The Rambam makes the following fascinating observation upon his conclusion of the halachos of Chanukah, in his Mishneh Torah.

If one has insufficient funds for both Shabbos candles and for Chanukah candles, or for Shabbos candles and wine for Kiddush, Shabbos candles take precedence, because of the shalom bayis—the peace and domestic tranquility, which they bring into the home. Behold, G-d’s Name is erased, in order to foster peace between a man and his wife.

At which point, the Rambam concludes with the following beau­tiful words. Peace is exceedingly great, for the entire Torah was given in order to foster peace in the world. As it says:

Her ways are ways of beauty, and all her paths are peace. (Proverbs 3:17)

One Chanukah eve, Reb Nachum delayed lighting his Menorah, even though the preferable time for lighting the Menorah had already passed. It was not until his wife arrived that Reb Nachum lit his Menorah.

Later, Reb Nuchum was asked why he had waited for his wife, since, according to the halacha, a man can light the Menorah in behalf of his wife, even in her absence. Reb Nachum replied that he was aware of that halacha. However, he knew that his wife always looked forward eagerly to this mitzvah, and she would be deeply hurt if he kindled the Menorah without her. He therefore waited for her to return.

The ways of Torah are, indeed, ways of beauty and of peace.

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People of all ages enjoy stories. They laugh, sigh, cry, and smile as they enjoy age-old lessons and tales of Jewish communities throughout the world.

In the past, Jewish storytellers (maggidim) traveled from community to community to strengthen the heart and soul of the Jewish people. The stories told of greatness, nobility, and courage, celebrating the wisdom of the ages. They celebrated Jewish heritage and tradition; while at the same time, they elevated the hopes of people for a better tomorrow. 

Rabbi Rachmiel Tobesman is an old time maggid (Jewish Storyteller) who will be telling stories at Congregation Oheb Sholom (555 Warwick Dr) in Reading, Pa on Sunday 13 December at 10:00 a.m., followed by a workshop on spiritual storytelling. He will tell special Chanukah stories at Congregation Beth Abraham Anshei Sfard (6208 Wallis Ave) in Baltimore, MD at 7:00 p.m. on 14 December.

The simple unfolding of the maggid’s stories strongly motivates a person toward the Holy One, Blessed be He. All the stories reflect the mystery, wonder, beauty, honor, tradition, and spirituality of all people. The stories contain great power to uplift people and help them on their spiritual journeys.

Please join us for a special Chanukah telling of tales of old. For more information contact Project Shalom at projectshalom1@aol.com

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“Kol z’man she’haner dolek, efshar l’takain”

“As long as the candle is still lit, it is possible to fix…”

It was a cold, dark evening. Not a star glittered in the sky, nor did the moon light up with even the tiniest flicker.  Clouds hung over the dusky sky, and a chill wind sliced through the thin walls of the simple houses.  Men hurried home from Ma’ariv (evening prayer), their coats clutched about them.

The Rebbe in his long black coat, walked alone.  He passed his students by hurrying out of shul through a side door before they realized it.  He was lost in deep thought, and did not wish to be distracted.

“Ribono Shel Olam,” he sighed to himself.  “I am getting older, yet there is still so much I have yet to accomplish.  People come to me for advice, considering me a complete saint, but only You, Merciful One can clearly see my lackings – I am far from complete.  What will be?  There is so little time. So little time. It is said that it can take a lifetime to change a habit, and it is late.  Oh, Ribono shel Olam, it is so late!”

Suddenly, a small flicker of light caught his attention.  As if in a trance, he walked slowly toward the glow.  He found himself before the shop of Yossele the tailor.  The Rebbe entered slowly, not quite sure why he was driven to pursue the tiny ray of light that had penetrated his introspection.

He stood in the doorway, fascinated.  Yossele sat hunched over a tiny candle; a half finished garment in one hand and an almost invisible threaded needle in the other.  In a gentle, rhythmic motion, he pushed the needle through the garment, and pulled it, drawing the thread tight.  The small flame flickered to and fro as Yossele pushed the needle, and pulled it tight.

Push the needle and pull it tight…

The Rebbe stood silently for a moment, watching Yossele’s eyes squinting in concentration by the light of the candle stub.

Push the needle and pull it tight…

“Yossele,” the Rebbe spoke softly. “Yossele, why don’t you stop now?  It is dark, and the night is cold.”

Yossele looked up at the Rebbe.  His eyes seemed to glow with a gentle intensity that outshown the glow of the candle.

“But Rebbe,” he almost whispered, his hands never ceasing to push the needle through and pull it tight, “There is much to fix…”

The Rebbe’s eyes swept over the room, taking in the piles of clothing waiting to be mended.

“Rebbe,” the tailor repeated almost reproachfully, “As long as the candle is burning, one can sill fix . . .”

