George Washington's Hanukkah

The Truth About George Washington's Hanukkah
posted by Rabbi Susan Grossman

Categories: Jewish Holidays

For centuries, the lights of the Hanukkah menorah have inspired hope and courage. They may have also been responsible for inspiring then-General George Washington to forge on when everything looked bleak when his cold and hungry Continental Army camped at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777/8.

The story is told that Washington was walking among his troops when he saw one soldier sitting apart from the others, huddled over what looked like two tiny flames. Washington approached the soldier and asked him what he was doing. The soldier explained that he was a Jew and he had lit the candles celebrate Hanukkah, the festival commemorating the miraculous victory of his people so many centuries ago over the tyranny of a much better equipped and more powerful enemy who had sought to deny them their freedom. The soldier then expressed his confidence that just as, with the help of God, the Jews of ancient times were ultimately victorious, so too would they would be victorious in their just cause for freedom. Washington thanked the soldier and walked back to where the rest troops camped, warmed by the inspiration of those little flames and the knowledge that miracles are possible.

Different names have been suggested for the mysterious soldier, Jeremiah Greenman, Capt. Isaac Levy, or Private Asher Pollock of the Second Rhode Island Battalion, all of whom were at Valley Forge. Stephen Krensky, in his lovely children’s book, "Hanukkah at Valley Forge," traces the story back to a 1778 meeting Washington had at the home of Michael Hart, a Jewish merchant in Easton, Pa., which Hart’s daughter recorded in her diary, when Washington described his meeting with the Jewish soldier.

For me, what is most interesting is that while Hanukkah falls at different times during the year, in 1777, the first night of Hanukkah fell on Dec. 24, Christmas Eve.

George Washington's Continental Army arrived at Valley Forge just five days earlier, on Dec. 19. His choice of a site was sharply criticized. The troops were struggling to build enough huts before the men, barefoot and starving, died of exposure. Mutiny was in the air. One can only imagine what was going through General Washington'’s mind as he walked among the troops that night of Christmas Eve.

While some might question the veracity of the story, because the details of the Jewish soldier’s identity may be lost in time, here are its “truths:” Like generations of Jews before him, that soldier served as a “light unto the nations” (Isaiah 42:6), bringing inspiration and courage to a nation in its birth pangs. And he did so in a perfectly American way, a way in which a miracle did result, the miracle by which the light from one religion helps give comfort and courage to another.

It is just such religious tolerance and cooperation that the world needs so desperately today. The lights of Hanukkah remind us even in the darkest nights that miracles do happen.
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Filed Under: Army, George Washington, Hanukkah, Menorah, Miracles, War

Monday December 10, 2007

The Doves of Israel - not harbingers of peace

Two Kinds of Doves

Paul Eidelberg

Depending on their attitude toward peace, people are generally divided between “doves” and “hawks.” Contrary to conventional wisdom, there are no “hawks” in Israel, only “doves.” In fact, Scripture identifies Israel with the “dove.”

Apropos of Israel today, Rabbi Aaron Soloveitchik (Logic of the Heart, Logic of the Mind) distinguishes between two kinds of doves. One is called yonat eilem, mute doves, doves that do not defend themselves (Psalm 56:1). The other is called g’ei yonim, proud doves (Psalm 123:4).

Regarding proud doves, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch writes:

As opposed to the imperious eagles which were the emblems of power and majesty of the nations of the world, the “dove,” the symbol of weakness and impotence, is entirely at the mercy of all its enemies.

Among all the “doves”—among all the weak and powerless peoples of the world—Israel alone had the courage and moral energy to stand up with a calm eye to the eagle-like stare of the high and the mighty, to remain erect with unbowed self-confidence, and, despite its lowly position, to sense itself as a great force among the national phenomenon of world history.

Would that there were such “doves” in Israel today. It seems, however, that we have only flocks of yonim eilem--mute and impotent doves. What else are we to say of an Israeli government that engages in a one-sided cease fire with Hamas? Indeed, during the past eight years, Gaza-based terrorists have launched some 7,000 rockets on Sderot with no serious retaliation by Israel’s timid government.

What are we to say of a government, whose military forces exceed that of any Arab states, hobnobs with Arab thugs and is willing to withdraw from eastern Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, the holiest site of the Jewish people?

