Chanukah and the Environment

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Halton Guest Blogger

In the darkest days of December, the Jewish community will be celebrating our annual holiday of Chanukah.  This ancient ritual dates back close to 2,500 years ago when the Greek-Syrians took over the holy land of Israel from the Jewish people. They set laws over the Jewish people restricting them from praying to God, celebrating Jewish holidays, performing Jewish customs or even studying our holy texts.

In response the Jewish people revolted, led by Judah Maccabee, and defeated the mightier Greek army.  When they recovered the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, they saw their holy candelabra lights had been extinguished and not enough oil to relight the lights. However a great miracle happened, the lights were relit and lasted a full eight days longer than they should have, until more oil could be produced and brought in. Today we therefore light candles for eight nights, starting with one the first night and adding one each night, to add light and holiness to our lives.

As we think about light and thanking God for miracles of the past, we can take these lessons forward to today’s celebration of this holiday, and the other holidays of this December season.

1.  Light – the candle lights of Chanukah are wonderful for the environment. While we can’t use candlelight for everything, we can take a look at how we consume light and electricity in our homes. Remember to turn off lights when not using them. Replace all your light bulbs with either CFL or LED bulbs that use a fraction of the electricity and last for years longer than traditional bulbs.
2. Waste – as this is the time of gift giving in the Jewish community, one for each night, might we consider how we wrap the gifts to avoid waste, and save the parts like ribbons and gift bags for future use. Perhaps using a website like www.echoage.com which is way to give gifts without waste and sends half of the money to a worthy charity of your choice.
3. Miracles – at this season of remembering miracles, let’s take a moment to recognize the value of all the earth provides for us. We have the luxury of turning on electricity when we need it, we have food at an easy reach wherever we go and plenty of water. The earth itself is a miracle from God that we must cherish, respect and keep in good shape for future generations.

Channuka thoughts in the Oakville News

http://oakvillenews.org/happy-chanukah/

AGM Rabbis speech 2013

 If you can believe it, this is my seventh year at Shaarei Beth El.  In Jewish terms, we would call this the Shmitah.  In ancient times the 7^th year was when all debts were forgiven and the land was allowed to lay fallow and not harvested, to give people and the land itself a time to refresh and recharge.  Seven as you know is a whole number in Judaism – we have the seven days of creation leading to the seventh day as Shabbat, a time to rest.  We have many other sevens – seven circles of a bride around a groom, 7 day of shiva, 7 dreams of Joseph in the Bible, the armies circled Jericho 7 times before winning the battle, there are 7 layers to ascent to heaven.  Each 7 represents a milestone, a time to look back on what was accomplished and to spend a year planning for the future.  So lets look back seven years ago.

When I arrived here financially our synagogue was on shaky footing.  We had large debt and incurred losses each year.  Due to many factors we are now on solid ground.  We updated our dues structure, cut down on spending, restructured our debt, adjusted our staffing, created an annual fundraiser, and we balanced our budget.  This was due to the hard work of our treasurers, board and executive members and especially you, the congregants, who gave so generously out of your pockets.  In fact not only have we had a balanced budget each year, we raised enough last year to complete the first phase of Walking on Sacred Ground.  I think we were all impressed by how it turned out, thanks to some very hard work by our WSOG team and the renovation professionals.  One of our biggest benefactors, Eddie Weisz, took me to lunch the other day to express his delight at how beautiful our sanctuary looks.  I’m excited for phase 2 and the renewal of our entranceway and lobby to match our sanctuary.  Now if only TD Bank would respect our Shmita laws and forgive our debt, we would be thrilled.  However with a balanced budget now for 7 years its time to look to the future and establish an endowment fund, a place where we put money away and earn interest to go towards our operating budget.  This can be in the form of large donations from wills or stocks or final requests, or other such initiatives.  We need to have a long term plan for the continual survival of Shaarei Beth El, for us, our children, our grandchildren and beyond. 

When I look back 7 years ago, I wanted us to be a learning congregation.  Our education program has succeeded beyond expectations, as testament to our education staff and director Cheryl Wise, so that our children are learning in innovative ways. We even received special grants from Federation that have rewarded our new approach to Jewish study.  At the same time, we as adults are also continually learning. We have a wide variety of adult opportunities, such as Shabbat morning torah study, film nights, and Hebrew Sunday mornings.  Wednesday nights are going to be our adult Ed nights, as we have focused on Judaism and health recently, and moving ahead into more Israel and Jewish European history in the coming months, to tie into our upcoming trips.  Of course last summers’ Israel trip was a huge success, I’m looking forward to taking a group to Europe next summer and mark your calendar now for our return trip to Israel in 2015. 

7 years ago many outside our shul didn’t know SBE existed in Oakville.  We have raised our profile, with events such as our inclusive Chanukah candle lighting ceremony, participated in other civic events, highlighting our activities in the local papers and became much more active in interfaith events.  I remember when I got here we didn’t even have a sign on the front of the building that said SBE and now we are Or L’goyim, a shining beacon of light within the Halton community.  So I am not that surprised that many families are looking our way, and am happy to report that 17 new families have joined our shul this year.  With new membership chairs Doris and Arthur leading the way, we are surely looking at a very strong membership base.

