As this article goes to press, a committee of the U.N. has decided in favor of the internationalization of Jerusalem, and the newspapers inform us that it is probable that the assembly will also vote for internationalizing Jerusalem. Somehow, our faces are not shown and our spirits are not fallen as they were during those hectic days, 2 eps. ago, when the UN was debating the issue of the existence of a State of Israel.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the most important feature of Hanukkah – the Hanukkah candles – is the increase in the number of candles from day to day. The lighting of the candles is progressive; that is, we proceed from least to most. The first night we light one candle, the second night two candles, the third night three candles, and so until the eighth night, when the candelabrum is ablaze with all eight candles. What we have is growth and increase and progress. It was the House of Hillel which gave this order its legal form when it said that mosif ve’holekh, the number of candles is to be increased each night, because ma’alin be’kodesh, because one must rise, increase, or progress in holiness.In a sense, this idea of increase, of addition, of the progressive candles, is a very deep and incisive commentary on Jewish life and what it should be. The Hanukkah candles represent more than merely the military victory of the Jewish Maccabeans over the Greek Antiochus. They symbolize as well the clash of cultures, the war of world-views. There was the Greek world, steeped in its oriental idolatry, pitted against a Jewish minority stubbornly proud of its pure belief in one God.One should not dismiss the Greek world lightly. The world’s greatest philosophers were nursed in the cradle of Greek culture. But the great difference between Hellenism, as the Greek culture is known, and Judaism, lies in this: The Greek world glorified contemplation, the Jewish world glorified behavior, mitzvot. The Greeks stressed creed, while we insisted upon deed. The Greeks were inclined to inactivity – the perfection of form, while the Jew insisted upon activity. The Greeks had many philosophers but few saints; many thinkers but few doers. With the Jews this was reversed. Our world was not one of cold thought, but one of warm action. And this Jewish attitude is best represented by the progressive candles – increase, growth, action, progress. I have no doubt that if the Greeks had won…

The festival of Chanukah offers us a real opportunity to discuss a much misunderstood topic – the Jewish attitude towards beauty. On the one hand, Chanukah is that holiday when an attempt is made to beautify the home and the synagogue and the services. Jews vie with each other in owning a more beautiful Chanukah menorah. On the other hand, Chanukah symbolizes the cultural differences between ancient Greece and Israel. The Greeks, we are told from year to year, worshipped beauty, while we insisted on the aspects of holiness. It is usually reduced to the simple formula: ethics versus aesthetics. However, it is not really that simple. Is it true, for instance, that Jews always looked down upon physical beauty? Does Judaism really take a negative attitude towards beauty and art and aesthetics? Just what does Judaism have to say about beauty? What is the meaning of beauty for the Jew – or better – what is the Jewish meaning of beauty?Let us understand, at the very outset, that the Jew certainly appreciated beauty. While he was not a pagan who worshiped it, he still found some very positive values in physical beauty, and his admiration for it was not less than that of other peoples. And let us realize, too, that we do not mean any sort of abstract beauty, or spiritual beauty. We mean beauty of form and color and harmony and symmetry – the word “beauty” as the layman means and understands and appreciates it. Our Bible and rabbis took this attitude for the simple reason that there is nothing in the world that is wrong or sinful with beauty that should prevent man from delighting in it. When our Torah tells us that Rachel was “beautiful of appearance”, it means just that. And when our Father Abraham told his wife Sarah “Behold, I know that thou art beautiful”, he, too, meant what he said. So too, when our rabbis allegorize and say that of the ten measures of beauty bequeathed to this world, Jerusalem took nine, they mean that Jerusalem was a charming and delightful city. No…

