Our rabbi, Rabbi Bassous, gave 5 reasons why the rabbis chose to celebrate the miracle of the oil on Chanukah. An alternative question might be: Why emphasize the oil instead of the military victory?
(My apologies if I restate any of his talk incorrectly).
Humility: in crushing the olive to make the oil, we learn humility. We should learn to be humble in our lives.
Permeation: Oil permeates the skin if we rub it like an ointment. Just as Joseph was involved in Egypt in a good way, so we Jews should be involved in the world around us.
Water and oil separate: water does not mix with oil. We should not mix in and dissolve in greater society. Joseph was involved in Egypt, but he retained his Judaism.
Oil floats to the top: if we are good, hardworking people, we can rise above in society.
Light unto others: the lighted oil is symbolic of being a light unto others.
If you need further explanation or elaboration, feel free to ask the comments (especially if you don’t celebrate Chanukah or if you just don’t understand one part of what he said – I’m open to questions).
Tomorrow night, December 1, is the first night of Chanukah. Are you ready? Set up those chanukiot, bought those potatoes and oil, found last year’s dreidels? If you celebrate Chanukah and own a camera: take a photo, post it on your blog and submit it to JPiX.
An unknown number of 8 year old girls will be descending (ascending? proceeding to? invading? gracing?) our home on Sunday morning. A treasure hunt has been prepared by middle son, and I will be short order cook in charge of latke and sufganiyot (doughnuts) creation.
We are looking forward to Shabbat guests that we haven’t seen since we visited them in their home in Hashmonaim in 2008.
Last Thursday, Veterans Day, I (along with other parents) had the pleasure of driving my son’s eighth grade class to a small gathering of Jewish War Veterans. We met by the dough boy (see bottom photo) in Highland Park, New Jersey, one half hour before the official Veterans Day Parade. According to my son, the way this got started was one year the teacher who organized the meeting saw some veterans saying kaddish (prayer for the dead) without a minyan (ten men). So she asked the school if she could arrange to bring the eighth grade boys. In the photo above, Rabbi Shostack of RPRY (far left) is talking with the students and the veterans. The 90 year old veteran on the right invited the boys to join them at a special prayer service the next day in Menlo Park. I kept thinking, but the boys have school the next day.
The veterans shared tales from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. My friend David on the left (a father of one of the boys) recorded their talks. One told how he became a medic with only a high school education. Rabbi Poleyoff, who is a retired teacher from RPRY, talked about his service in Japan immediately after the Korean War.
This *is* a Ruby Tuesday post, so here’s a red veterans’ car!
These older women wore bright red uniforms. I didn’t get a chance to hear their story. They are standing in front of the Highland Park Doughboy (What’s a Doughboy?).
Red Leaves in East Brunswick, New Jersey
We visited the Butterfly Park in East Brunswick last Sunday. I was planning to post a Nature Notes about the park (didn’t happen! not enough hours or energy in a week); instead, I have material for next week’s Nature Notes.
On My Blog
I have two more interviews with bloggers on writing coming up for this blog – one for this coming week, and one for the following week. I will post the answer to the Film Festival quiztomorrow morning on Sunday (in the comments of the film festival post). Still time for guessing – thanks to those who already tried!
Elsewhere in the Blogosphere
Jew Wishes reviewed Irretrievably Broken by Irma Fritz, saying “Fritz has woven a tapestry that is profound and compelling within the pages of Irretrievably Broken.” She also has a post with photos by Irma Fritz of Wernher von Braun’s lab at Peenemunde (links no longer exist).
Funeral plans are in the process, and we’ll post them as soon as we know.
May RivkA’s family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.”
One more update, a parsha thought on Hayye Sarah by Jeffrey Woolf: “Abraham came to Hevron to eulogize Sarah and to cry for her. The Rav זצ”ל used to emphasize that ordinarily the order is the reverse. First once cries. Only after time passes and perspective returns, can one eulogize the departed and evaluate who they were.
Sometimes, though, one is obligated to suppress one’s primal shriek of pain in order to tell the world just who the person was who has gone. That way, the Rav said, we try to involve as many people as possible in mourning the tragedy. Once the eulogy is achieved, we may all let ourselves go and cry out in pain.”
Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival 2010 featuring Father's Footsteps
It’s Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival time, and since most of you reading this post don’t live in New Jersey, I thought we could have a little fun with a “Guess the Film” game.
Without looking beyond the main film page, can you guess which three films are already sold out? The films are listed in the left sidebar (click on the large graphic above to get to the main film page). No cheating.
Can you name the film that my husband and I plan to attend?
Finally, if you did live in New Jersey, which films would you want to see? Answers to the second question (which film are my husband and I attending) will be posted early next week.
Rabbi Bassous related the following story on Shabbat:
About thirty years ago when the Soviet Union first opened its doors, an elderly woman arrived in Israel who was visited by many rabbis. She was not religious, but she was the granddaughter of someone famous: the Chofetz Chaim. They wanted to hear about her conversations with and stories about her famous grandfather. There was one story in particular that was related. The granddaughter, against her parents’ and grandfather’s wishes, had attended university. After much education, she came back to her grandfather and said to him, when are you going to give up your old-fashioned ways? The world is moving forward with science and technology; all sorts of exciting new discoveries are happening. The Chofetz Chaim replied, with all these great discoveries, they will build bombs. One day there will be a bomb to destroy the world. While they are building bombs, I am building people.
Rabbi Bassous then went on to relate this to the parsha, where the people build a tower toward the skies.
How pretty when the buds of my chrysanthemum start to show red. Last week, those buds were closed and green.
This sole red petunia graces the front of my front yard. My other petunias are mostly fuchsia.
This is what the men in my family (my husband and two sons) were doing while I photographed fall flowers – they were taking down our sukkah, the temporary dwelling that we eat in for one week each fall. At this point, all the decorations were already down. The panels are sort of red – a brown that is a cousin of red, perhaps.
This beautiful tune, El Nora Alila, is sung at Congregation Etz Ahaim in Highland Park at nei’la time, the last prayer of Yom Kippur. My husband said the first tune on this video, the Turkish one, is the melody used at our synagogue, which makes sense since it was founded by immigrants from Salonika and Turkey.
Hat Tip: a friend who used to belong to Congregation Etz Ahaim and now lives in Israel; and another friend who was pleased to hear it sung at his father’s Reform temple in a suburb north of New York City.
Click on each thumbnail to find out more about the siman (symbol) of food that is eaten the first night of Rosh Hashana:
Simanim for Rosh Hashana
Some people use the head of a lamb (that we be like the head and not as the tail). I now have a post on dates. And I may put out celery, for a raise in salary. Past post of simanim details here.
Here is a post from G6 of new fruit for the 2nd night of Rosh Hashana. I bought a sabra, a papaya, some fresh figs and a starfruit. The idea is you need a fruit that you haven’t eaten all year, so you can make the blessing called “shehiyanu.”
