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Dear Parents,
A young couple was sitting in their small apartment one evening. The husband was perched on his seat at the table reading the evening paper while his devoted wife prepared him a steaming homemade soup for dinner. Abruptly the husband announces that he must run to the corner store to procure a needed item and would return promptly in a few minutes. The wife nods, absorbed in her cooking.
Hours pass and the husband’s expedition to the corner store has still not ended. Days turn into weeks, weeks to months, and months to years with still no word from the beloved husband.
Finally, after fifty years have passed our faithful wife hears the sound of a key being inserted into the front lock and sure enough it is her husband’s return. After several moments of staring silently at each other, the husband’s gaze turns to the table and the seat he vacated some fifty years prior. To his astonishment he sees a single bowl of soup set neatly on the table in front of his chair.
Disbelieving, he inspects what would be the most rancid, foul smelling, green, moldy and stale bowl of soup he has ever seen. Surely if his wife had served him this very same bowl of soup in such a state fifty years ago he would have reacted with outrage and shock at her lack of concern. However, on this day his reaction is quite different indeed and this single bowl of rotten soup is for him the most touching expression of love and devotion he will ever experience in his entire life.
2000 years ago all of our ancestors, the entire Jewish people lived in Israel. Our capitol, Jerusalem, was home to the great Temple, our King and the Sanhedrin, our high court of sages. We were involved in a love affair with G‑d. He was our noble husband, and we His devoted wife. Prophets filled the land, miracles were common and our lives were a perfect harmony of spirituality and materiality.
Then G‑d "left." He sent enemies to destroy our Temple and exiled us through oppressive lands for thousands of years. We have suffered more trials and tribulations than any nation on earth and have relentlessly had to defend our basic right to human existence.
Fast forward to Chanukah 2006 in the U.S.A. We were born into a world of assimilation in which it becomes increasingly difficult to see the how being Jewish is in any significant way different than being Christian or Atheist for that matter. American Jewish life is probably the most unique in Jewish history. We live with our minds & feet in many worlds simultaneously and American cultural values and national identity in some way make the entire thing into one big kosher potpourri.
In many ways our Judaism can seem like that 50 year old cold soup. Is it hypocritical that a Jew eats non-kosher food all year and fasts on Yom Kippur? What does it mean to G‑d that when I’m in the supermarket shopping for Chanukah latkes I start bobbing my head to the sound of “Silver Bells” playing over the store’s loudspeaker system?
Well, I’ll tell you something; Chanukah in America 2006 is more precious, more valuable and more beloved by G‑d than the holiest prayers of the most righteous. Our Chanukah is about the fact that the oil never stopped burning. The Greeks couldn’t put it out, the Romans couldn’t put it out, 2000 years of exile couldn’t put it out, and Bill O’Reily & KFC Popcorn Chicken can’t put it out. The flame of Jewishness burns inside each of us and when we light the menorah we shine the light of our eternal identity through 2000 years of darkness. We are the miracle of Chanukah.
Happy Chanukah & Happy New Year,
Rabbi Weinberg
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