Chaunkah By Rabbi Berel Wein

one heroism has many definitions one man's hero can be another person's villing heroism in Jewish life over all of its history I think can be summed up in the belief in survival the Jewish people always felt that no matter what they would survive and they would over overcome their enemies and it's that belief in survival that has fueled the Jewish people and given us the ability to rebuild ourselves here in the land of Israel and elsewhere and to arrive at the situations that we are now at it's uh impossible to believe what has happened to us over the past Century over the past 100 years and the fact that the Jewish people are now so to speak in a situation that we have not been in for 1900 years and that we are able to look forward to even greater accomplishments is only a testimony to our beliefs that we would survive and not just survive but Triumph at the end the victory of the the rabbis characterized it in the small vial of oil that does not contain enough oil for eight year for eight days but the ability to believe in the survival is reflected in the oil in 1263 shortly before I was born the ramban engaged in a debate against the Christian church in Spain before uh King James of Aragon in the city of Barcelona the ran was granted freedom of speech that he would not be held liable for blasphemy in speaking against the church and the r left for us a record of the debate it's called safer in the debate the ramban said only one Salient point that the Jewish people have survived and that is our proof to our faith and our loyalty to God in his Torah he characterized it as one little lamb among 70 wolves but we have triumphed over the Wolves if the ramban were here today almost eight centuries later I Hazard to say that he would repeat that that when there is no oil the flame will still burn and it's our belief in that that more than anything else characterizes our attitude towards the Miracles that we witness it's literally by Liv through a year of Miracles so much so that we take it for granted already we are still the little lamb uh but the wolves are receding there's a piece in the talud that characterizes us thear says there was a man that was called no he came from the village of gamzu in the Galilee but the rabbis played on words they said Gamu is because he had the ability to say Gamul Lova that no matter what happened in life somehow good would come out of it he lived at the time when the rans persecuted the Jewish people and their leadership the Great Men of Israel were put to death is mentor and teacher RAB AA was executed and he himself was tortured and crippled by the Romans the gamar says sh they had chopped off his hands they chopped off his feet so that he was only a trunk of a body and his body was full of bed sores and he dwelt in a house that did not have firm foundations every passing wind shook the house so the tells us so his students his friends they wanted to move him out of this house the house is shaking and he's bedridden he can't Escape himself so they wanted to move him to better quarters a more comfortable existence of so to speak and they came to do so when they came to do so and they put him on a stretcher to take him out he said alonai no my children stop first empty all of the goods all of the furniture all of the books everything that we have in the house first take all of that out then you'll come and get me because he said CO's man sh as long as I am in the house ain't I buy you snowell the house will not collapse you'll take me out of the house the house will collapse you come back there'll be nothing that you can do about it the rabbi summed up Inu the Jewish people for so many centuries we were without arms couldn't do anything against our adversaries we looked back now and think what if the state of Israel had existed 80 90 years ago no question how schwitz would have been bombed but then we had no arms we have no legs there's really nowhere else to run to we've been everywhere in the world there are no undiscovered continence there's not another new world that will host us and our body is full of sores a lot of problems Jewish people find it hard to get their act together 150 years of secularism and Marxism has destroyed our Common Sense the common sense of many of our Brethren even here in Israel not to see the big picture not to see what is happening to be Petty and mean vindictive shortsighted and we live in a shaky house all of us have had the experience of the past year sit in bomb shelters have Rockets shot at us I thought to myself as I uh was in the staircase of my uh home I mean what did they have against me what did I ever do to them but man sh as long as is in the house then the house will not collapse then noi says if you really want to know what's going on today is study noi read yesah yo they describe it for us every weapon divised against you will not be successful how can it be thousands of rockets it's not to say it's without any price because there's always a midin in the world but look at that how could that be love he said it wouldn't be and we live through such a time because Within the Jewish people and Hanukah represents that there is no Gamu who says the house will not collapse an iron people that's the ultimate heroism and the ultimate heroism is to look to the Future it's going to be better we believe in it we say it every day if you'll ask our experts they'll tell you why should it be better the Jewish people have never listened to the naysayers they never listened to those who say but there is no oil in the cup there's no use to try and light the flame because there's no fuel but all of history has shown that what the world considers to be miraculous is to us ordinary what the world believes cannot be is exactly what does occur so as we experience this great holiday of Kaneka that comes upon us we think of bom Mah we should also think of bman what our opportunities are what our faith is what our strength is not to falter Not To Doubt but to continue to be the children ofu the children of RAB AKA of theim of those who came after them and who have brought it to this very day if you think back uh 1898 even I was not born yet Kaiser willhelm II of Germany visited the Holy Land Theodor Herzel fresh from the founding of the Zionist movement met him there's a photograph of the two together but the photograph is fake news it's two separate photographs put together but her met the Kaiser and Herzel records in his diary that he told the Kaiser that the German Empire should adopt the land of Israel buy it from the Turks and that the Jewish people would settle it in fact the offered to be part of Germany he did the same thing with the British but it didn't work the Kaiser told them her Herzel in order for a Jewish state to arise in the land of Israel he said all of the major Empire of the world will have to fall and he enumerated them the British Empire the French Empire the German Empire the Russian Empire the austr Hungarian Empire the Ottoman Empire he said her herel you know that that is impossible but that's exactly what happened he was a prophet who was a prophet but he was unaware of his prophecy but we have to be aware of what happened there because that's what gives us courage that's what gives us the gura to be able to continue a Jewish way of life and the Jewish way of life has become stronger and stronger here in our Tri I'm here 30 years there's no comparison to what was even 30 years ago and what is now so the little light of kanuka which has illuminated our way throughout the long and dark Exile still shines over us and within us and as long as we are loyal to it and as long as we keepu in our homes and hearts a not by a Sowell then we are assur word that will also continue to do for us and it will be thank you