Candle lighting at the Kotel
Candle lighting at the KotelIsrael Police

Newly installed police commissioner Roni Alshich, on Sunday night participated in the lighting of the Hanukkah menorah on the eighth and final night of the holiday. At the candle-lighting at the Kotel, Alshich was joined by Rabbi Shmuel Rosenbaum, rabbi of the Kotel and holy places, as well as Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.

Before the actual candle-lighting, Alshich presented a special Book of Psalms (Tehilim) to Naor Shalev, a youth who was badly injured in a terror attack at Pisgat Ze'ev two months ago.

Hanukkah, said Alshich, “keeps a low profile in Jewish tradition, and apparently the early sages were concerned about how their Roman rulers would react to the story after the Hasmonean dynasty came to an end. As a result, there was less emphasis on the nationalistic aspects of the holiday and more on the miracle story, of how the single cruze of oil lasted for eight days. It is no wonder that the nationalistic aspect of the holiday re-emerged with the establishment of the State of Israel.”

Then, as now, he said, the Greeks and their Hellenist supporters sought to interfere with the Jewish revolution by carrying out stabbing terror attacks. “History indeed repeats itself,” said Alshich. “Even when we are in our own independent state we must continue to fight to protect our citizens. This is a good opportunity for me to light the menorah on behalf of the brave people doing this – the police who respond at all times to those who seek to make our people their targets of murder. Our defense forces fight the darkness,” Alshich added. “We do this to enable our people to add light.”

credit: דוברות משטרת ישראל
credit: דוברות משטרת ישראל
credit: דוברות משטרת ישראל
credit: דוברות משטרת ישראל