As this issue of Being
Jewish goes to press in mid
November, the situation in
Israel is tense.We try
to avoid politics and
ideology in our pages, but
we would be remiss in not
expressing our concern
over the threat to Israel
and our sadness over the
violence. As we reflect on
the Chanukah miracle
that happened in Israel in
ancient days, we must
pray and work for a
miracle in our day. In spite of
incitement to violence,
there are occasional flickers of decency and
hope. The miracle would be
if these flickers could turn to a flame of
peace and burn for 8 days
and beyond.We can only hope that by the
time you read this peace
prevails. This as our Chanukah prayer.We
encourage your prayers and
work with the following in mind:
"Pray as if
everything depends on God.Work as if everything depends on Man." — Cardinal Spellman
Oseh shalom bimromav, who
ya-ase shalom alenu v’al kol yisrael…
May God who makes peace in
the heavens, grant peace to us and Israel. — Prayerbook
"Mankind must
remember that peace is not God’s gift to his creatures; peace is
our gift to each other." — Elie Wiesel
This winter holiday, which often gets lost in the seasonal commercialism
that threatens to
overwhelm us, is not about the military
victory of the
Maccabbes. Nor is it about a cruse of oil that burned
longer than
expected. Hanukah is about the spirit of God resting
on a people and
motivating them to do what they never thought
possible.
Excerpt from
Sacred Intentions ©1999 Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky and Rabbi Lori
Forman Woodstock,
VT: Jewish Lights Publishing. $15.95 + $3.50 shipping and
handling. Order by
mail or call 800-962-4544 or on-line at www.jewishlights.com.
Permission granted
by Jewish Lights Publishing, P.O. Box 237,Woodstock, VT
05091.
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Congratulations to the
Winner of Our Cover Contest!
Really, we must congratulate our Chanukah Cover
Contest winners:
Maximilian and Ashley Kaplan! Max
and Ashley are twin second graders at the Jewish
Day
School of the Northern Peninsula in Redwood
City,
California. The school is a beneficiary of the
Jewish
Community Federation of San Francisco, the
Peninsula,
Marin & Sonoma Counties.
The pictures sent in by the twins were so pretty
we
couldn’t choose between them, so we are
sending
the $50 prize for them to share (we OK’d this
idea
with their mom). Because we only have one cover, we
could only feature one of their pictures…
which one?
It doesn’t matter — they are both winners in
our eyes.
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