COMMUNITY VIEWS Chanuka 6 6 6 xs Of Chanuka Lights And Spirituality Festiv OfL 14 119 I/ t, gh ts .44 ~ him that Shammai did, but 0 0 0 he felt that the future held promise for improvement. Hillel lit the candles pro- 0 gressively. On the first ahead. night, one was Do you think that the lit; and on each future will be better than the successive night, past? Your answer to this an additional question is derived more candle was lit from your attitude than from until all eight fact. candles burned In the Talmud, we learn brightly on the that the House of Hillel felt eighth night. that the future held promise Hillel's ritual for a healthier society while proposal .prevails the House of Shammai RABBI to this day. His opposed this view. These HERBERT A. view conveys the opposing views were most YOSKOWITZ attitude that clearly symbolized by the way things can be Special to the House of Hillel and the better through the Jewish News House of Shammai the efforts of approached the order of people. Lighting lighting the Chanuka can- the candles of the Chanuka dles. menora in ascending, rather For Shammai, there was a glorious than descending, order was Jewish past but a degenerate present an act of great faith in the and an anticipation of an even more future. This is a strong mes- degenerate future. Chanukia by sage in our Chanuka ritual. This was expressed by lighting eight Jerusalem silversmith There is another message candles in the Chanuka menora on Michael Ende. in the ritual of lighting the the first night and then decreasing the Chanuka candles. This number of candles on each successive message is linked to the night, until only one candle would be theme of Chanuka as the lit on the eighth night. holiday of rededication. Hillel saw the same events around Unlike the holidays of eight days. Rededication is always Sukkot and of Passover, which in the more difficult than dedication. The Herbert A. Yoskowitz is a rabbi at Bible are celebrated for seven days, menora in the Temple has seven Adat Shalom Synagogue. Chanuka was to be celebrated for branches while the Chanuka menora A s this calendar year ends, many people reflect on the months past and begin to anticipate the months Cl, has eight. More effort is required to rekindle a relationship that has been sundered than it is to begin a new rela- tionship. The extra branch on the Chanuka menora is to remind us of the extra effort required to renew, reestablish and rededicate ourselves to our relationships and to our commit- ments. Believers in the mitzvah of lighting the Chanuka menora, of reciting the Al Hanisim and the Hal- lel and of reading the special excerpts from the Bible and from the Prophets during the holiday find it easier to feel the spiri- tuality of the holiday. The holiday of redemption reminds us that we can make sacred the quest to bring more holiness into our lives and into our world. Lighting the Chanu- ka menora can rekin- dle the sparks of holiness in our lives. What can be more spiritual than that? LETTERS major miracle, but I find that I still can't eat with chopsticks! Shari Finsilver Orchard Lake What's Happening With American Jews? rP 12/3 1999 34 Your issue of Nov. 19 has me com- pletely confused. What is truthfully going on with American Jewry? Who are the powers behind the scenes? What are their motives? The Jewish community has a right to know. Recently, Hadassah honored Hillary Rodham Clinton. Now more dirt on her ("Speechless In Ramallah," Nov. 19). It is sickening that a New York detective agency had to be hired by the United Jewish Communities to investigate a plan to honor Yasser Arafat with the Isaiah Award — first confirmed then denied and then con- firmed by documents received that the award had already been purchased and Arafat's office knew of the planned ceremony ("UJC Probes Leak," Nov. 19). In fact, there is a printed draft document of the award speech presen- tation prepared for but not delivered by Joel Tauber, chairman of the Unit- ed Jewish Communities executive committee. I think a thorough investi- gation should be made by a neutral, honorable committee. Now, another matter regarding Rabbi Sherwin Wine and Humanistic Judaism in the same story: a Human- istic Judaism event sponsored by the United Jewish Communities at the General Assembly in Atlanta. A two- hour class titled "Humanistic Judaism" was given. Rabbi Wine said he is not receiving a speaker's fee for the class. He should be paying them! Alta S. Kazdan West Bloomfield Pollard And Justice On the question of whether or not Jonathan Pollard received justice ("Of Justice And Mercy," Nov. 19), it is worth noting that two governmental employees who pleaded guilty to spy- ing for a friendly country received dis- parate punishments. One, a Jew, Pollard, was sentenced to life in prison on the charge of spy- ing for Israel. The other, a non-Jew, Lt. Cmdr. Michael Schwartz, was sentenced to a less-than-hon- orable dis- charge from the Navy without hav- ing to spend a single day in prison on the charge of spy- Judge Ruth Bader ing for Saudi Ginsberg Arabia. It is also worth noting that, in a failed appeal process, Judge Stephen Williams described Pollard's punishment as a "fundamental miscarriage of justice." Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg, now sitting on the Supreme Court, disagreed with the government's position.