The Jewish Bible, the collected now written "Oral Law" and modern archeological finds document Jewish History, Religion and our unbroken connection to the Land of Israel.
I live in Shiloh, the same Shiloh in which Eli, Samuel and Chana worked and prayed.
A table or chair must have at least three legs for stability, and we have our Land, Religion and History which makes the Jewish People unique in the world. The Greeks were not the only despots to have attempted to ban Jews from living according to Jewish Laws. We have out-survived them all.
Today the Jewish Religion burns more brightly than the Roman Catholics of Spain whose Inquisition against Jews caused many to hide their practice of Judaism. Today, centuries after that unjust, racist law caused the deaths and secret practices of so many Jews, their descendants are waking up to their Jewish pasts and some have returned to Judaism.
Chanukah is our longest holiday, eight full days. That's more than a week. Each day we light another candle. One mitzvah leads to another. The light we're supposed to show the world must be of Jewish Values, not modern, secular ideologies.
2 comments:
Beautiful pictures and post. TY.
A few thoughts came to my mind:
It's galling that the US government would dictate anything to Israel. If Israel wants to negotiate with the Arabs in Gaza then that should be between Israel and the Arabs. It reminds me a lot of how school children will goad two kids into a fight.
Not that there's not already a war with Islam but the US is trying to escalate things IMO.
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I love your chanukiya pictures! This year I placed my smaller but tradiationally shaped on in the center of a candle garden and put it in my window. I also posted it to a local television station web site (viewers are allowed to post pictures and videos and they have contests.)
My Chanukah Candle Garden is the most popular right now. I probably won't win the contest since they changed the rule and a video of the light is needed, not a still.
I also snapped a shot of a large medal chanukiya I saw that was strapped to the hood of a car. I've never seen that before but saw it during the day and it was lit up at night. Menorah mobile.
I haven't seen any Chabad menorah parades here, just this single van.
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Someone mentioned something interesting to me about why there are eight candles (not counting the shamash.
He said that eight was significant for a number of reason but suggested that eight could represent the day after Shabbat, when Hashem started to create again after after resting.
Seven nights we remember the holy and gaze at the lights. Remember the miracle. After that we return to the secular with Hashem and do what needs to be done in the secular world to defend Israel, bring light into the world (law, morality, decency etc).
Anyway, it was just something a friend suggested to me. He said it much nicer.
Keli, lovely, thanks
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