Chanukah marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its liberation from illegal foreign occupation forces.

Bear this in mind as the annual hoopla is about to get underway.

Somehow, this Jewish Festival has evolved over the years, and nowadays, in many places, its message is mixed. Is it something to do with its proximity to 25 December as it is this year or possibly as a result of increasing political correctness?

This time of the year has always presented a dilemma for assimilated Jewish families. Many will give their children presents for every day of the festival thus trumping the one day giving of gifts by their Christian friends. Others, especially in places where assimilation is rampant, will try to cover the field by incorporating Xmas trees/bushes in their celebrations. The end result is an emasculation of Chanukah and total confusion in the minds of young children.

Others will concentrate on gastronomic aspects such as sufganiyot (doughnuts) and latkes (potato fritters), which are reminders of the jar of oil that lasted eight days. Jewish observance has its unique dietary attractions, but when these are the sole symbols, the original message can be lost.

Another diversion is spinning the dreidel and receiving Chanukah gelt. These are pleasant enough activities in themselves but, again, somewhat divorced from the core of the holiday.

Until recently, the lighting of menorot in the Diaspora took place behind closed doors and drawn curtains. For many communities over the millennia, it was decidedly dangerous to light candles for eight days in places where they could be seen. The observance was either prohibited or guaranteed to attract physical attacks by those already imbued and incited with anti-Jewish hate.

Nowadays, Chabad spearheads public menorah lighting ceremonies. These usually take place in prominent places with the participation of local Jewish residents and often with some prominent non-Jewish personalities helping to light the candles. Needless to say, it has become an ideal opportunity for high-flowing rhetoric.

One wonders, however, what effect the current rising wave of hate will have on this year’s ceremonies. Will the threat of vandalism and violence cause these public displays to be either abandoned or scaled back?

Will politicians and other personalities who would normally jump at the opportunity to participate decline or pull out for fear of negative reactions from the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist mobs?

In many countries, open displays of Jewish symbols attract negative attention. Ironically, we are facing a situation that harks back to the recent past and which may force Chanukah lighting rituals to be once again performed behind closed doors and curtains.

This is not a problem in Israel, where households more often than not have outdoor menorot in front of their homes.

It is obvious that many VIP invitees, Jewish and non-Jewish in Diaspora communities, prefer to deliver messages which may be well intended but are, in fact, seriously astray when it comes to the real meaning behind Chanukah.

The two most important lessons of this festival may not be politically correct these days and are therefore ignored or glossed over.

The first is the fact that we rededicate ourselves to our faith and strengthen our commitment to Judaism. The Hasmoneans cleansed the Temple of its pagan desecrations and rededicated it. Concurrently, they led a return to its intended original purpose.

Importantly, they also defeated the illegal occupation of Jerusalem and reclaimed the Capital. It is this aspect which is more often than not deliberately ignored.

At a time when the Jewish People’s rightful claim to Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, Judea, Samaria and indeed the rest of Israel is being delegitimized at the UN this festival’s main message should be proclaimed loud and clear.

At the time of the Chanukah episode ,there were no Islamic Palestinians because Islam had not yet been invented. Likewise, there were no Christians. Uncomfortable as it may be for those who have been seduced by historical revisionist mantras, Jews were the sole legal and rightful sovereign inhabitants.

It is, therefore, ironic that individuals who deny the Jewish connection to the Land and who vote against Israel’s sovereignty should be asked to participate in a festival that celebrates Jewish independence.

It is the antithesis of Chanukah.

Instead of meekly going along with this charade, Jewish participants should either have nothing to do with it or alternatively make their collective voices heard.

Chanukah’s strong assertion of Jewish independence rankles and upsets the legion of post-Zionists who strive to sever the connection. Aided by a media only too keen to throw doubts on Israel’s legitimacy one can read their bitter offerings on an almost daily basis. One such regular contributor to Israel’s most leftist newspaper recently penned these thoughts: “Israel’s fear campaign have made us think that everyone’s out to destroy us. We have ingested the fear with our mother’s milk. We have been subjected to the fear campaigns since the dawn of our youth.”

This amazing diatribe illustrates a blind ignorance of Jewish history. It dismisses the Passover and Purim genocidal plans against us. It ignores the Babylonian, Assyrian Greek and Roman campaigns and subsequent exiles. Church sponsored hate, inquisitions, expulsions, pogroms, blood libels are obviously of no consequence. Arab massacres in Hebron and Jerusalem before independence must be hallucinations. Arab campaigns to wipe out Jewish sovereignty in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973 and subsequent terror are a mythical “fear.” The pogrom of 7 October, rocket, missile and drone attacks, plus the Iranian desire to wipe out the Jewish State are all, according to this contributor, merely part of a fear campaign designed to brainwash gullible Israelis into believing that someone is out to get them.

It follows, therefore, that celebrating any Jewish victory over their oppressors is forbidden. How sick and self-loathing can one get?

Reports have arrived of a devastating cyclone in Mayotte. Most people have probably never heard of this island situated off the east coast of Africa with a population of 300,000 people. It caught my attention because it has been a French colony since 1843 and is today France’s poorest region. Can anyone explain why this remote Island, together with Reunion and New Caledonia, are still in the 2024 colonies of France? Macron pontificates about illegal Jewish settlements and condemns Israel for occupying fake Palestinian territory while his Government still occupies foreign territory and denies independence to the native inhabitants.

