These are dark times indeed. All
over the world, we Jewish people continue to experience, hate, intolerance,
disrespect in all sorts of ways. Acts
of antisemitism remain a plague in our world. Ten days ago a 31 year old
Israeli was brutally beaten in a Paris Metro after two men heard him speaking
Hebrew over the telephone. Two days later there was the deadly shooting at a
Kosher Market in Jersey City. Last Shabbat a synagogue in Los Angeles was
ransacked, leaving Torah scrolls and holy books vandalized and strewn around
the building.
Closer to home I recently received
a call from a distraught mother of a seventeen-year-old boy. He was eating lunch at his High School when
he received a note from a student sitting at his table. He opened the note and
on it there was a swastika. The mother immediately reported the incident to the
school. The student who passed him the note was asked by the School Administration
to apologize. She did so over the telephone. “It was just a joke among a few of us at the
table,” the girl explained. The mother called me because she did not feel the
school was taking the incident seriously. Not only was an apology over the
telephone inadequate, but there were other students involved who escaped any
consequences for their actions. The Administration also failed to seize the
opportunity to educate all these teens by engaging them in understanding what
the swastika stands for -- especially for Jewish people. I suggested this mom call the Chicago branch
of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for consultation. These are precisely the kinds of issues the
ADL works on in schools all over our nation. I asked her to stay in touch with
me and together we would see to it that the school dealt the incident
appropriately.
These are dark times astronomically
as well. Chanukah marks the darkest period of the year. This year the first
night of Chanukah coincides with the winter solstice, which is the shortest day
of the year. But the shortest day of the year is not always the darkest day of
the year. The winter solstice is the day with the least sunlight, but not
necessarily the least moonlight. The first night of Chanukah always takes place
when the moon is 24% visible. The second night of Chanukah the moon is 16%
visible. The visibility of the moon decreases every night until it can no
longer be seen shining in the heavens. Each night as the moonlight decreases,
we increase the number of candles we light. When the moon is no longer visible
in the sky, our Menorah’s are fully lit. In this way, we drive out the darkness
by increasing our light.
Throughout human history, Darkness has been
associated with evil long before George Lucas wrote his first Star Wars film. The
story is told of a group of disciples of a Hassidic rabbi who were troubled by
the prevalence of evil in the world. They requested the rabbi instruct them on
how to drive out the forces of darkness. The Rebbe suggested that they take a
broom and try sweeping the darkness out of the cellar. They did as their Rebbe
said, but reported that the darkness remained. The Rebbe advised them to get a
stick and try beating the darkness away. They did as the Rebbe said but
reported that the darkness was still there. The Rebbe then said to them, “My
students, let each of you meet the challenge of darkness by lighting a candle!”
The disciples descended to the cellar and each lit a candle. Behold, the
darkness was dispelled.
I want to leave you with the story
of a man who recently lit a candle in the darkness. Periodically, relics from Nazi Germany come up
for auction. The risk is that they end up in the hands of neo-Nazi groups, who
use them to promote their bigotry. At the most recent auction, however,
Abdallah Chatila, a Lebanese-Swiss businessman, purchased $660,000 worth of these items including Hitler’s personal cigar box, German
military leader Hermann Goring’s limited-print edition of Hitler’s Mein Kampf,
and some of Hitler’s hand-written letters – for a very different purpose. He
wanted to make sure that these objects wouldn’t fall into the hands of a
neo-Nazi group who would use them to glorify this shameful past. Abdallah
Chatila initially planned to destroy these objects but decided instead to
donate them to the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum and Memorial in Israel. Chatila
has witnessed with growing alarm the growth of nationalism and antisemitism in
present day Europe. He wanted to set an example for the world on how to deal
with the loathsome and sickening trade in Nazi memorabilia. He wanted to light
a candle against that growing darkness.
We might ask the question – why do
we begin to light the Chanukah candles when the moon is still 24% visible in
the sky? Why don’t we wait until the sky is totally dark to light our first
candle, thereby symbolically banishing the darkness, as in the story of the Rebbe
and his students? One answer may be to teach that we cannot wait to combat
moral or spiritual darkness until it has completely enveloped us or our
society. We must address these issues as soon as they appear. It is far more
difficult to combat the forces of darkness when they have been allowed to grow
stronger. We must begin fighting them when there is still some light to help
us.
Shabbat Shalom
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