Message From The Rabbi:
A Jewish Future For Our
Children's Children
by
Senior Rabbi, Alan Green (00-Present)
Published in the Shaarey Zedek Shofar in December 2006
While global warming
increases its momentum, Winnipeg continues to be a place where
winter arrives early and falls hard. As I write during the last week
of October, the degrees of both temperature and light have already
fallen dramatically. It’s now clear to everyone (Canadian geese
included) that winter cannot be very far away.
For the last twenty-two
centuries, the Jewish people have marked this season of cold and
darkness by lighting the lights of Chanukah. With our modern heating
and lighting technologies, we may not feel the force of winter quite
as much as our ancestors. But the change of seasons and the need for
significant psychological compensation remain precisely the same
today as for all of our previous generations.
Thus as temperatures
decrease and darkness deepens, on Chanukah we light an ever-growing
number of lights—until the additional light provided by the new moon
of Tevet resolves this life energy crisis. As the new moon begins to
brighten on the second day of Tevet, Chanukah comes to an end. The
double dark phase of both sun and moon has now thankfully passed. We
know that from now on life energy, transmitted through the heat and
light of the sun, will gradually increase until we reach the summer
equinox in June.
So it was at the time of
Maccabees, almost twenty-two centuries ago, that there was another
kind of life energy crisis. The spiritual light of Judaism might
have been extinguished by the double darkness of assimilation at
home, and political oppression from abroad. And so it has been
throughout Jewish history. On so many occasions, it seemed as if our
suffering had become so unbearable, it would no longer be possible
for the Jewish people to go on. The Crusades; the expulsion from
England in 1290; the expulsion from Spain in 1492; the Chmelnitzki
massacres of 1648; and worst of all, the murder of the six million
during the Shoah—all of these were times of double darkness, when it
was all but certain that the light of Jewish life would be snuffed
out forever.
Yet there has always been
one small vial of oil—a tiny light that shines, even in the deepest
depths of our despair. Over the long span of time, that fragile,
flickering flame, in spite of all external appearances, has proven
to be an eternal, immortal, invincible power. And it may well be
true that no force on earth can destroy it.
Why? Because it is the
light of God; it is the light of Torah; it is the light of holiness;
it is the light of the Jewish people. It is a light hardwired into
the very structure of existence, which cannot help but shine within
every human mind, heart, and spirit. And it is the Jewish connection
to this light that has sustained us as a people down through the
ages.
Today, the threat of
darkness hangs over the Jewish people once again. As the Pesach
Hagadah tells us, ELAH SHE-B’CHOL DOR VA-DOR OM-DIM ALEINU
L’CHA-LO-TEI-NU—”In every generation, there are forces standing at
the ready to annihilate us.” Today, there are both obvious and
subtle forces arrayed against us. The obvious forces include Iranian
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly pledged to “wipe
Israel off the map”—not to mention Hizbullah, Hamas, al-Quaeda,
Islamic Jihad, Fatah, and similar organizations.
The more subtle negative
forces, however, are strictly of our own making. If current trends
of low birth and high assimilation rates remain in place, it is
estimated that the Jewish population of the Diaspora will diminish
to 50 percent by the end of the 21st century. Thus would Canadian
Jewish philosopher Emil Fackenheim’s greatest fear—”a posthumous
victory for Hitler”—be tragically realized.
How do we respond to the
tidal wave of assimilation now threatening the North American Jewish
future? What might block the progress of this seemingly inexorable,
self-inflicted Holocaust? The answer is as simple as it is
challenging: we must reawaken our own Jewish spirit, so that we are
empowered to pass down a meaningful, significant Judaism to our
children and grandchildren.
It is for this very
purpose that Shaarey Zedek invites you to attend a special visioning
workshop, to take place Sunday morning, December 3, at 10:00 AM. The
ancient Greek philosopher Socrates once said that “the unexamined
life isn’t worth living.” It’s equally true that the unexamined
Jewish life isn’t worth sustaining, individually or communally.
We at Shaarey Zedek
desperately need your input, so that we may better know who we are,
where we want to go, and which route we should take to get there. My
sense is that in spite of the synagogue’s very hard work, we are
failing to reach you or your children in any significant way.
Naturally, this failure cannot help but negatively impact our
chances for Jewish survival into the future.
On December 3, at 10:00
AM, here at Shaarey Zedek, help us to answer these all-important
questions: What specific actions can we take to help guarantee a
Jewish future for our children’s children? How can we ensure that
the light of God continues to shine in the darkness for our future
generations? How might we kindle the lights of Chanukah for the
Winnipeg Jewish community of tomorrow?
CHAG CHANUKAH SAMEACH! |
