DOWN WITH CHANUKAH!

DOWN WITH CHANUKAH!  This is a piece written by Rabbi Meir Kahane z"l back on­ December 15, 1972.  I think it is a very important piece to dwell on and internalize, especially since this holiday is one of the holidays that most diaspora jews choose to celebrate.  The problem is that the meaning of Chanukah gets lost in the Diaspora, seeming to compete with Christmas, losing its most important message, that of the fight for religious freedom to be a Jew.  A video follows below that I think is important to watch, though I am not suggesting who to vote for, as I myself have not decided where to cast a vote and to my knowledge, this United Torah Block does not yet exist.  If someone knows otherwise, please post about it below.

Rabbi Meir Kahane Writings (5732-33) (1971-73)

If I were a Reform rabbi; if I were a leader of the Establishment whose money and prestige have succeeded in capturing for him the leadership and voice of American Jewry; if I were one of the members of the Israeli Government's ruling group; if I were an
enlightened sophisticated, modern Jewish intellectual, I would climb the barricades and join in battle against the most dangerous of all Jewish holidays ­ Chanukah.

   It is a measure of the total ignorance of the world Jewish
community that there is no holiday that is more universally celebrated
than the "Feast of Lights", and it is an equal measure of the
intellectual dishonesty and of Jewish leadership that it plays along
with the lie.  For if ever there was a holiday that stands for
everything that the mass of world Jewry and their leadership has
rejected ­ it is this one.  If one would find an event that is truly
rooted in everything that Jews of our times and their leaders have
rejected and, indeed, attacked ­ it is this one.  If there is any
holiday that is more "unJewish" in the sense of our modern beliefs and
practices ­ I do not know of it.

The Chanukah that has erupted unto the world Jewish scene
in all its childishness, asininity, shallowness, ignorance and fraud ­
is not the Chanukah of reality.  The Chanukah that came into vogue
because of Jewish parents ­ in their vapidness ­ needed something to
counteract Christmas; that exploded in a show of
"we-can-have-lights-just-as-our-goyish-neighbors" and in an effort to
reward our spoiled children with eight gifts instead of the poor
Christian one; the Chanukah that the Temple, under its captive rabbi,
turned into a school pageant so that the beaming parents might think
that the Religious School is really successful instead of the tragic
joke and waste that it really is; the Chanukah that speaks of Jewish
Patrick Henrys giving-me-liberty-or death and the pictures of
Maccabees as great liberal saviors who fought so that the kibbutzim
might continue to be free to preach their Marx and eat their ham, that
the split-level dwellers of suburbia might be allowed to violate their
Sabbath in perfect freedom and the Reform and Conservative Temples
continue the fight for civil rights for Blacks, Puerto Ricans and Jane
Fonda, is not remotely connected with reality.

            This is NOT the Chanukah of our ancestors, of the
generations of Jews of Eastern Europe and Yemen and Morocco and the
crusades and Spain and Babylon.  It is surely not the Chanukah for
which the Maccabees themselves died.  Truly, could those whom we honor
so munificently, return and see what Chanukah has become, they might
very well begin a second Maccabean revolt.  For the life that we Jews
lead today was the very cause, the REAL reason for the revolt of the
Jews "in those days in our times."

            What happened in that era more than 2000 years ago?  What
led a handful of Jews to rise up in violence against the enemy?  And
precisely who WAS the enemy?  What were they fighting FOR and who were
they fighting AGAINST?

            For years, the people of Judea had been the vassals of
Greece.  True independence as a state had been unknown for all those
decades and, yet, the Jews did not rise up in revolt.  It was only
when the Greek policy shifted from mere political control to one that
attempted to suppress the Jewish religion that the revolt erupted in
all its bloodiness.  It was not mere liberty that led to the Maccabean
uprising that we so passionately applaud.  What we are really cheering
is a brave group of Jews who fought and plunged Judea into a bloodbath
for the right to observe the Sabbath, to follow the laws of kashruth,
to obey the laws of the Torah.  IN A WORD EVERYTHING ABOUT CHANUKAH
THAT WE COMMEMORATE AND TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO COMMEMORATE ARE THINGS
WE CONSIDER TO BE OUTMODED, MEDIEVAL AND CHILDISH!