The hypocrisy is overwhelming but par for the course these days.

Turkey, which illegally occupies the northern half of Cyprus, is another example of prevailing double standards. Persecuting its Kurdish minority and occupying parts of Syria obviously do not harm its membership of NATO or its standing at the corrupt UN.

Chanukah is the perfect time to remind these hypocrites about realities.

Don’t let the distorters of Jewish history get away with their deceitful rhetoric and policies.

Parshat Vayeishev

In the course of interpreting the dream related by the “Sar HaMashkim”, Yosef reveals a small part of his own life story saying: “I have been stolen from the Land of the Hebrews” (Bereishit 40:15). The Rabbis perceived this seemingly insignificant statement to be an expression of greatness, showing Yosef’s superiority over none other than Moshe Rabbeinu.

The Midrash tells us that Moshe turned to G-d with a serious grievance: “Yosef’s bones were brought into the Land, whereas I was not allowed to enter it.” The Almighty said: “He who acknowledged (identifies with) his land is buried in his land, while he who did not acknowledge his land is not buried in his land.” From where do we learn that Yosef acknowledged his land? Yosef tells “Sar Hamashkim” that he had been stolen from the land of the Hebrews – therefore, he is buried in his land… Moshe, on the other hand, had not acknowledged his land and was, therefore, not buried there. For when the daughters of Yitro said (Shemot 2:19) “An Egyptian man saved us from the shepherds”, Moshe hears their description and remains silent. Thus, he does not merit to be buried within the Land” (Devarim Rabba 2:8).

Rabbi Meir Yechiel of Ostrovtza, one of the great Chasidic Rebbes in Poland, poses the following question: How can the Midrash deign to compare Moshe unfavorably to Yosef when their circumstances were so very different? Yosef had indeed come from Eretz Yisrael whereas Moshe was born and raised in Egypt! Were Moshe to have replied any differently would this not be an outright lie on his part? Rabbi Meir Yechiel answered that each and every Jew is always obligated to see him, or herself, as having come from Eretz Yisrael. Even if he was born elsewhere, he nonetheless belongs to the Land of Israel. When a Jew is asked: “Where are you from”? He must proudly respond: I come from Eretz Yisrael.

Rabbi Moshe of Coucy, the author of the “Sefer Mitzvot Gadol” and one of the Ba’alei HaTosafot, would sign his name: “Moshe from the Exile of Jerusalem who is in France.” It is true that I am in France, but I am from Jerusalem. When a Jew is asked: “Where are you from”, he must therefore respond: I come from Eretz Yisrael.

I am reminded of the life-story of a Russian woman I met back in the 90s. The woman’s husband was a Jewish man who had married her – the daughter of non-Jewish communists – despite her parents’ strong objection to their child marrying a “zhid” (pejorative for “Jew”).

When the couple decided to leave Russia and make Aliyah, like all other Soviet-bloc Olim of the time, they were screened and processed by the Jewish Agency in a way-station situated in Vienna. At this time, the couple made contact with some friends who had moved to the U.S.A. These friends presented them with fantastic opportunities, urging them to reconsider their plans and follow their own example by moving to the States. The husband was quickly convinced that they should make a detour to the U.S.A., while the wife refused. “I married a Jew who always spoke of making Aliyah to his homeland”, she said, “and I am going nowhere else!”

As the argument escalated out of hand, the couple found themselves in the divorce chamber of an Austrian judge. When queried about his religion, the husband replied that he had none, and when asked where he wants to live, he answered “America”. Presented with the same questions, the gentile wife, born into the communist “religion”, replied “I am Jewish, and I wish to proceed to the Holy Land”. I met this remarkable woman in an Absorption Center after she came on Aliyah alone with her two young children. Having divorced her husband and converted to Judaism she consulted with me as she was searching for proper religious schooling for her two children.

I can easily understand why a Jewish Russian man, raised without any religious background, would feel no special spiritual connection to the Holy Land. What I find much more difficult to relate to, is the American Jew who is drawn to the Holy Land, and perhaps has even studied and visited here on numerous occasions, and yet when pressed to make the ultimate identification – applying for a Teudat Zehut, he hesitates to take the leap! Is it not time to answer the question: “Where are you from?” with a loud and clear “I Come From Eretz Yisrael!

Rabbi Yerachmiel Roness

Ramat Shilo, Bet Shemesh

RABBI YERACHMIEL RONESS was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. After serving as a congregational Rabbi and as a Hillel Director in New York City, he made Aliyah in 1983 with his wife Dina and their five young children.

Ever since, Rabbi Roness has dedicated his life to promoting Aliyah. First, as Rabbi of the Jewish Agency’s Absorption Centers, and subsequently as the executive director of the Aloh-Naaleh organization.

This article was taken from Rabbi Roness’s new book: Aloh Na’aleh – Eretz Yisrael and Aliyah in the Weekly Parshah. The book is for sale on Amazon:

https://us.amazon.com/Aloh-Naaleh-%D7%A2%D7%9C%D7%94-%D7%A0%D7%A2%D7%9C%D7%94-Yisrael/dp/B0CMB1J5QT/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14895ZICJOK54&keywords=aloh+na%27aleh+book&qid=1698954958&sprefix=aloh+na%27aleh+book%2Cspecialty-aps%2C282&sr=8-1