It is a pleasure to be with you on this first Annual Chanukah Banquet since my coming to Springfield. All this past year – eleven months – has been a series of “firsts”: first High Holidays, Purim, Simchat Torah, and so forth. This is the last of my “firsts,” for in a very short time I will have completed my first cycle in Kodimoh. Ordinarily, it would be inappropriate to hold a Kodimoh Festival – a purely congregational celebration – on Chanukah. Ein me’arvin simchah be‑simchah – we do not mingle one celebration with another, so as not to detract from either (as with weddings on Chol HaMoed or Purim). But today, both Kodimoh’s personal and Israel’s national Chanukah festivals coincide in essence: Lo va‑chayil ve‑lo va‑koach, ki im be‑ruchi, amar Hashem Tzeva’ot – not by might nor by power, but by My spirit, said the Lord of Hosts. And what is all this, if not a festivity in honor of our purpose, which is the ruach, the spirit of Torah and Judaism. The program of Kodimoh – in its ritual, educational, administrative, and auxiliary aspects – is the story of the implementation of that ruach, that Divine‑like spirituality, in all phases of our congregational life. All that has been done – and all that will be done – is geared to the premise that the primary function of a synagogue is the advancement of ruach Hashem Tzeva’ot, the spirit of Torah in the lives of those whom Kodimoh serves. I have been asked to present, in outline, both a review of the past year and a preview of what we expect in the coming year, God willing. But I shall not make a clean‑cut division between last year and next. At present we are in a state of flux – of continuing activity and progress. A great Hebrew poet once said something that in English would be rendered, “Today by tomorrow will be yesterday.” Let us look upon Kodimoh’s program as a continuous and unbroken implementation of ruach Hashem, the spirit of Torah. In the realm of ritual: High Holidays featured a pre‑Selichot social, reverent…

In the special Al Ha’nissim prayer which we recite on this Chanukah holiday, thanking G-d for all His favors to us, we recite a short account of the Chanukah story. In the course of so doing, we mention the evil Greek rule over Palestine, and the fact that conquering Greeks sought le’hash’kicham torassecha, to make them (the Jews) forget Thy Torah. Now, while it might be true that many an enemy of Israel has attempted to “make them forget Thy Torah,” we do not find that the Greeks expressly prohibited the study of Torah. We know that a couple of centuries later the Romans specifically forbade it. But the Greeks, according to the Book of Maccabbees, forbade only three religious institutions: Shabbos, Chodesh, and Milah. We have no record of them forbidding Torah. Why, then, this statement in the Al Ha’nissim that the Greeks tried le’hashkicham torassecha? Let me ask that question in another way: Rabbis are always upbraiding their people, demanding of them loyal adherence to the Torah. We cry and protest and lecture because the Jews are being alienated from their Bible. We want Jews to be good Jews, not Jews by birth or friendships alone. And yet there is always the wayward layman who asks: But am I not a good Jew? So what if I don’t observe Shabbos, Chodesh, Milah, so what if I smoke on the Sabbath, or never come to a synagogue to know when Rosh Chodesh prayers are to be recited, so what if I allow a doctor – a non-Jewish one yet – to circumcise my child? Does that mean that the Bible is not mine as well as the next fellow’s? Does that mean that I am not a good Jew? My diet may be non-Jewish, my work-schedule may be non-Jewish, my lack of support of a synagogue may be not in keeping with Jewish demands, but I’m good-natured, generous, I support certain social agencies which are Jewish-sponsored and I occasionally lend some money to my brother-in-law. Isn’t that what G-d wants? Isn’t that in the Bible? How can you say that I have forgotten the Torah, that I’m not a g…

My task this evening is to install the new administration of our Kodimoh. Looking over the list, I discover that there are a total of seven units that must be officially charged and installed. And I do not regard this as a mere fortuitous coincidence. The number seven is a ”magic number" in Jewish life. It is above all the number of days of the week, the symbol of the creation of the world, and therefore the symbol of creativity as such. It is my hope and my prayer that this administration will fulfill that function of creativity on the pattern set down before it. For the work of the officers of a synagogue is much like the study of Torah - Im yom taazvenu yomayim yaazveka, neglect it for a day and it neglects you for twice that time. You cannot keep the status quo in a shul - it’s either ahead or backwards, either creative or, chalilah, destructive. Our installation, this evening, of each and every one of the new administration is based on that proposition, the proposition that you must determine to be creative, else you harm this holy work זזhich you have undertaken• Let us proceed then, with the installation, on the pattern of the first seven days in which God created this Universe.2 .On the first day, G-d created Heaven and Earth - and He also created Light, and Darkness. The ability to distinguish between Light and Darkness, the duty of spreading light and subduing the forces of darkness, is a sacred one. In the first of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls discovered recently, an ancient Megillah whose authorship has not yet been determined beyon doubt, tells of the battle between the BNEI OR and BNEI CHOSHECH, the Children of Light and the Children of ^arkness. The members of the Board must consider themselves the true BNEI OR, Children of Light. Upon you we will rely to bring great light into the congregation whom you are priveleged to serve. Upon you depends the future of the administration, and hence the future of Kodimoh. Apathy, indifference, pettiness and lack …