            At best, then, those who fought and died for Chanukah were
naïve and obscurantist.  Had we lived in those days we would certainly
not have done what they did for everyone knows that the laws of the
Torah are not really Divine but only the products of evolution and men
(do not the Reform, Reconstructionist and large parts of the
Conservative movements write this daily?)  Surely we would not have
fought for that which we violate every day of our lives!  No, at best
Chanukah emerges as a needless holiday if not a foolish one.  Poor
Hannah and her seven children; poor Mattathias and Judah; poor well
meaning chaps all but hopelessly backward and utterly unnecessary
sacrifices.

            But there is more.  Not only is Chanukah really a foolish
and unnecessary holiday, it is also one that is dangerously fanatical
and illiberal. The first act of rebellion, the first enemy who fell at
the hands of the brave Jewish heroes whom our delightful children
portray so cleverly in their Sunday and religious school pageants, was
NOT a Greek.  He was a Jew.

            When the enemy sent its troops into the town of Modin to
set up an idol and demand its worship, it was a Jew who decided to
exercise his freedom of pagan worship and who approached the altar to
worship Zeus (after all, what business was it of anyone what this
fellow worshipped?)  And it was this Jew, this apostate, this
religious traitor who was struck down by the brave, glorious,
courageous (are these not the words all our Sunday schools use to
describe him?) Mattathias, as he shouted: "Whoever is for G-d, follow
me!"

            What have we here?  What kind of religious intolerance and
bigotry?  What kind of a man is this for the anti-religious of
Hashomer Hatzair, the graceful temples of suburbia, the sophisticated
intellectuals, the liberal open-minded Jews and all the drones who
have wearied us unto death with the concept of Judaism as a
humanistic, open-minded, undogmatic, liberal, universalistic (if not
Marxist) religion, to honor?  What kind of nationalism is this for
David-Ben-Gurion (he who rejects the Galut and speaks of the proud,
free Jew of ancient Judea and Israel)?

            And to crush us even more (we who know that Judaism is a
faith of peace which deplores violence), what kind of Jews were these
who reacted to oppression with FORCE?  Surely we who so properly have
deplored Jewish violence as fascistic, immoral and (above all!)
UN-JEWISH, stand in horror as we contemplate Jews who declined to
picket the Syrian Greeks to death and who rejected quiet diplomacy for
the sword, spear and arrow (had there been bombs in those days, who
can tell what they might have done?) and "descended to the level of
evil," thus rejecting the ethical and moral concepts of Judaism.

            Is this the kind of a holiday we wish to propagate?  Are
these the kinds of men we want our moral and humanistic children to
honor?  Is this the kind of Judaism that we wish to observe and pass
on to our children?

            Where shall we find the man of courage the one voice, in
the wilderness to cry out against Chanukah and the Judaism that it
represents-the Judaism of our grandparents and ancestors?  Where shall
we find the man of honesty and integrity to attack the Judaism of
Medievalism and outdated foolishness; the Judaism of bigotry that
strikes down Jews who refuse to observe the law; the Judaism of
violence that calls for Jewish force and might against the enemy?
When shall we find the courage to proudly eat our Chinese food and
violate our Sabbaths and reject all the separateness, nationalism and
religious maximalism that Chanukah so ignobly represents?  …Down with
Chanukah!  It is a regressive holiday that merely symbolizes the
Judaism that always was; the Judaism that was handed down to us from
Sinai; the Judaism that made our ancestors ready to give their lives
for the L-rd; the Judaism that young people instinctively know is true
and great and real.  Such Judaism is dangerous for us and our leaders.
We must do all in our power to bury it.

The Shock Factor - Undressing Evil

This is a re-post of a blog I wrote last year, however, it is still appropriate for this Chanukah.

Undressing Evil

Why do we take it?  How is it that a society chooses to sleep, rather than wake up from their bad dream and fix things?  Sometimes it takes a 'the shock factor' to do what 'rationalization' smothers. The little known Chanukah story of how the Hasmonean revolt started, was actually because of a very brave woman!

