Lee Diamond – Once Upon a Jew and Chanukah
Once upon a Jew:
Rock of Ages
A 19th century translation
“Rock of ages, let our song
Praise thy saving power
Thou amidst the raging foes
Wast our sheltering tower
Furiously they assailed us
But Thine arm availed us
And thy word
Broke their swords
When our own strength
Failed us.
…….
Children of the martyr race
Whether free or fettered
Wake the echoes of these songs
Where ye may be scattered
Yours the message cheering
That the time is nearing
Which will see
All men free
Tyrants disappearing.”
We learned these words by heart
In Hebrew and in English
The Hebrew remained
And the English faded
Yet still retained
“Thou Amidst the raging foes..”
“Furiously they assailed us..”
“When our own strength failed us…”
“Children of the martyrdom race…”
“Whether free or fettered…”
“Where you may be scattered”
“The time is nearing”
“Tyrants disappearing”
This rendering of the words was
an attempt to describe
The abhorrent condition of the Jew
In the late 19th century
With the hope that God
Would bring us solace.
And We learned these words
–All of My generation—
in the mid 20th century –
Did we believe
That we were the children
Of the martyr race?
Did we think that we were scattered?
Were we aware that Jews were fettered?
Were we aware of being assailed?
Did we consider our strength failing us?.
We were Jews of a different kind
We knew of Shoah from up close
But we knew of renewal
Of strength
Of fighting Jews
Of Jewish power
Of the end of scattering
Of proud muscular Judaism
And Jews
We may not have been spiritual
But we saw ourselves as the
Sons and daughters
Of the Macabees
We were so proud to be those
Who knew how to sing HaTikvah
Today as we sing Maoz Tzur
It’s about the muscular relation
Of power
of a nation and its God
in touch With its future
And No less than it’s past
Jewish Power Matters
It’s not to be feared
As long as it is
Just
Chanukah
“The beauty of holiness”
*They built a Greek Gymnasium
In our Holy city, Jerusalem
*They played in international
Greek competitions
*They changed their names
To Greek names,
Jason, Menelaus and Alexander
*They ceased to circumcise
Their children
And even tried to reverse their
Own Brit!
*They abandoned Hebrew
And adopted Greek as their
Lingua franca instead
*They ceased to observe
Our law and and customs
*And dressed in Greek clothing
But when these, my people
Agreed to sacrifice
to Greek gods
It became more than just a
״ kulturkamph”
Or an experiment
It became TYRANNY
Enough!
We were deeply wounded
*Our hearts bled!
*Our souls cried in pain
*“Shemah Yisrael” שמע ישראל
* A cry of loss and death
More than we could fathom
*Jews openly and proudly sacrificing
A pig to a Pagan God!
And we reacted as Jews!
As “hammers” מכבים–
Against the rejection
Of all that we stood for!
No, the revolt was not against
The Greeks as much as
As our uncontrolled soul explosion
Against our
Brothers and sisters
Who cast our Jewish soul aside
In order to imitate and join the
Ranks of
Hellenist Greeks.
It’s not the cruse of oil
It’s not the miracle
Of a rededicated Temple
That we publicize in our windows
On Hanukah today
It’s the miracle of a
Dedicated
Jews-
Who chose to maintain “their own”
In the face of the UN-dedicated
social climbing
covenant rejecting
covenant hiding
Alt-Jews
–That we declare
It’s the time to light the flames
And let them be seen
The lights Of justified self pride and conviction
For our our brothers and sisters to focus on
And to declare to those many
That the stout hearted Jews
Even a minyan of 10
Can, and will –struggle for the rights
We adore
The few against the many
Will maintain the covenant, the ברית
And will never
Reverse it
גרעין קטן טמנתי
בתלם השחור
ישגה כאן האמנתי
לחמי לפי הדור
I planted a tiny seed
In a black earthed furrow
I deeply believed
That I would see
My bread
In every generation
—and I have
