Yesterday, we had a wonderful surprise when Devorah and her family paid us a visit. Devorah, had spent her teen years here with her family who had temporarily relocated here from Sydney Australia. After a few years they returned to Sydney but not before Devorah was married here in Bangkok at a chuppah that I officiated. The wedding reception that held at the Bet Elisheva Synagogue. She wanted to show her teen sons where their parents had gotten married.
It was such nachas to see this cycle of Jewish continuity, The couple who stood under the Chupa and entered the holy bond of marriage twenty some years ago are now the parents of three Jewish children who are proud of their heritage that will continue Am Yisrael into the next generation. They will please G-d establish their own Jewish families when the time comes.
With their visit also came heartbreak.
It was from Devorah and her family that I got a deeper and closer look at what the tragic massacre in Australia meant to the Bondi Jewish community (where I grew up in my early childhood).
Devorah told us that as a child growing up in Sydney this was THE main Chanuka party that her family would never miss attending. For decades this beautiful celebration of light and serenity has been a joyous event of Jewish identity and pride.
She would have been at the party with her husband and children this year as well, if not for her family holiday to Thailand.
The rabbis Eli Schlanger and Yaakov Levitan who were killed were pillars of the community. Reuven Morrison who heroically fought back, was a leader who 'got things done' for the community. The other Jews who lost their lives in this horrendous terror attack were known intimately by many in the community. In one fell swoop the fiendish murderers struck at the heart and soul of the Bondi community.
As much as I had taken this to heart from the moment I heard the first reports, to hear firsthand from someone who is an integral part of that very community shook me even more than I was already shaken.
Click here to read a detailed report of the tragedy and the heroism that was exhibited during those fateful and harrowing six minutes -that seemed like ages - of shooting.
At the same time the deepest resolve shines even more brightly in my heart and soul that we will not just continue, we will grow. Just as the lesson of Chanuka.
The Rebbe repeatedly emphasized that the lesson of Chanuka is Light over Darkness and Adding Light – never ceasing to grow and add.
Every night of Chanuka we kindle an additional light.
The lesson is clear and unequivocal.
Light has the power to dispel darkness.
Good must never stay stationary.
It must grow in leaps and bounds.
Nonstop.
Yes, I know how to react.
In the face of darkness, pain and cruelty we must add in incredible and intensified acts of light, hope and kindness.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger hyd shares a message of hope about how to react to anti-semitism. His message is MORE JOYOUS PRIDE FILLED JUDASIM.
But it reawakened the existential question.
Where do we, the Jewish People get our resilience and strength from?
The story of Chanuka as retold in the Talmud reads as follows:
The Gemara asks: What is Chanukkah, and why are lights kindled on Chanukkah? The Gemara answers: When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary they defiled all the oils that were in the Sanctuary by touching them. And when the Hasmonean monarchy overcame them and emerged victorious over them, they searched and found only one cruse of oil that was placed with the seal of the High Priest, undisturbed by the Greeks. And there was sufficient oil there to light the candelabrum for only one day. A miracle occurred and they lit the candelabrum from it eight days.
This year I discovered an interpretation by the Rebbe that adreesses this very question of from where do we draw our strength.
The search that was carried out after the Hasmonean victory was not just for physical oil.
It was a spiritual search as well. The Jewish people were searching and pondering. From where did the Maccabees derive their strength and determination to fight against all odds? From where did they draw their deep courage and conviction to enter into a totally uneven war. They were weaker, smaller and yet they valiantly fought against larger and stronger enemy forces. Miraculously they won.
Where did that fiery determination to fight for Hashem notwithstanding the intensity of sacrifice required come from?
The search yielded the discovery of an untainted cruse of oil that was signed by the most holy of all Jews – the High Priest.
This refers in an allegoric way to the deepest quintessential spark of Jewish identity.
This flask of oil is alive and well and active nowadays too. In a way perhaps it is even more highlighted during these days of challenge.
Where do we get the fortitude to march onward and upwards in our Jewish activism?
From where our brave soldiers in Israel derive their inner strength as they stand in defense of our people and country disregarding all danger and fear in total sacrifice.
Where did the hostages in the tunnels withstand attempts to convert them away from Judaism and to rebel against their people, and even to light Menorah in the tunnels of captivity?
From where did the Jew nation take strength and fortitude to rebuild Torah institutions, Synagogues and Jewish centers after the Holocaust?
From that inexhaustible untainted flask of oil in our soul.
We may not always feel it. But if you search, you will find that it is there.
The 'pintele yid' the untainted spark that doesn't let a Jews connection to G-d fade into oblivion.
This spark is what fuels us during the darkest and most challenging times.
Many a Jew has been surprised at their own reactions and resilience and commitment to G-d and the Torah which exceeded their own expectations of themselves.
It is truly a G-dly phenomenon.
Years of oppression doesn't extinguish the spark,
Here is a story I was privileged to hear this morning about the holy martyr Boruch Ber (Boris) Tetleroyd who was gunned down attending the Chanuka event.
Boris was an emigree from the former Soviet Union. Years of communism had almost stamped out the most basic Jewish traditions from the Jews of the Soviet Union, including Brit Milah circumcision.
But it hadn't extinguished that eternal spark of Jewish spirit in the Jewish soul. For this reason, after immigration, as a grown adult in the safety of Sydney, Boruch Ber had a Brit and continued in the unbroken chain of the Jewish tradition starting from Avraham our forefather.
Rabbi Ulman, the senior rabbi of the Bet Din in Sydney and the director of Chabad of Bondi (father-in-law of the slain Rabbi Eli Schlanger hy'd who worked very closely with him) recalled a holy moment from the Brit more than a decade ago.
As a senior rabbi, Rabbi Ulman had received a call for a halachic decision on a life and death issue. A thirteen-year-old boy Shneor Zalman had been critically injured in a car accident. The doctors were asking the family for permission to take him off the medical apparatus that was keeping him alive. Rabbi Ulman listened to all the details and gave his rabbinic decision that it was not permissible to stop the life saving attempts. The call had come as he was about to preside over the Brit of Boruch Ber.
Rabbi Ulman explained to Boruch Ber that when there is a Brit, our sages tell us that the gates of Heaven are open and one can make special prayers and requests of the Almighty. He asked him to pray for the young boy who was on life support as he was undergoing his Brit procedure.
The prayers were answered. Shneor Zalman recovered fully. He is a wonderful young man who is full of life and energy.
Rabbi Ulman who has been heartrendingly occupied in the task of officiating at all the tragic and heartrending funerals, shared this incredible double mitzvah that Boruch Ber had done, at Boruch Ber's funeral.
The light is invincible.
AM YISRAEL CHAI!
Our job?
To take that G-d given oil and 'run with it', grow it and nurture it.
We need to kindle that small flask of oil and constantly put forth efforts to light up our entire menorah, add more good deeds, deepen our study of Torah and doing of Mitzvahs.
The greatest defiant response to darkness is to spread the light exponentially. By inspiring someone else. Preferably many more than one. Those people will inspire other people.
Let us create a wave of light that sweeps away the last vestiges of darkness forever.
May Mashiach come and we will be reunited will our loved ones in a world of everlasting peace and holiness.
Shabbat Shalom,
Chodesh Tov
Chanukah Sameach
(Three Torahs are used tomorrow to read a portion for each of the above special and holy occasions).
Rabbi Yosef Kantor
PS. A fundraiser has been established to help the victims and families of the victims of the terror attack in Sydney. You can join at https://www.charidy.com/sydney