The background of the Chanukah story recalls the struggle for religious freedom from the Hellenistic Syrian-Greeks in the year, 165 B.C.E.  Antiochus, who was the occupying King at those times, sought to crush our Jewish identity and passed decrees against the practice of Judaism.  We were forbidden from studying the Torah, we were forbidden to keep the Shabbat  (Sabbath) and we were forbidden from making a brit milah (circumcision).  To do so meant the death penalty.  

"Hellenistic rituals and sacrifices were instituted in the Bet HaMikdash (the holy Temple in Jerusalem), thus desecrating the sacred center of Jewish ritual life. Many Jews were impressed by the culture and power of their Greek conquerors and adopted their customs and practices. These Jews came to be known as "Hellenists". – Sound familiar to our situation today?

“Other Jews were infuriated by the oppressive decrees aimed at destroying their religion, and vowed revenge. They were led by Mattityahu, a Chashmona'i (Hasmonean) who lived in Modiin with his five sons, who came to be known as the Maccabim. This name is derived from the first letter of each word in the phrase "Mi kamocha ba'elim Hashem?" ("Who is like You, O L-rd, among the mighty?".   After three years of guerrilla warfare in the hills and forests against the strong and powerful armies of the Syrian-Greek King Antiochus, the relatively small and poorly armed Maccabim won, and recaptured Jerusalem.  But WHAT started this revolt? What shocked the Maccabim into action?

One of my favorite stories of Chanukah is the story about Chana (Hannah).  Not the extremely powerful story of Hannah and her 7 sons, but a different ‘Chana’. 

This 'Chana' used what I think is an important strategy to wake people up from their stupor.  Shock.

Too many of us do not want to change our daily routine.  We are comfortable in our lives and we don’t want disruption, and so it easier to bear burdens if they come in servings that we are able to swallow. If an evil regime passed all their terrible laws at once, people would be convinced they must fight.  But if the laws are ushered in one by one, in bite sized pieces, we learn to adapt.   We act this way because it is easier to be a little uncomfortable than have to go to battle and face having to risk it all, to lose everything we have worked for and even possibly risk our lives and that of our children.  No one likes disruption, and so we swallow the evil.  

Sometimes we need someone to slap us, to wake us from our stupor and fight the evil that has embedded itself in our midst.  A young woman who lived many years ago did just that.  And we should all thank her.

The story from the Midrash goes like this:
(Taken from http://www.madrichim.org/contents.aspx?id=229 )

The Marriage of Chana, Daughter of Mattathias (Mattityahu)

As part of their campaign to break the spirit of the Jews, the Greeks decreed that every maiden must spend her wedding night in the bed of the regional governor, and that only afterward would she be permitted to her husband. They wanted to destroy Jewish sanctity and degrade the Jews.  As a result of this decree, the Jews stopped marrying. For three years and three months, no wedding was held in Judea. Then it came time for Hannah, daughter of Mattityahu the Hasmonean to marry. In spite of the decree, Mattityahu held a great celebration, inviting the leaders of the nation, for Mattathias' family was extremely prominent. The bride sat, as was customary, at the head table, but suddenly stood up, clapped her hands together, and tore her expensive wedding dress, exposing herself.
Everyone looked away in embarrassment, and her brothers ran to fall upon her and kill her for shaming herself and her family.

But Hannah exclaimed to them all, 'now you are so zealous as to shield your eyes?, for THIS you are zealous, yet you are willing to have a Greek see me naked and have his way with me?'  She added, "Why, when I shame myself before my relatives and friends are you so filled with embarrassment and anger that you wish to kill me, but you agree to surrender me this night so the heathen governor can lie with me? Why do you not learn from Simon and Levy, sons of our forefather Jacob, who avenged the rape of their sister Dinah (in Genesis, chapter 34)?  They were only two brothers who fought and took a whole city to free her, I have FIVE brothers - and where are you?'

This, my friends, is what spurred the revolt of the Maccabees on the Syrian-Greeks and led to the first holiday commemorating religious freedom and the lift of the yoke of Hellenism and Greek occupation.

The story of Hannah goes on:

"Everyone realized that Hannah was right; her brothers discussed the matter and came to a decision. They dressed their sister in the finest garments and brought her with great ceremony, at the head of a large procession, to the King. Hannah's brother's declared, "We are the sons of the High Priest, and it is not fitting that our sister be given to the governor. Our sister is fit only for the King himself!" The brothers' words found favor in the King's eyes.

