka
By DR. DAVID GEFFEN
World Zionist Press Service
The precept of kindling
the Hanuka lamp is oblig-
atory upon women for they
too were part of the miracle."
This injunction, found in
the Talmud tractate Shab-
at 23a, is one of a number
of citations which weave to-
gether to make Hanuka a
holiday in which women
must participate. Whereas
on other holidays during the
Jewish calendar year the
role of women can be cir-
cumscribed and oft-times is
virtually non-existent, at
Hanuka the very opposite is
the case.
In the Book of Second
Maccabees, Chapter 7, a
story is related about the
martyrdom of a mother and
her seven sons. Each son is
urged by Antiochus the
king to reject Judaism in
one way or another and turn
to paganism. As-each one of
the first six refused to follow
the king's edict, they were
put to death before their
mother's eyes, each in the
most terrible fashion possi-
ble.
When the turn of the
seventh came, the king
urged the mother to speak
to him and save his life. In-
stead she admonished the
youngest of her sons: "Do
not be afraid of this
executioner but show your-
self worthy of your brothers.
Accept death, that in God's
mercy I may receive you
back again along with your
brothers."
The king was so
angered by the mother's
words that he put the boy
to death, followed by the
mother as well. This story
has been repeated in
many versions and has
become known as Han-
nah and her Seven Sons.
The second woman
enshrined in the Hanuka
story is Judith. A book in
C)
A 19th Century silver Lenora from the Ukraine.
the Apocrypha bears her Abraham upon their sons, and daughters retell the
name and tells- the story of because none else would so story of Hannah and her
Judith, a woman who lived dare the tyrant's wrath; and seven sons and the story of
several centuries earler with their infants sus- Judith. There are interpola-
than the Maccabean revolt, pended around their necks, tions in Ladino and special
the Second Century BCE. received death by being music for the recitation of
She places herself in flung from the battlements these takes — music handed
jeopardy in order to get into of the Temple into the deep down from grandmother to
the private tent of vale below. Yet no woman's granddaughter.
Holofernes, a general bent spirit failed."
In certain North Afri-
Then she continued with can communities women
on destroying the Jews of
Jerusalem. When he had this question: "And what and girls fill the syna-
become enamored by her must have been the attach- gogue on the seventh
beauty and fallen into a ment to their holy religion, night. The Torah scrolls
drunken stupor, she killed what their sense of its re- are taken from the Ark
him.
sponsibility and its immor- and the women move
Her action is recalled in tal reward, what their hor- forward to kiss them lov-
the Laws of Hanuka, when ror of abandoning it them- ingly. The rabbi blesses
it states: "Work is permitted selves, and cutting off their each of the women,
on Hanuka; however, sons from its sainted young and old, with the
women refrain from work privileges, to incur martyr- traditional
blessing,
during the entire time the doms like these?"
"May He who blessed our
The seventh night of matriarchs Sarah, Re=
lights are burning." The
reason is based "on the act of Hanuka in various Sephar- becca, Rachel and Leah
the woman who gave cheese dic communities is tradi- • • • 91
to the general to get him tionally the night of mark- An additional prayer
thirsty and then filled him ing the heroic actions of calling for God's special pro-
with wine so he would sleep Jewish women. Mothers tection of the women pre-
and she could sever his
hand, thus saving the
Jewish people." Through
the hands of a woman an-
By RABBI ALLAN M.
difference and lingering
BLUSTEIN
other miracle of Hanuka
hatreds complicated the
Chaplain,
Sinai
Hospital
was effected.
task.
The city of Nuremberg,
The 19th Century
British Jewish authoress Germany doesn't rate too Yet, the Israelitische Kul-
Grace Aguilar (1816-1847) high on the all-time popu- tusgemeinde of Nurem-
berg and Furth (its ad-
found in the Hanuka larity list for Jews.
story a focal point for her
Still in all there did occur joining town) perser-
understanding. of the here in this crown jewel of vered, establishing
heroic role of the Jewish Northern Bavaria where Shabat minyonim„ He-
woman throughout his- were spawned the infamous brew schools for the chil-
tory.
Nuremberg Laws of 1935, a dren and holiday cele-
This is how she writes of Hanuka so rare that its brations and worship for
the women's reactions to the story should be told to the the adults. Hanuka 1970
'edicts of Antiochus: American Jewish commu- stood out as a most un-
"Women, young, meek, ten- nity. This is because several usual example.
der, performed with their members of that community
Traditionally, Nurem-
own hands the covenant of were then serving with the bergers, as do all Germans,
U.S. forces stationed there love to celebrate the winter-
during that cold winter of time. The Christkindlmarkt
1970.
draws not only Christians,
Down though they were, but a few Jews too be-
but far from being out, the cause . . . it's tough to re-
German Jewish community sist the likes of roast
of some 30,000 souls was chestnuts, delicious leb-
then and is now making a kuchen
(gingerbread),
massive effort to re-vitalize prune men, and all those
itself in a land where both a other delectables whose
zenith and a nadir of Jewish aroma lures the people in
life took place. Inertia, in- droves to the Hauptmarkt
sent was recited in conclud-
ing the celebration.
Emma Lazarus, the 19th
Century American Jewish
poetess best known for her
poem "the New Colossus" on
the Statue of Liberty, re-
vived her own Jewishness
in the 1880s after many
years of indifference toward
her own faith.
In the festival of Hanuka
and the figure of the Mac-
cabees, she witnessed, as
she put it, "the uplifting of
the Banner of the Jew." In
her Hanuka poem "The
Feast of Lights" she con-
cluded with these lines:
Clash, Isarel the cym-
bals, touch the lyre
Sound the brass trum-
pet and the harsh-
tongued horn
Chant hymns of victory
till the heart take fire
The Maccabean spirit
leap newborn.
Return of Hanuka to Nuremberg
(the central marketplace of
Nuremberg.
Not far from this mar-
ketplace stands an au-
ditorium. On the particular
frigid Saturday evening in
question, a standing room
only crowd was hypnotized
by a unique performance
. . . for Germany that is. It
was none other than
"Anatevka" (the European
version of "Fiddler on the
Roof').
The wintry air reverber-
ated with the sounds of the
shtetl music as the largely
German audience rose to its
feet, cheering and applaud-
ing the players. Who in his
wildest dreams could ever
imagine that such a
genuine appreciation for a
"Jewish" vehicle
-of
entertainment could take
place in the very city where
war-criminals were tried
and convicted for crimes
against those same Jewish
people.
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