Push the needle and pull it tight…

The Rebbe’s eyes widened, He felt an all-encompassing lightness overtake him.  He was free of his burden.

“Ribono shel Olam!  Now I understand!  As long as the candle is still burning, one can fix . . . and mend . . . his soul . . .

one  . . .stitch . . .at a time…”

Push the needle and pull it tight…

Kol z’man she’haner dolek, efshar l’takain.

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A 14 year old in a religious school class was curious and asked about the dreidel and the teacher merely explained it as a game played on Chanuka. The teacher went on to explain the letters n (nun), g (gimel), h (hay), w (shin) were to remind us that Mw hyh lvdg sn (Nes Gadol Haya Sham) – A great miracle happened there. A rememberance of the miracles of the small army that turned over the massive well-trained Syrian-Greek armies.

The student looked and asked, “What does this have to do with being Jewish?” He was truly looking for a spiritual meaning to the dreidel. He could not accept that this gambling game had anything to do with Yiddishkeit.

Perhaps if the teacher had explained that the dreidel represents each Jewish person and the letters teach that though life spins about that all parts of a person must grow also. The nun n is for nefesh – the soul which strives for high and higher meaning, the g is for g?f – the body which needs to be kept healthy and strong, the w is for sechel – mind the seeks and learns, and the h is for Hakol – everything together makes up each person.

Some rabbis connected the four letters with the four exiles of the Jewish people — Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

The Babylonians came and destroyed the Beis haMikdah and exiled the Jewish people. The Beis haMikdash represents a unique channel between Hashem and Man. When it was destroyed, this flow of spiritual energy was severed. The level of this connection is linked to the word “nefesh“ – soul (“When a soul will bring an offering”…Leviticus 2:1). Nefesh begins with the letter n, and n represents the kingdom of Babylon.

We learn from the story of Esther, that Haman wanted to physically destroy the Jewish people. The exile of Persia and Media represents the threat to the “guf” – the body of the Jewish People, the physical threat of annihilation. Guf begins with g which stands for the kingdom of Persia and Media.

Greece, on the other hand, represents the attack on the Torah itself – the sechel – the wisdom of Israel. The Greeks weren’t interested in the physical destruction of the Jewish People; rather they wanted to destroy the spiritual basis of Judaism – the Torah – and leave a Hellenized shell that would agree with to the Greek norms of aesthetics – drama, philosophy, and art. Sechel begins with the letter w - that’s the letter of the kingdom of Greece.

The fourth kingdom, Rome, is a summation of all the other exiles. At the beginning of their domination, the Romans, like the Babylonians, stopped the bringing of offerings in the Temple. Then, they destroyed the second Holy Temple and inflicted unthinkable bloodshed on the “guf“, the body of Jewish People. Rome is all the exiles rolled into one and thus it is represented by the Hebrew word “HaKol which begins with h “ meaning “all”.

Let us all grow in wisdom, strong in spirit, and healthy in body.

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After the death of Alexander the Great, two powerful Greek Empires emerged in the Middle East: The Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria. The Land of Israel was the border between these two warring Empires. At first, the Jewish people were under the control of the Ptolemies, who were curious about Jewish beliefs and philosophies and had the TaNaCh translated into Greek. A miracle occurred, the seventy sages charged with the translation all presented the same work – verbatim. As the Ptolomies grew weak they were overcome at the Battle of Panias in 198BCE, Israel found herself in the domain of the Seleucids and their king, Antiochus.

While many of the upper classes of Jewish society, along with the rest of the population of the Mediterranean world, readily embraced Hellenistic culture (some to the point of denouncing their Jewish identity), the vast majority of the Jewish people remained true to their beliefs and lifestyle. This “rejection” of the Hellenistic lifestyle was viewed with resentment by many Greeks and seen as an insult to their gifts of “beauty, philosophy and culture. The exotic differences that had once served as the source of attraction between the two cultures now created the flashpoint for a cultural war. To make matters worse, Israel was the border state between these two rival Greek Empires, and the Jewish masses, who refused to assimilate, were viewed as a disloyal population in strategically vital part of the Seleucid Empire.

It would be wrong to view the conflict as purely Greece versus the Jewish people. Very strong socio-political elements within the Jewish community contributed significantly to the conflict. Many of the Hellenized Jewish supporters of the Seleucids took it upon themselves to “help” those who wished to keep their faith and way of life “dragging” them away from what they perceived was their primitive beliefs into the “modern” world of Greek culture. (This pattern has repeated itself many times throughout Jewish history.) To aid them in their endeavor, these Hellenized Jews recruited the help of their Greek allies, ultimately bringing the king himself, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, into the conflict.

