Thoughts on Hanuka by the incredible Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes
(Edited by Shelomo Alfassa)
Rabbi Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes was rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York 1877-1937. Dr. Mendes was the founder of the Orthodox Union (OU) and was president of it during the first 16 years of its existence. He was also a co-founder of the (originally orthodox!) Jewish Theological Seminary with a fellow Sephardic rabbi, Sabato Morais. Here, Rabbi Mendes writes in his Ruach Hayim, about Hanuka:
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THE celebration of Hanuka is observed by lighting one lamp the first night, two lamps on the second, three lamps on the third, and so on for eight nights. On each night the benediction is recited. The historical reason for the festival is to commemorate the eight days of cleansing the Temple, after the defilement and ruin caused by Antiochus, King of Syria and Greece (c. 168 BCE).
A jar of oil sealed with the high-priest's seal, and therefore judged to be of requisite purity for the Temple "Menorah" or Lamp, was found with enough oil in it to last for a week until more could be made. This is the origin of lighting the Hanuka, or "Dedication" lamps.
The wise parent will seize the opportunity Hanuka affords to prepare their children to "dedicate their lives to Jewish loyalty." For Hanuka falls about the time of the great Christian festival, whose atmosphere invades stores, the streets, the schools, the very life of the community in which we live. Our children are affected by it consciously, unconsciously and subconsciously.
To counteract, we must counter-attract:
From the viewpoint of history, that tree is symbolical of a religion hostile to ours, and every leaf is red with the blood and wet with the tears of our martyrs, due to its hostility. To have that tree in a Jewish home stamps the father a traitor and the mother a traitoress to our religion, to duty and to God.
4. Read the story of Hanuka to the children. The battles of Beth-Zur and Emmaus are as glorious as Yorktown or Waterloo. The suffering of the Jewish patriots in the Judean hills was as intense as those of American patriots in Valley Forge. The daring and loyalty of Hannah and her seven sons, of the aged Eleazer, is equal to any story of daring and loyalty in all history. Let the children thus learn to be patriots, proud of a splendid ancestry. But let the grown men and women know that the story of Hanuka means the salvation and triumph of monotheism and morality and the defeat of polytheism and immorality.
Except for this triumph, Judaism would have stamped out of existence, and Christianity, the daughter of Judaism and Paganism, would never have been born to lift mankind half way from the religious slime of the so-called classic world to the heights of Sinai. The world owes much to our race, to our Law-giver, to our prophets and psalmists, to our heroes and martyrs, among them the heroes and martyrs of Hanuka.
Rabbi Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes was rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York 1877-1937. Dr. Mendes was the founder of the Orthodox Union (OU) and was president of it during the first 16 years of its existence. He was also a co-founder of the (originally orthodox!) Jewish Theological Seminary with a fellow Sephardic rabbi, Sabato Morais. Here, Rabbi Mendes writes in his Ruach Hayim, about Hanuka:
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THE celebration of Hanuka is observed by lighting one lamp the first night, two lamps on the second, three lamps on the third, and so on for eight nights. On each night the benediction is recited. The historical reason for the festival is to commemorate the eight days of cleansing the Temple, after the defilement and ruin caused by Antiochus, King of Syria and Greece (c. 168 BCE).
A jar of oil sealed with the high-priest's seal, and therefore judged to be of requisite purity for the Temple "Menorah" or Lamp, was found with enough oil in it to last for a week until more could be made. This is the origin of lighting the Hanuka, or "Dedication" lamps.
The wise parent will seize the opportunity Hanuka affords to prepare their children to "dedicate their lives to Jewish loyalty." For Hanuka falls about the time of the great Christian festival, whose atmosphere invades stores, the streets, the schools, the very life of the community in which we live. Our children are affected by it consciously, unconsciously and subconsciously.
To counteract, we must counter-attract:
1. Let us make Hanuka attractive—let it be a happy home festival.
2. Exchange presents; have a happy evening gathering;
3. But allow no Christmas tree in the home;
From the viewpoint of history, that tree is symbolical of a religion hostile to ours, and every leaf is red with the blood and wet with the tears of our martyrs, due to its hostility. To have that tree in a Jewish home stamps the father a traitor and the mother a traitoress to our religion, to duty and to God.
4. Read the story of Hanuka to the children. The battles of Beth-Zur and Emmaus are as glorious as Yorktown or Waterloo. The suffering of the Jewish patriots in the Judean hills was as intense as those of American patriots in Valley Forge. The daring and loyalty of Hannah and her seven sons, of the aged Eleazer, is equal to any story of daring and loyalty in all history. Let the children thus learn to be patriots, proud of a splendid ancestry. But let the grown men and women know that the story of Hanuka means the salvation and triumph of monotheism and morality and the defeat of polytheism and immorality.
Except for this triumph, Judaism would have stamped out of existence, and Christianity, the daughter of Judaism and Paganism, would never have been born to lift mankind half way from the religious slime of the so-called classic world to the heights of Sinai. The world owes much to our race, to our Law-giver, to our prophets and psalmists, to our heroes and martyrs, among them the heroes and martyrs of Hanuka.
About Rabbi Mendes…
"To measure the significance of the life, work, and character of Henry Pereira Mendes one must look back in history. In 1877, when Dr. Mendes arrived in the United States from England, the burning issue in American Jewish life was the violently waged struggle between Reform and Orthodoxy. Reform seemed to be sweeping everything before it. More and more the rich and socially prominent Jews were flocking into Reform. Synagogues that had been in existence for some time were becoming Reform in order to proclaim their American character."
--Rabbi Dr. David deSola Pool, 1937