Miketz-Chanukah-Rosh Chodesh 12 December 2015

School is officially done and dusted for the year! The kids are overjoyed at having some free time on their hands. Parents
are trying to figure out how to prevent the word “bored” from being bandied about the house with frequency. Luckily our
children will be participating in the fabulous Gan Izzy Day Camp, where they are kept entertained and socialised within a
good Torah framework. Many of the teenagers and young adults in the community are off to their youth camps and some
lucky adults are off on summer holidays. We wish everyone a safe and fun holiday. We would also like to welcome our
annual visitors, from around South Africa as well as overseas, back to the shul. This Shabbat we are celebrating the
bar mitzvah of Jake Young, son of Justin Young, Deta and Charles Silbert and grandson of Roy and Bernice Dorfman.
We wish the entire family a hearty Mazaltov!
Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach
Rebbetzin Lee
PARSHA PEARLS – Miketz/Chanukah/Rosh Chodesh
The story of Chanukah relates how the Greeks tried to prevent the Jewish people from observing their religion. To this end,
they prohibited them from performing three major mitzvoth: Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, and Brit Milah. What do these mitzvoth
have in common and why did the Greeks want them stopped? They all are core elements of Judaism in their own way, so
they had to be stopped in order to make Jews abandon their religion. Shabbat symbolizes that Hashem created the world
in six days and rested on the seventh. By observing Shabbat, we proclaim to the world that Hashem is the Creator and that
none is higher than He. The Greeks, however, believed that they were the highest power in the universe, so they did not allow
Jews to observe Shabbat. The observance of Rosh Chodesh was prohibited because it is the cornerstone that enables the
Jews to observe all other Jewish holidays. Since the Jewish holidays strengthen the relationship between Hashem and the
Jews, the Greeks wanted to prohibit the observance of all holidays. The most efficient way to do this was to ban Rosh Chodesh.
Finally, the mitzvah of Brit Milah demonstrates the connection between the physical and spiritual. The Brit is the physical
mark that a person is Jewish and symbolizes his spiritual connection to Hashem. For this reason, they tried to stop Milah.
Each of these three mitzvoth also has a connection to Chanukah. Every Chanukah contains at least one Shabbat and a
Rosh Chodesh. Also, Chanukah contains eight days, the same number of days of a baby's life before his Brit Milah.
Even though the Greeks tried to force us to abandon our Judaism, they were unsuccessful. Because of our ancestors’
perseverance at the time of Chanukah and throughout the millennia we continue to survive and thrive!
REBBETZINS ROCK BUT HALACHA RULES
The Talmud Shabbat 127a states: “These are the precepts whose fruits a person enjoys in this world but whose principle
remains intact for him in the world to come. They are: the honour due to father and mother, acts of kindness, early attendance
at the house of study morning and evening, hospitality to guests, visiting the sick, providing for a bride, escorting the dead,
absorption in prayer, bringing peace between man and his fellow – and the study of Torah is equivalent to them all.”
In Perkei Avot Perek1, Mishnah 12, Hillel states: “Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace.”
The achievement of inner peace is not easy. Some people get upset about the smallest thing. “Don’t sweat the small stuff!”
Small things can become upsetting if they are allowed to become significant or important. We need to define what is really
important in our lives like our family and our relationship with Hashem; everything else becomes relative and can be taken
in one’s stride. First let us achieve “love of peace” in our own lives, and then we can become pursuers of peace in the world.
ISRAEL LOUD AND PROUD
President Obama and President Rivlin reflect on Hanukkah
President Barack Obama hosted President Reuven Rivlin Wednesday evening for a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony,
one of two official parties for the festival being held this year at the White House. Michelle Obama and Nechama Rivlin
also attended.
The East Room of the White House was packed with Hannukah celebrants for the ceremony. Obama said he had been
deeply moved Rivlin’s “expressions of commitment to equality and justice” when they spoke in the Oval Office earlier in
the day. “Rivlin is a strong voice for equal treatment of all citizens of Israel and greater understanding between Israelis
and Palestinians,” said Obama.
“All of us come together, along with Jews around the world, to celebrate a band of Maccabees who inspire us even
today,” said Obama. “They were outnumbered. They were out-armed. And yet they proved that freedom can prevail over
tyranny. Hope can triumph over despair. Light can prevail over darkness. That sounds like a description of the new “Star
Wars” movie. But this one happened a little earlier.”
Added the president: “The light from one day’s worth of oil has lasted not just for eight days, but for more than
2,000 years. The Maccabees’ sense of faith and courage and righteousness continue to animate the Jewish community
even now. It’s no accident that when we’re called out to speak on behalf of refugees or against religious persecution,
American Jews remember what it was like to be a stranger, and are leading the way. And even as we draw from the best
of our traditions, we’re never afraid to build on what came before and to forge a better future for our children and our
grandchildren.”
Rivlin spoke of the Macabees of the Hannukah story and how they “fought for liberty, for freedom of religion, for their
traditions, for our traditions, for their ability to celebrate their own identity. Hannukah is the holy day of spiritual activism.
It is a holiday which represents the spirit of human beings, created equally in the image of God.”
Today, he went on, “we see around the world terrible crimes, and the danger to humanity — (from) a lack of respect,
freedom of faith, freedom of religion… We should be like the Hanukkah candles and follow the path of progression…
Today, we are all looking for strong and clear moral leadership of the kind you represent,
President Obama: leadership committed to the safety of its people to the opportunity and the dignity of every human
being. I would like to light this candle, this little flame, with a prayer and hope that one day, religious, cultural and moral
liberty will be enjoyed without question by each and every person in the world. Hanukkah Sameach. Happy Hanukkah!
And to the Christian people all over the world, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!”
It fell to Rivlin to light the Hannukah candles. The menorah used was the Bezalel Jerusalem Menorah, from
the Judaic Art Gallery of the North Carolina Museum of Art, the White House said. “The menorah was made in Israel
during the 1920s by a pioneer designer, Ze’ev Raban, who trained in Europe and blended European,
Jewish and Palestinian Arab design elements to create a new aesthetic for Jewish art in what would become the
State of Israel. This design elements of this menorah underscore a theme of coexistence, and its presence in the
collection of the Judaic Art Gallery in North Carolina highlights the ties between American Jews and Israeli Jews
and the vibrancy of Jewish life in the American South,” the White House said.
Before departing Israel for the US on Tuesday morning, Rivlin said he normally made a point of spending
festivals in Israel but was pleased he would be sharing the celebration with friends.“I have always celebrated Hanukkah
together with my family and grandchildren, but if I must be away, I am pleased that it will be in the USA, alongside our
strongest and closest ally,” he said.
Rivlin will take part in another Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony with UN ambassadors before returning to Israel
Sunday.
DIAMOND DEALS
AT CWHC
Shiurim at CWHC and around Cape Town will resume in January 2016.
Dates to be advised.