Hanukkah 2015: An Existential Struggle

Comment: During the Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony at the Western Wall, the prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Israel is a torch in the darkness. Great darkness surrounds us and here in Jerusalem, in the nation of Israel, we lift the miracle of the independence of humanity, in honor of humanity, for the right of the people of Israel to live freely in its land and in its city, the same city that the Maccabees liberated. This struggle continues even in our generation. In each and every generation they have risen up to eliminate us and in each and every generation the Holy One, Blessed be He, saved us from their hands, provided that we hold onto the banner and torch, and even the sword of Israel.”

My Comment: Hanukkah is a battle of the supporters of the union of the Jewish people as an ideology and as the only means of our salvation. Specifically through unity, the higher power is awakened in us, and Abraham created the Jewish people precisely through unity in ancient Babylon, so our existence depends on our unity. But when we separate, we scatter, and we have already seen this for 2,000 years, especially in our time. Benjamin Netanyahu can claim anything that he wants, but to this very day, in Israel there is no nation and no people. According to the natural and historical definition, the people and the nation can exist only when we are united by a single ideology, a single goal, an understanding of our existence and its significance.

And so the miracle of Hanukkah happened. That is what happened in history and this is what must happen now, but it isn’t happening because we are not united.

We need to understand why we are conducting endless wars with shield and sword in hand instead of holding a seven-branched Menorah in our hand and bringing it to the world. The Menorah symbolizes the unity of the people according to the ideology of “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). But we don’t have this unity.

We don’t have such a policy; there is no ideology like this and there is no education of the people like this that will place the goal of providing education of the method of union. It doesn’t exist anywhere: not a in private life or in society.

Jews from different countries with different world views coexist in Israel, and in no way do they consider themselves s a single, united people. They can say, “We are one people,” but their feeling comes from the fact they are surrounded by enemies who force them to defend themselves. And in this state of self-defense, they feel themselves as a people. It is specifically the enemy that unites them and not an inner yearning for each other. So it is thanks to our enemies who press us that we still exist; without them there would not have been a Jewish people for quite some time. If they were to stop applying pressure from the outside, we would cease to exist as a people.

This is a paradox! For, on the other hand, it would seem that if pressure is applied, then everyone would flee in all directions. No! Here they will not flee. Here, like sheep, they huddle together to escape the wolves.

But is this the only way we can exist as one people and still convey the ideology of our unity to the entire world, which is so needed now?

Therefore, we should not just have a shield and sword but also the awareness that we are fighting for the sake of unity. Then the shield and sword will become the menorahof Hanukkah.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/8/15