Wednesday Jan 07, 2009
Posted by Nathaniel Rosen
Hannukah has ended, but the ideals and lessons of the holiday burn as bright as the holiday flames. This year the ideals of heroism, the right to live a Jewish life and fighting for what you believe in manifest themselves more vibrantly and visibly than in years past. Like the Maccabees, we are at war against an enemy who wishes to destroy our spirit, desecrate that which we hold dear and question our very right to exist as Jews in a Jewish land. Like the Maccabees, we have chosen to fight, knowing full well the danger which that entails.
As I sit in Yeshiva, the battle in Gaza is on my mind. I think about the young soldiers -- my peers -- who are placing themselves in harm's way to defend their homeland and its people. I think how easily Moshe in Golani could have been Natanel. I think about the families in the South that live under the constant threat and barrage of rockets. I think about the families in Gaza and the unintentional civilian casualties, which are tragic casualties nonetheless. And despite all that, my thoughts are drawn time and time again to one seemingly unrelated event: a Hannukah party I attended days before the fighting began.
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