Lee Diamond – Let’s keep the candle burning!. ©iStockphoto.com/Pavlina Richterova
Lee Diamond – Let’s keep the candle burning!
For some Chanukah is candle lighting
And proclaiming a miracle
For some this is the holiday of light
For some this is a story the miracle of a flask of oil burning
For 8 days
For some this a battle of Jew against Greek
For some it is a story of the bravery of our forefathers
For some it is oily food!
But at Israel Celebration Tours we tell this story in another “light”:
Chanukah tells the story of an internal struggle of:
Jew against Jew-
– the Jew who integrated into Hellenistic culture
in so many ways-in language, in body– in name -in dress -in holidays
to the point that s/he hardly saw his/her identity as Jewish.
Alexander was a better choice of a name than Moshe or Yehudah. A triclinium more engaging than a Seder.
This is In contrast and in conflict to the Jew who wished to remain within the 4 squares of his own culture and who chose to struggle for Jewish identity and culture. Yehudah was the preferred name. Hebrew was the preferred language. Shabbat was of the highest value as was Pesach and Shavuot and Succot
The Maccabees and the Hellenist Jews struggled for the soul of their people.
And the miracle was that of the few and and the un-enfranchised were
able to withstand the power of assimilation of their Hellenized brothers and sisters who were entrenched in the world of Hellenism.
Chanukah celebrates the courage of deeply caring Jews to overcome the attraction of a culture dedicated to the “holiness of beauty” preferring a culture built upon the “beauty of holiness.”
Today, Chanukah asks us to publicize the miracle of our cultural survival. To celebrate our own culture . To speak our own language. To seek authenticity as Jews! To think and to act as educated Jews.
Not to reject the larger world but to inject holiness into it.
Let’s keep the candle burning!
Rabbi Lee Diamond, is based in Israel and began his unique rabbinate as an Israel Educator for the Diaspora. Rabbi Diamond has served as director of the Alexander Muss High School in Israel, and Associate Director of the Israel office of the UJR and NFTY Israel programs. He has dedicated his life to sharing the Israel he loves and creating an educational experiences for everyone visiting Israel. Rabbi Diamond’s philosophy: Israel is the stage on which I want to act out the drama of the Jewish people, its creative survival, and to affect people’s lives. When we see each other our discussion always seems to find its way to the ever changing political situation in Israel. In the end of course we come around to what is dear to the hearts of both of us: the importance of emphasizing Jewish values and ethics in our society.
חג חנוכה שמח
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