D’var Torah – December 19

The 15 Victims of the Bondi Beach Massacre: Matilda (10 years old), Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Dan Elkayam, Holocaust survivor Alexander Kleytman, husband and wife Boris and Sofia Gurman, Peter Meagher, Reuven Morrison, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Tibor Weitzen, Marika Pogany, Edith Brutman, Boris Tetleroyd, and Adam Smyth

Those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country while deployed to Syria: SGT Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa, 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment Iowa Army National Guard; SGT William Nathaniel Howard, 29, Marshalltown, Iowa 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment Iowa Army National Guard; US Army civilian interpreter Ayad “Eddie” Mansoor Sakat, 54, a husband and father of four.

The victims of the Brown University and MIT shootings: Ella Cook, 19, of Birmingham, Alabama; Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, of Midlothian, Virginia; Professor Nuno Loureiro, 47, of Portugal

May their memories and legacies burn as brightly as the Chanukiyah, and as we look into the flames, may be inspired to remember them and carry on their noble legacies.

This D’var is also dedicated in grateful appreciation and humble thanks to Mr. Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Muslim shopkeeper, who valiantly and selflessly disarmed one of the terrorist gunmen during the Bondi Beach Massacre. He is more than deserving of the title “Righteous Among the Nations.” His bravery is an inspiration to all of us.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Urim Sameach- Happy Chanukah.

Despite all that is going on in the world, I pray this finds you all safe and well.

For me, one of the most powerful photographs in Jewish history was taken by Rebbetzin Rachel Posner, the wife of Dr. Rabbi Akiva Posner, in Kiel, Germany in 1931. On her window sill, she placed a simple menorah adorned with the Magen David, the Star of David, the symbol of the Jewish people. “So what?” you might ask. Well, across the street there was a large Swastika, the emblem of the Nazi Party, and of Germany itself during the rule of Adolf Hitler. By overtly and boldly placing the menorah in open view, she was not only following the rabbinic precept to display the chanukiyah (the Chanukah menorah) in plain view, but was also defying the Nazis and their disgusting ideology. A small, plain menorah it seemed, was standing up to the full might of the Nazis.

On the back of the photograph, the Rebbetzin wrote:

“‘Death to Judah’
So the flag says
‘Judah will live forever’
So the light answers.”[1]

What is terrorism?

My definition: intimidation, subversion, misinformation, coercion, threatening, stalking, shaming, harassment, vandalism, bullying, humiliation, silencing, isolating, ostracizing, doxxing, assault, and murder. These are the tools of terrorism and the weapons of the terrorist. The goal of the terrorist is simple: to silence anyone and everyone who opposes their agenda.

When the Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid empire carried out his reign of terror in Judea in the middle of the 2nd century BCE he and his minions used everything they had in their arsenal to cow the Jewish people into submission and even turn them away from Torah and God. Whether it involved erecting a statue of Zeus or sacrificing a pig in the Temple in Jerusalem to the destruction of Torah scrolls, the prohibition of brit milah (circumcision), and the executions of Hannah and her seven sons for refusing to bow before him, the Seleucids attacked every meaningful facet of Jewish life.

Sadly, during the last few days, we, the Jewish people the world over, have borne witness to the fact that the vile antisemitism of Antiochus is unfortunately alive and well in our midst. Whether it was a man screaming vile curses into the ear of a Jewish woman at restaurant in downtown Manhattan, a passenger kicked off an international flight for threatening a Jewish passenger, a stranger on a Brooklyn subway grabbing a Chabad yeshiva student by the coat making a gun sign with his fingers, and threatening to kill him, a menorah vandalized in Queens, a Chabad at Michigan State University having its windows smashed and sprayed with Swastikas, and a Jewish man getting stabbing in the chest in Crown Heights, it’s been a very long, painful, heartbreaking season of antisemitism.[2] And then, to cap it all off, on the first day of Chanukah, 15 people, including a Holocaust survivor, two Rabbis, and a 10 year old girl, were butchered as they celebrated Chag Urim, the Festival of Lights, at Bondi Beach, Australia.

We have to remember that the savagery and ruthlessness of Antiochus is only the first part of the story of Chanukah. What makes Chanukah, well Chanukah, is that Judah Maccabeus and his brothers, inspired by their faith in God, their devotion to Judaism, and the example set by their late father Mattathias, launched a rebellion against Antiochus and the Seleucids. Though outnumbered and outmatched, a small light against an overwhelming dark, the Maccabees eventually prevailed, reclaiming their land, the Temple, and their freedom.

Just as the yoke of the Seleucids must have felt crushing and unbearable to the Maccabees, so too does the scourge of antisemitism feel overwhelming in our day.

What then are we supposed to do?

Simply put- be brave! We must be brave, brave the Maccabees who came before us and passed on a noble legacy to us. But how are we to be brave?

Like Rebbetzin Posner in 1931, we must place the menorah on the window sill for all the world to see. We must take the encouraging and loving words that President Trump gave to the American Jewish community to heart: “Celebrate proudly- be proud of who you are.”[3] And finally, we must answer the call of Rabbi Eli Schlanger (z”l)(al Kiddush HaShem), one of the victims of the Bondi Beach massacre, who, when asked how to combat rising antisemitism in Australia in the months before his untimely death said this: “be more Jewish, act more Jewish, and appear more Jewish.”[4]

Chanukah, like so much of Judaism, is meant to be celebrated and honored in the public place. The second we withdraw into the dark and retreat into the silence, the terrorists have won. When they dictate our lives to us, they’ve accomplished their malicious agenda.

In this trying season, may Aveinu Malkeinu HaKadosh Barch Hu, God imbue each and every one of us with the same resiliency, grit, determination, and bravery as our Maccabean ancestors, Rebbetzin Posner, and Rabbi Schlanger to honor, uphold, and carry forth our beloved Jewish faith.

Wishing you all every bracha for a peaceful Shabbat and Chanukah Sameach.