And what are we to say of the opposition parties--secular and religious—which allow this government to sell Israel’s birthright for the potage of an Arabian “peace”? To call members of any opposition party “hawks” is a profound error. If there are any predators among Jews in Israel they will be found in the Kadima-led government. Israel today is ruled by schizophrenic “doves.”

Doves are uniquely faithful. But the “doves” in the Kadima-led government are faithless: they are betraying Jews and Judaism. On the one hand, these yonim eilem coo and woo Arabs, the hawks of the Middle East. On the other hand, these “doves” behave like ravens toward Jews who identify with Judaism. The Talmud (Gittin 45a) refers to ravens as “false” or faithless. They are also cruel to their own kind. Recall what they did to Jews in Gush Katif and more recently in Hebron.

Notice how the government brutalizes Jews while releasing thousands of Arab terrorists and murderers. In other words, leftwing “doves” behave like fascists toward Jews and like permissive democrats toward Arabs--an obvious case of political schizophrenia.

The schizophrenia of Israel’s ruling elites would be laughable if it were not lethal. These pathetic elites apply the democratic principle of equality to an ideological conflict in which one party, Arab terrorists, rejects that principle. Does any sane or sensible person doubt that the Arabs want to lord it over all of “Palestine”? The name “Israel” has been “wiped off” the Middle East maps of these Arabs.

Their maps show only “Palestine,” and they trace their ancestry to the Philistines, a pagan people. Yes, Arabs are notorious for their inordinate pride. Not the dove but the eagle symbolizes their mentality. How, then, can Jews—yonim eilim, humble doves— compete with predatory eagles?

There is but one way, and that is by becoming g’ei yonim—proud doves. But Jews can only become proud doves by ceasing to apply democratic principles to Arabs or Muslims who are anything but democrats.

Jews are not ready for such a revolution. Many think that by returning the Likud to power Israel’s present nightmare will come to an end. This is nonsense. Israel will remain dominated by yonim eilim so long as secular Jews control the levers of power in this country while religious Jews continue to burn incense to democracy, forgetful of what it means to be the Chosen People.

This is not a call for theocracy, which is actually foreign to Jewish thought (as I have elsewhere shown). The only authentic form of Jewish leadership is that of the teacher, whose power is not political but intellectual and moral.

Sooner or later, g’ei yonim will gain ascendancy in Israel, and God will again rejoice in His people

JEW HATE RUNS DEEP AT THE FBI

JEW HATE RUNS DEEP AT THE FBI: MADOFF MADNESS

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/12/jew-hate-runs-d.html

also
Carter laments: Terrorists lack 'defense' against Israel
hat tip SophieOnce an anti-semite, always an anti-semite.
referred by http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/12/israelis-lament.html

The Bushian* Mantra that "Our View of Islam is an Inaccurate Representation of 'What the Real Islam Is'" Repeated by Chertoff

. . . from Jihad Watch comes this gem:

"'As one threat fades, another may come in,'" from USA Today, December 18 (thanks to Debbie Schlussel):

Q: Who is the war on terrorism against? Is it al-Qaeda? Is it the tactic, which seems impossible to eradicate? Or is it Islamic radicalism?

A: What we're confronting is an ideological conflict with an extremist world view that I don't think is an accurate representative of Islam, but uses the language or hijacks Islam for an extremist agenda. It's an ideology that's reflected in al-Qaeda, and it's reflected in Lashkar-e-Taiba, which everybody now knows because of (the Mumbai attacks). That is the struggle, and unlike the Cold War victory, I don't think there's going to be a wall that comes down. It will be a process of using hard power to strike back at the leaders and using soft power to change the breeding ground where people try to recruit.

_________________
*Obama's replacement of Chertoff as head of Homeland Security gives no promise of a needed new governmental vision of Islam: Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Barack Obama's pick to head Homeland Security. As to the term "Bushian," it refers to George W. Bush's false representation of Islam as not what we "see, feel, and hear" but as what the supporters of the ideology known as Islam want us to "see, feel, and hear."

The Saudi connection of the Bushes as well as the penetration of our institutions, corporations, State Department, etc. by Islamic interests spear-headed by the oil-rich Saudis and UAE are to blame for this fooling of the American people.

See Saudi Kingdom Continues to Export Radical Wahhabism

Time for a modern Yehuda Maccabi?

