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Israel Alert Newsletter
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Pre-Chanukah
Edition
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19
Kislev 5774
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November 22, 2013
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 Chanukah and Thanksgiving: Time to say THANK
YOU!
People say that
Chanukah is a Jewish Thanksgiving. Amazingly, the first day of
Chanukah this
year actually falls out on Thanksgiving. Enjoy the moment as
the next time this
will occur will be in more than 79,000 years! While each day we
express our
"hakarat hatov" (appreciation) for all of life's
brachot (blessings),
Chanukah is the special time for the People of Israel to
celebrate and say:
THANK YOU!
We hope
you enjoy your first (and last) Thanks-givukkah! We
thank God for the
awesome miracles of Chanukah that took place over 2000 years
ago. For the
illuminating light of the Menorah. And for the Maccabees - a
small Jewish army
that defeated the Greeks.
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 A Zionist View on
Chanukah
From the very beginnings of the Zionist movement, the
story of the Maccabees
would serve as an inspiration. As Theodore Herzl
wrote, "The Maccabees will
rise again." Vladimir Jabotinsky similarly
declared, "Yes, they have
arisen--the children of those whose ancestor was
Judah, lion of the
Maccabees." Similarly, Ahad Aham, founder of
cultural Zionism, proclaimed,
"We celebrate not only the consecration and
renewal of the Temple, some two
thousand years ago--but also the renewal and revival
of this same Jewish
nation, reviving its soul once again for a
new life."
David Ben-Gurion also believed Hanukkah is a major
festival celebrating Jewish
freedom. The tale of the Maccabees, however, did not
just serve as an
inspiration for the Zionist movement but it also was
incorporated into
contemporary Zionist literature.
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 Cyberspace
Attack Aimed at 'Stop Iran'
Initiative
A cyber-attack, apparently launched by
supporters of the Islamic Republic of
Iran, hit United with Israel's "Stop
Iran" initiative this week. The
site - stopiran.org - was shut down until the attack was successfully repelled.
Its petition, urging the Obama
administration to oppose any deal that would
ease sanctions on Iran before the nuclear
threat is completely eliminated, had
gathered to date more than
130,000 signatures, which were
submitted to the White House and the US
Congress. The motivation for the attack
seems to have been UWI's success in
reaching millions of individuals worldwide.
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The Chanukah
Story
Chanukah is a
time to celebrate miracles, chief among them the miracle
that occurred after
the Jews defeated the Greeks and returned to the Holy
Temple.
Just as Greek
philosophies promoted moral degradation, so too the Greeks
themselves
literally defiled and desecrated the Holy Temple. In their wake,
they left just
one small sealed vessel of pure Menorah oil, bearing the stamped
certification of
the Priest.
Learn the meaning and lessons
of the Chanukah
story as we celebrate the holiday in 2013.
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SDEROT MENORAH: Turning Terror into
LIGHT!
As Hamas rockets explode in Israeli towns, blackening the sky and
darkening the
spirit, an Israeli artist is working hard to brighten up the day with
sparks of
light. He is turning the darkness of terror into a source of light – in a
very literal way!
Yaron Bob, the artist, lives in the shadow of terror in a southern
Israeli
village near the border with Gaza. Yaron takes the remains of Kassam
rockets
and transforms them into beautiful Menorahs. In his words, “I
take the
Kassam, the instrument of death and I change it, I transfer it into
something
of beauty.”
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Deep Chanukah Insights
According to the Talmud, the Sages instituted the
celebration of Chanukah to
commemorate an amazing miracle in the Holy
Temple. After a bloody war in which
the Greeks desecrated the Holy Temple and its
sacred implements, there appeared
to be no pure oil left to light the Menorah.
While a vessel was eventually found, it was only
sufficient for one day's
light. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight
days! What was it about this
miracle that inspired our Sages to institute a
special festival in its honor?
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The Holy
Temple Menorah
Originally, in the Holy Temple,
the Menorah was a seven-branched candelabra
beaten out of a solid piece of
gold. As one of the sacred vessels, the High
Priest lit the Menorah every
day in the southern part of the Holy Temple.
Only pure, fresh olive oil of
the highest quality was suitable to light the
Menorah. The Menorah is a
symbol of Divine light
spreading throughout the world. The seven lamps of the Menorah allude to knowledge, with six of the branches representing human wisdom, guided by the center branch of Divine light.
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