Two centuries before the birth of Christ, Judah Maccabee led a revolt by Jews against the Greek-Syrian forces in order to reclaim the city of Jerusalem and reoccupy the Second Temple, a successful revolt against the Seleucid Empire. Everyone knows what followed — that there was only enough oil to provide light for one day, but a miracle from God caused it to burn for eight days, allowing the Maccabees time to find more oil.
As a Jewish child growing up, Hanukkah was my favorite holiday, and I was surprised to discover that it is not one of the most religious holidays on the Jewish calendar, overshadowed by Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Rosh Hashanah (when we pray for God’s beneficence over the next year), Passover (when we pray for the miracle that God passed us over and liberated Jews from their Egyptian slave masters), and Shavuot (when we commemorate receiving the Torah from God). But Hanukkah was not my favorite because of the presents we received each night, but rather because of the miracle itself.
It is one of the most beautiful and important miracles in the Bible — standing for light over darkness, for strength and courage and perseverance over weakness and capitulation. To this day, people from all over the world come to the Western Wall, the remaining wall of that temple in Jerusalem and pray to God, leaving little messages of hope and prayer, in the belief that God will hear us and answer us.
Today I must ask God to answer my prayer that the devastating ISIS-inspired, terror-driven attack against Jews on Hanukkah on Bondi Beach in Australia, which killed at least 15 people, be answered.
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Let this horrific event stand as a warning to the world. We pray to God that He staunches the growing flood of antisemitism, a cancer of hatred that is growing around the world, before it’s too late.
We must show Him the strength and courage that the Maccabees showed so many centuries ago in order to bring the world from darkness back to light, so that He sees our courage and rewards it. We must make ourselves and our world worthy of God’s miracles.
As a Brown University graduate who comes from a family of three Brown graduates, beginning with my father who served in the Navy while at Brown during WWII (the famed V-12 program), I am also deeply hurt and troubled by the shootings there this past weekend. Brown is an idyllic campus on a hill, deliberately placed apart from the city of Providence. It is a deeply knit community that shares good cheer and well wishes throughout the school year.
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It is a special place and it, too, deserves a Hanukkah miracle as it experiences a newfound vulnerability from a shooter’s bullets.
And as Brown tries to come together, so must we all come together, joining hands and asking God for a healing miracle.
May He suppress the forces of darkness everywhere.
May He bring us all into the light.
May He bind up our wounds and heal us.