Chanuka is a celebration of Yiddishkeit/Judaism. The lights that were kindled at Sinai have burned in the Jewish heart and soul to this day. Every challenge to “modernize” and abandon our beliefs, culture and lifestyle has been unsuccessful. We have endured wars, disputations, pogroms, exile and still can be true to the faith of our fathers.

When we light the menorah, we affirm our freedoms, our triumphs and the future.

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My daughter questions everything and seeks answers that are sometimes very elusive. She has become frustrated over the apparent hypocrisy of many religious people. She feels it is hard to assert her individuality in a society with so many demands (how to dress, how to eat, how to communicate, etc).

I have told her many times that women are special in the Jewish community, but she often counters that all there is, is chauvinism and foolish limitations. It seems that the prevailing attitudes in our culture have replaced the long history of learning and teaching.

Chanuka is a holiday that is celebrated due to the sacrifices and deeds of women.

Who preserved and nurtured the Jewish tradition from generation to generation? Whose unwritten wisdom upheld it? The first response of many would probably be  ”the Rabbis.” A more careful, more thoughtful answer would be “the women.”

The hard to define aspects of Jewish tradition and way of life-the feel of it, the smells of a home, the part that cannot be captured in words, that remain unwritten but lasting -were for generations due to the sacrifices and deeds of Jewish women. Their wisdom has molded and defined the character of Jewish life. We find this throughout our history and teachings. We also find it in the Chanuka story, in the remarkable characters of Chana and Yehudis.

One of the major victories over the Syrian-Greeks came about through the heroism of a woman. Yehudis, daughter of Yochanan the High Priest, spoke to the people in her besieged city to have faith in the Holy One, blessed be H, but the people weakened by starvation and fear wanted to surrender the city. Yehudis left the city under the cover of night and went to the commanding general, Holofrenes, and first fed him cheese dishes which made him thirsty (the source for eating dairy foods on Chanuka). She then brought him wine to quench his thirst. When he became drunk and fell asleep, she beheaded him and hung it from the city walls. When the enemy soldiers saw the head of their decapitated leader, they fled.

The Syrian-Greeks and their supporters, tried to destroy the Jewish way of life by forcing people to abandoned their Judaism. Chana had seven sons each were brought before Antiochus and told to bow to him and recognize his god. Each son refused. As the last of her sons was taken to be executed she told him, “My son, go and tell your father Abraham: You bound one son upon the altar; I bound seven children on seven altars.”

The legacy Jewish women represent continues wherever the Jewish tradition is guided, enriched, and uplifted by her daugh­ters, the bearers of Judaism’s enduring legacy.

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When my father was younger he wrote for a lot of newspapers throughout the country. I think his articles are pretty good and makes one think. Here’s an excerpt from an article from 1984 that was in the Jewish Press.

Chanuka and the Fighters

The celebration of Chan­uka each year holds a mes­sage for the Jewish people throughout the world. A small group of Jewish reb­els led by the Maccabees rose up against the super­ior Hellenistic armies. The military victories of the Jewish people against the threats of religious supression ensured the freedom to  practice Judaism and the rededication of the Holy Temple in Yerushelayim.

The threat of Roman tyranny and paganism was challenged by Judea. The revolt against Rome lasted well over one hundred years before the Jewish fighters of Masada and Betar fell in battle and the Jewish people forced into. exile.

Many believe that the Jewish fighting spirit disappeared at. Betar. Some believe that with exile the Jewish people became fatalistic, and had no spirit. Religious martyrdom, flight and going like sheep to the slaughter commonly describe the reaction of the Jewish people to persecu­tion until the twentieth cen­tury.

The Jewish fighter sur­vived the Roman onslaught and championed Jewish causes many times throughout history. (the article talks about fights against Persia, Spain, and Crusaders. My father told about Jewish soldiers of the Khazar Empire, Berbers, Babylon and others)

And so the mighty tradi­tion continues up until our own days. Yehuda HaMaccabee and his brothers fought the Hellenistic threat to the Jewish people over twenty one centuries ago. Whenever the Jewish people have been  threatened the fighters have risen. The Jewish people have never been a fatalistic people who went like sheep to the slaughter.

On Chanuka, while we celebrate the victories of the Maccabees let us remember other heroes who rose to the threat of prejudice and hatred against the Jewish people.

The complete article is powerful and I wish he would write articles again.

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It is taught that the Jewish people were redeemed from slavery in Egypt because they did not change their names, abandoned their language or practiced immorality. It is so hard for many Jewish people to hold fast to the beliefs of our ancestors. Today many have changed their names so as not to be identified as Jewish, many can’t even say simple prayers in loshon haKodesh, Hebrew, and they often get involved in behavior and popular causes that are contrary to the Jewish way of life.