 I look forward to using this year to recharge, see where we are, and build for the years ahead. 

 

comparing Mayor Rob Ford to King Antiochus from the Channuka story

      As a resident of the great city of Toronto, its somewhat embarassing to constantly be reminded that our mayor is a crack smoking liar.  When Ford was elected a few years ago, I was unimpressed with him, and his ideas and his policies.  But sometimes you don't always agree with whoever gets elected to office but you wait and see what happens.  Ford has gone further and further downhill, caught on video smoking crack and admitting to it.  He has lied and his boorish and bullying behaviour is not becoming of an elected official.  Imagine trying to explain to young children that this is our mayor.  When he gets made fun of on TV talk shows constantly, at first its funny, but then its sad that our great city is connected to this man. 

As Channuka is approaching next week I was studying a book called "A Different Light" edited by Noam Zion to prepare for an adult education program.  I read an article by Victor Tcherikover, exerpted from "Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews" (p.175-181), which highlights Antiochus Epiphanes as a "mad missionary".  Here are some points about King Antiochus, a man with no political tact who did not know how to act as a King. 

 

•At times would leave the palace and wander and converse with insignificant people.

•Was more than once seen in the company of shady company of aliens of unknown identity and origin.

•If he heard of a drinking party, he would join, often making such a strange impression, many would fear him and make their escape.

•Full of contradictions and sudden surprises. 

•At a festival once jumped on stage to dance with other players, causing many to leave the hall in shame.

•Silent among the company of his best friends but talkative among strangers.

•Irritable and nervous, ever striving to do something extraordinary and to astound the world.

•Sometimes walked the streets handing out rings of gold or simple stones but gave others worthless objects such as dates or dice.

•The humorists openly mocked him, calling him Antiochus “Epimanes”  (mad) instead of Epiphanes (the god manifest)

As I finished reading I realized, this King is very similar to Mayor Rob Ford.  Ford also keeps shady company, joins in drinking alcohol, full of contradictions and causes others to leave his company in shame.  I found it fascinating to compare the two characters.  Antiochus is the villian of the Channuka story, who imposes discriminatory rules over the Jewish people, who eventually fight back for religious freedom and re-establish a sovereign Jewish state.  I hope that for our great city of Toronto, we too are able to convince Mayor Ford to enter some sort of rehab program and allow responsible town councillors to run the city properly until next years election.

A recent article in the Oakville News emphasised the disturbing facts that even in a fine town such as Oakville, abuse against women does take place regularly.  Among the members of the Jewish community, there is the same false notion that these things don’t happen among our people, its out there among other families.  

 

The sad truth is that Jewish women also experience physical, sexual and verbal abuse by boyfriends, husbands, fathers and more.  Its time to put a stop to it, and no better time to highlight these issues than Nov. 25^th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. 

 

Here are some important steps toward ending abuse, as compiled by Rabbi Catharine Clark (original article from the Canadian Jewish News http://cjnews.com/columnists/violence-against-women-must-end)

1.       End denial.  It’s a popular strategy but it does not change the fact that abuse victims live in fear and pain inflicted often by people very close to them.

2.       Jewish law prohibits a man from striking his wife.  Rabbi Yosef Karo wrote in the 18^th century that “we must treat a man who beats his wife more severely than a man who beats another man, since he is obligated to honour his wife, more than himself.  A man who beats his wife should be placed under a ban and excommunicated”.

3.       We must uphold the value of Shalom Bayit which means “a peaceful home”.  The person abuser is disrupting the family, not the woman who speaks out and attempts to leave the relationship.

4.       We should speak about abuse from our pulpits and in bulletins and emails.  Leaders of faith, especially rabbis, cantors and educators, should send the message that we take this seriously and will listen to someone suffering from abuse.  We can also help through referrals, counselling and simply encouraging a woman that they are not alone.

5.       Insist that contact numbers for shelters and abuse help lines be up on the walls in the womens bathroom to empower women to make the first step towards help.

6.       Listen and believe.  The stories might sound far-fetched or insignificant.  However if a man is controlling a womans money, time, space, living area or access to others people – this is abuse.  Respect her courage in coming to you to talk about it.

7.       Know the options for a woman seeking help and provide the phone numbers and emails so a woman can develop a safety plan.  Allow her to make the calls from a safe place such as a synagogue or other house of worship knowing that an abused woman might not have free access to a phone or computer.

8.       When preparing couples for marriage, discuss abuse openly and honestly.  Allow for a separate conversation where a woman can speak to the Rabbi alone and ask if there are any signs of abuse.

9.       Do not tell a woman to stay in a relationship for the sake of children.  Long term abuse can have life-long effects on a woman and the children’s development.  In fact the children might become victims themselves. 

10.   Support a woman in her decisions, even if this means staying in the abusive relationship for now until she is ready to make the next step. Support and guide her.