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Chag sameach from the Insider!
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| By Malkah Fleisher December 25, 2005 |
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| Neo avoids the flying saucers and menorahs his mother hurls when she learns he is making aliya. |
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Israel Insider Publisher's note: For our holiday celebration this year, dear readers, we turn to an amazing organization called KUMAH, Hebrew for Arise! Started by Yishai Fleischer and his life-partner Malkah, this homegrown, self-supported organization is all about inspiration for young Jews to return to their homeland. They set a brilliant personal example, making aliyah -- immigrating to Israel, and then becoming leaders of their generation once here.
In these days, as in the days of the Maccabees, it is those who fight assimilation and listen to their inner voices to pursue justice and Jewish destiny, who are bound to lead our people into a new world -- like, Neo, man! -- in Zion. I must not be the only one who emerged from the Matrix Revolutions feeling more Zionistic than ever. After reading Malkah's inspirational message, dear readers, don't go away without getting your Chanukah presents! But don't be impatient and skip ahead! Malkah, the floor is yours....
Which is the bigger miracle -- that the pious Maccabees drove out the Seleucid Greeks and their Hellenist Jewish cohorts, or that a small crucible of oil meant to light the Menorah in the Holy Temple for one day managed to stay lit long enough to allow for the replenishment of pure oil to the Temple?
If you read the news these days, you're inclined to think the victory over the Hellenists was greater. It seems that today's greatest challenge is to free the Jewish land from negative foreign influences. A very small band of Jewish believers and visionaries unified to drive the enormous energies of oppression and false enlightenment out of our Land and out of our people -- what a feat.
But then again, one might think that the miracle of the Menorah is the bigger one. I mean, hey -- this is a clear and open miracle. This isn't some potentially naturally explainable "phenomenon", but an extraordinary, beyond the bounds of the physical world, supernatural miracle. The Hand of G-d, with no other explanation.
So?
I happen to think that the first is the bigger, because I believe that it caused the second. Without the long, arduous, in-the-trenches labor of the Maccabees and their minyans, without their careful planning, strict unity and gritty battle, the second miracle wouldn't have happened. Not necessarily because the Temple wouldn't have been rededicatable, but because without their effort, we would not have merited divine intervention. The Maccabees did absolutely everything they could. Then G-d did the part that they couldn't do, allowing the pure olive oil to burn beyond its natural limitations.
Unity, Purity, Conviction, Vigor -- these are the armaments of every great Jewish activist since the beginning of Jewish activism. Use them in your wars, both great and small, on behalf of the Land of Israel and the Jewish people, and you'll see miracles, too.
Malkah's Maccabbean Hand Scrub
This week's recipe is a perfect metaphorical manifestation of the Hanukkah story: Jewish elbow grease meets miraculous oil to slough off undesirable elements.
1 Tablespoon white sugar
1.5 Tablespoon olive oil (from Israel!)
Your favorite hand lotion
Mix in a cup (you can add a drop or two of any favorite essential oil) and pour into your palms. Massage into your fingers and palms, and onto the backs of your hands until your skin feels sufficiently scrubbed. Wash off with warm water and soap. Finish up with a dollop of your favorite hand lotion and enjoy the radiance for eight wonderful days.
[Publisher's Postscript: Enjoying your present? Well, that's good, but maybe you're a bit disappointed. Think you deserve something better than olive oil handscrub? Well, we do, too. So, for the first day of Chanukah, we're giving you two presents, a little one and a big 'un, both courtesy of Kumah. Here come's The Big One! -- Enjoy, and Join Kumah in the Aliyah Revolution!Chag Sameach -- Happy Holiday and See you Here in Zion, Reuven.
P.S. If you can help out the inspiring folks at KUMAH with a tax-exempt present of your own, you'll feel great about it.]
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