Israeli government again backs down as Gaza missile war boils over
DEBKAfile Special Report

December 21, 2008, 9:56 PM (GMT+02:00)

Sderot: Living in mortal fear

No military action to stamp out the Palestinian missile blitz against southwestern Israel will be undertaken before "international support" is organized and an attempt to renew the "ceasefire" with Hamas is undertaken. That was the gist of the Israeli cabinet's decision Sunday morning, Dec. 21, after Palestinian terrorists fired eight missiles and mortar shells at Israeli civilian locations, continuing the blitz launched before and after Hamas ended its six-month "truce" Friday.

Israeli helicopters struck three missile teams preparing to fire near the north Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. But the missiles kept coming - 22 by the end of the day.

The ministers pushing hard for harsh military action gave way to prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Ehud Barak's decision to continue the foot-dragging. Neither was perturbed by being accused of letting Hamas and its terrorist partners get away almost scot-free with waging a cross-border war against a large Israeli civilian population.

Cold shouldered by Olmert and Barak, foreign minister Tzipi Livni announced that if she were elected prime minister her government would wipe out the Hamas regime in Gaza.

Sunday, two people were hurt when a missile blast wrecked a Sderot home and a second struck the Netiv Haasara greenhouses injuring a foreign worker. The town of Ashkelon took four hits, two exploding in the city's industrial estate and two outside strategic facilities on the Mediterranean shore.

Schoolchildren were told to stay in their classrooms and forbidden the playground. Magen David Adom's first aid services are on high alert at all the locations within range of Gaza after the population spent Saturday ducking 15 Palestinian missiles and 26 mortar rounds. There were no injuries but the damage to property was considerable.

Hamas leaders have gone into hiding in the smuggling tunnels honeycombing the southern Gaza Strip in case Israel goes back to targeted assassinations.

http://www1.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5784

HAPPY HANUKKAH



HANUKKAH

Hanukkah 2008
In 2008 Hanukkah begins at sundown on Sunday December 21.
Hanukkah is a eight-day holiday both in Israel and outside of Israel.

Jews celebrate an 8 day festival of Hanukkah, (a.k.a. Feast of Lights, Festival of lights, Feast of Dedication, Chanukah, Chanukkah, Hanukah). It recalls the war fought by the Maccabees in the cause of religious freedom. Antiochus, the king of Syria, conquered Judea in the 2nd century BCE. He terminated worship in the Temple and stole the sacred lamp, the menorah, from before the altar. At the time of the solstice, they rededicated the Temple to a Pagan deity. Judah the Maccabee lead a band of rebels, and succeeding in retaking Jerusalem. They restored the temple and lit the menorah. It was exactly three years after the flame had been extinguished -- at the time of the Pagan rite.

Although they had found only sufficient consecrated oil to last for 24 hours, the flames burned steadily for eight days. "Today's menorahs have nine branches; the ninth branch is for the shamash, or servant light, which is used to light the other eight candles. People eat potato latkes, exchange gifts, and play dreidel games. And as they gaze at the light of the menorah, they give thanks for the miracle in the Temple long ago." 5

"Hanukkah: The festival of lights," at: http://www.education-world.com/

Is it a festival TO CELEBRATE AND REMEMBER A VICTORY IN BATTLE?

Not really. The eight lights are lit to celebrate a miraculous happening.

The victory was necessary for it to happen.

The victory was that of the Jews over the Hellenist Syrians in 165 BCE.

Following their victory, the Maccabees, sons of the Priestly Hasmonean family which led the Jews in their revolt against the Syrian overlords, entered the Holy Temple in Jerusalem defiled by the Syrian invaders, cleansed it and dedicated it anew to the service of God. Then, in memory of their victory, the Maccabees celebrated the first Hanukkah. (Hanukkah is the Hebrew term for "dedication").

The Talmud, the body of Jewish oral law, relates how the Judean heroes, led by Judah Maccabee, were making ready to rededicate the Temple and were unable to find enough undefiled oil to light the lamps. However, in one of the Temple chambers, they finally came upon a small cruse of oil which, under normal circumstances, would have lasted only one evening. Miraculously, this small amount of oil kept the Temple lights burning, not for one night, but for all the eight nights until new oil fit for use in the temple could be obtained. This is the miracle commemorated by the kindling of the Hanukkah lights.







The miracle would never have occurred, had the Temple in Jerusalem remained defiled and in the foreign (non-Jewish) hands that had sacrificed a pig in the Holy of Holies.







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Maccabeus

HAPPY HANNUKAH

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Gates of Vienna: The Fjordman Fund

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