(1) Throughout the ages, Chanukah has been variously interpreted. It is to the credit of this minor festival that it has a unique meaning for every age. And important, therefore, to show its relevance to our own day with its problems, values and aspirations. (2) Through the ages, we have always recalled the miracle of the oil. It is important to remember this nes shemen, for the beauty, the warmth and the religious quality of this aspect of Chanukah is eternally fresh and captivating. But – not enough.(3) At the beginning of Zionist era, when it was important to educate Jews to a more militant attitude, emphasis was placed not on nes shemen but on nes milchamah. The military victory was given prominence, and the Maccabees lost their priestly character and became Zionist heroes, Jewish Legionnaires, Haganah leaders; while anachronistic historically, were extremely valuable pedagogically. Their fight was for the homeland, nothing more nothing less…That too is an important and integral part of Chanukah. It is a call to activism, to resisting oppression and preserving the homeland and nation. But it is a great and treacherous mistake to make of the Maccabees merely secular military heroes. If that were the case, Chanukah would be celebrated with military parades and cannon salutes, and we would revere symbols of warfare. But the fact is that we say Hallel, not parade, and light candles, and not reverence swords. Fact is that we recall nes milchamah only as praise of God – it was He Who delivered us, not the Maccabees (merely instruments of God's redemptive powers); it was our love for Torah that stood us in good stead, not our strategy; the victory was not a human one but a divine one.In America, in addition to the purely religious aspect (nes shemen) and the influence of Zionism in establishing the military aspect (nes milchamah), a third aspect comes to the fore. The Maccabees fought for freedom of religion, freedom of conscience. It was a war which was the first of …

I. A) Two pieces of sacred furniture in the Temple play major roles – not as props but as protagonists, as stars – in the great Jewish drama of Ḥanukkah. B) They are the menorah and the mizbe’aḥ – the candelabrum and the altar. C) Briefly: when the Maccabees returned to the desecrated Temple some 2,120 years ago, they rededicated the mizbe’aḥ and relit the menorah. The dramatic miracle – which is the climax of this historical episode – relates to the menorah and the oil. D) Both were focal points of the Jewish victory.

I. Tonight, immediately after the Sabbath is over, we shall be confronted with the observance of two precious mitzvot: the kindling of the H. candles for H. begins tonight; and the Havdallah which marks the end of Sabbath. The question of which shall be performed first is one which engaged the attention of some of our wisest, illustrious latter-day Sages, and the solution must Jews have accepted is one which implicitly and indirectly, expresses a quiet idea of Jewish

On this last day of Hanukkah, the second Shabbat Hanukkah this year, we direct our attention to a question concerning the entire festival itself. Why is it that we make such a festive holiday, filled with prayer and thanksgiving, with the lighting of candles and the singing of songs, for the cleansing and the purifying of the Second Temple, which was rededicated in the year 155 before the Common Era, and we have no equivalent or comparable festival to celebrate the initial building of the First Temple by Solomon many hundreds of years earlier? Was not Solomon’s first great campaign, building a sanctuary which his father, David, had foreseen, at least as important as what seems a subsequent minor detail in the history of the temple?And the answer, my friends, lies in the difference between building and rebuilding, between constructing and reconstructing, between dedicating and rededicating. When there is a new movement, a new campaign, a new idea, a new vision, anything that has with it the power of novelty, then it is almost assured of freshness and vigor and enthusiasm. The decision to build something new is not a spiritually difficult achievement. Everyone is anxious, everyone is aroused, everyone is excited. The people involved in such a project generally move forward with a great surge of strength and spirit.But – the decision to rebuild, that is far more difficult. To approach a rubble and try to make of it a habitable home; patiently to pick up the pieces of the past and paste them together; to take the tattered ruins of a former majesty and somehow restore them; to patch together what time and circumstance have ravaged – for this the masses have little enthusiasm, less spirit, and no patience.Thus, when King Solomon took it upon himself to build a new Bet Ha-mikdash, it was a comparatively easy enterprise. He was able to ride on the crest of popular appeal and mass sentiment. But when many hundreds of years later the Maccabees returned to a desecrated temple…