The brothers accompanied Hannah to the royal bed chamber, and thereupon, seized the King and killed him. Afterward, they stormed out killing ministers, guards, and servants, who were in the palace. So began the Hasmonean revolt. "

A sequel to this story is the story of yet ANOTHER Jewish Heorine named Yehudit (Judith).   Yehudit was a beautiful woman who single-handedly saved the Jewish town of Bethulia during the Hasmonean revolt.
When her city was surrounded and besieged by the Syrian army of General Holofernes, she made a plan to save her people. She left the city walls of Bethulia with her maid in what looked like her fleeing to Holofernes' camp.  She told the cruel General Holofernes that she wanted to save herself and told him that the defeat of the Jews of the city was near. Impressed with Yehudit's beauty and her prediction of his defeat of the Jews, he invites her to celebrate with him 'alone'.   Yehudit tells him she must eat her own food which she made, and shows him the cheese delicies she has brought with her.  She feeds him this salty cheese, which induces the general to wash it down with wine and he falls into a deep sleep. She then approaches his bed and says a prayer:

"Answer me, O L-rd, as You answered Yael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, when you delivered the wicked general Sissera into her hands. Strengthen me this once that I may bring Your deliverance to my people whom this cruel man vowed to destroy, and let the nations know that You have not forsaken us..."

Yehudit then unsheathed Holofernes' heavy sword which was hanging near his bed and brought it down upon his neck with all her might.

She leaves his bloody corpse soaking his mattress and takes the head and her maid away from the slumbering enemy camp to Bethulia. She tells the Jews of Bethulia that victory will soon be theirs. She takes the head of Holofernes and  puts it on a stake in public view to strengthen the will of the people. She then tells the Jewish men to wait for dawn to make a surprise attack. The enemy's camp is not prepared for a Jewish onslaught on them. When the morning comes with the charge of the Jews towards their camp, Holofernes's men run to their commander's tent where they find his headless body on the blood soaked mattress. In their shock, fear and confusion, they flee for their lives.  The Jews won the revolt and Yehudit was their hero.

This Chanukah, we must remember the valor and strength of the Jewish women who risked their lives, to keep Israel Jewish.  To Chana and her 7 sons, to Yehudit, and to Chana the daughter of the high priest who shocked the Jews into action, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Bush & Shoes

Who would you like to throw your shoes at?  One reporter in Iraq answered THAT question.  Since then, the video tape has been seen around the world.  His name was Muntadhar al-Zeidi.  He was tackeled at the scene and is now being held under close guard. An Iraqi official said that Iraqi security were interrogating al-Zeidi about whether anybody paid him to throw his shoes at Bush.  Rumors are that Laura Bush may be the culprit. "He gets me so angry sometimes, but my aim is bad and I always miss." However, other sources say that McCain, Palin, or even Dick Cheney may have been behind it.  Scratch that, Cheney was just heard saying that if he had aimed, he wouldn't have missed his target.  His wounded hunting-buddy concurred.  "Even when Dick isn't aiming, he always get's his target."

 

The Shabak says:

All Israeli soldiers will be forbidden from wearing combat boots when they are at ceremonies with political dignitaries. They will have to remain only in their woolen socks.   ..and of course they will be disarmed beforehand, just as soldiers were when Shimon Peres came to visit their base several years ago.

 

Singer Tom Jones was heard saying, "I'm glad in my days it was just their hotel keys and panties they were throwing up on stage,,,"

 

At a carnival booth: 

         "But mommy, I want to knock down Bush!"

 

 "When I use up all my bean bags,  I'll just use my shoes."

 

      "The size is good, but how fast can they 'throw'?"

 

And a photo that was emailed to me by a reader: 

 

 

And this is NOT a Joke:  Thousands rally for the release of the Shoe-Thrower

 

From the AP: BAGHDAD - Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets Monday to demand the release of a reporter who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, as Arabs in many parts of the Middle East hailed the journalist as a hero and praised his insult as a proper send-off to the unpopular U.S. president.

To read more, click HERE.

 

 

Now it's your turn.  Have fun, add your own remarks about the Bush-shoe incident.