We are in the midst of celebrating Chanukah, a holiday to remember the fight for religious freedom. Yet so many of our people are lost in the ways of Mitzrayim (Egypt) and the philosophies of the Syrian-Greeks of ages ago. Could we fight an effective battle today against the prevailing popular values of society? Where are the leaders of our people that could rally them behind the banner of Jewish values, Torah, service, and charitable acts? Technology has changed, but the threat to the Jewish people and their faith is the same as it was over two millenia ago.

So many young people have come and said, “I went to religious school and hated it!” If they are not taught basic religious values and exposed to the wonder, the beauty and mystery of their beliefs, how can they grow? It reminds me of an encounter of a young man who wanted to find meaning in this confusing time…

Out of Your Own Egypt

There was once a young man who was severely troubled by constant thoughts and questions about his beliefs. He called on a rabbi in search for answers and a way to find his lost faith, but he was told: “I cannot help you, young man. I would suggest that you pay a visit to the holy tzaddik (holy man) who lives in the nearby forest. He will help you.”

The man promptly took his problem to holy tzaddik, who he found singing verses from the Book of Psalms while lighting his Chanukah menorah.

When holy tzaddik came to the verse, “And He delivered us from our oppressors, for His kindness is everlasting” – he slapped the young man on the shoulder and said: “Do you believe that the Almighty can deliver a man from every impurity and from every Mitzrayim?” (For Mitzrayim, the Hebrew word for ‘Egypt’, also implies Maytzarim – the restraints and limitations suffered by the soul in an unspiritual body.)

At that moment the young man was free of all this terrible thoughts and questions, and he left – a new person.

May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)

Click here for more storytelling resources

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My father wrote this article in 1981 for a Jewish paper.

20th  Century Miracle

by Rachmiel Tobesman

The excitement of Hanukah with its songs, gifts and sizzling latkes warms many Jewish hearts. The joy and happiness goes beyond the beauty of flickering lights and songs. A triumphant joy is felt each time the story of Yehudah haMaccabee is told, the fight and victory of the Jewish rebels over the paganistic Syrian-Greeks showed how they fought  for what they believe.

The Nazi hordes descended upon Poland and conquered it in a very short time. The Jewish population of Poland had to be dealt with. In answer to the “judenfrage”, the Jewish question, the Nazis established pits of starvation and disease called ghettos.

In the capital city of Poland, Warsaw, the largest Jewish ghetto was established. The Nazi plan was not only to starve the Jewish people of food, but also their right to worship Hashem. The Jewish communities of Poland were known to be stubborn, and many did not follow the Nazi laws.

The Judenrate, Jewish Council, often collaborated with the Nazis claiming to save lives. The Judenrate tried to ban the holding of Hanukah parties without a permit from a special office set up for that purpose. The parties were held without permits, and the Judenrate did not make any profit for their Nazi masters.

Chaim Kaplan kept a diary in the Warsaw Ghetto. His diary was written in Hebrew. The entry about Hanukah 5701 was made on December 26, 1940. In it Chaim Kaplan relates: “Never before in Jewish Warsaw were there as many Hanukah celebrations as in the year of the wall….After 16 months of Nazi occupation we came to life again.^“

The joy of Hanukah was not only felt in the ghettos but also in the Nazi concentration camps. In Nieder-Orschel, part of the Buchenwald industrial/death complex, a 17 year old Jewish student from Bratislava, Simche Unsdorfer, with others set out to bring Hanukah to the camp.

In the concentration camp many people suffered from severe spiritual and physical distress. Simche Unsdorfer and a few friends thought that they could somehow light a Hanukah menorah to raise the morale and restore faith to the many men in the barracks.

With Hanukah just a few days away, a plan of action was adopted. The group drew lots. The first name…Grunwald…would have to somehow obtain oil for the ^“menorah.” The third name would have to hide the oil and be responsible for it until Hanukah. The fifth…Simche Unsdorfer…would light the menorah under his bunk.

The ^“menorah^“ was made from an old shoe polish tin with wicks made from blankets and oil for fuel. Finally Hanukah came.

December 11, 1944, was the first night of Hanukah. Simche Unsdorfer lit the menorah under his bunk and recited the three traditional blessings and all began to sing Ma’oz Tzur.

An unterstrumfuhrer (lieutenant) happened to smell the burning oil and burst into the barracks to find out who was burning it. As the unterstrumfuhrer was about to find the menorah the menorah under Simche Unsdorfer^‘s bunk, an air raid siren blared and the unterstrumfuhrer ran for shelter.

That night in Nieder-Orschel a Ness Gadol Haya Sham (A Great Miracle Happened There). Many of the men with their faith restored in Hashem looked to the liberation from the Nazi terror and paganism.

THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 18, 1981

May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)

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