As Chanukah comes to a close—-shkiyah (sunset) in Chicago is in just a few minutes—I’d like to reprint something Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson z”l (the Lubavitcher rebbe) wrote about Chanukah in 1980:
The Chanukah Lights remind us in a most obvious way that illumination begins at home, within oneself and one’s family, by increasing and intensifying the light of Torah and Mitzvot in the everyday experience, even as the Chanukah Lights are kindled in growing numbers from day to day. But though it begins at home, it does not stop there. Such is the nature of light that when kindled, the Chanukah Lights are expressly meant to illuminate the “outside,” symbolically alluding to the duty to bring light also to those who, for one reason or another, still walk in darkness.
Let us pray that the message of the Chanukah Lights will illuminate the everyday life of everyone personally, and of the society at large, for a brighter life in every respect, both materially and spiritually.
Showing posts with label Chanukah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chanukah. Show all posts
Monday, December 29, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Elderly driver ruins Chabad Chanukah party
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/25/hanukkah.crash/index.html?iref=topnews
It happened again.
The headline stays the same. Only the details change.
Yet another elderly driver confuses the brake pedal with the accelerator and plows into a crowd of people. This time, it's a Chanukah party with many young children in attendance. Yet another elderly driver who has no business possessing keys, a license or vehicle severely injures or kills innocent bystanders. The reaction is always the same: first he blames the vehicle. A maintenance check reveals no malfunction. Then his attorney says he's heartbroken over the incident. If we're lucky, his home state mandates a driving test for him, which he fails, and the state revokes his license. But there are no criminal consequences for his actions of vehicular homicide or injury.
The youngest victim was 18 months old.
The vehicle entered the store's front and reached the back of the store. Good Lord--how fast was he going? I guess when a driver is trying to hit the brakes and he's flooring the accelerator instead, the vehicle will approach its maximum speed. That sounds sarcastic. It's not funny.
We spend so much time and energy limiting young drivers' ability to drive legally. We haphazardly install stop signs to ban driving the speed limit on major thoroughfares. But we won't address the serious and growing problem of elderly drivers who are no longer capable of driving a motor vehicle.
In Illinois, elderly drivers enjoy the courtesy of cutting to the front of the line at the Secretary of State's driver testing facilities, and their licenses are practically free. They do not undergo annual mandatory testing until 87 years old. Given the evidence of how elderly drivers' judgment is often impaired much earlier than that, it would seem that lowering the mandatory annual testing to 70 or 75 years old makes sense.
It happened again.
The headline stays the same. Only the details change.
Yet another elderly driver confuses the brake pedal with the accelerator and plows into a crowd of people. This time, it's a Chanukah party with many young children in attendance. Yet another elderly driver who has no business possessing keys, a license or vehicle severely injures or kills innocent bystanders. The reaction is always the same: first he blames the vehicle. A maintenance check reveals no malfunction. Then his attorney says he's heartbroken over the incident. If we're lucky, his home state mandates a driving test for him, which he fails, and the state revokes his license. But there are no criminal consequences for his actions of vehicular homicide or injury.
The youngest victim was 18 months old.
The vehicle entered the store's front and reached the back of the store. Good Lord--how fast was he going? I guess when a driver is trying to hit the brakes and he's flooring the accelerator instead, the vehicle will approach its maximum speed. That sounds sarcastic. It's not funny.
We spend so much time and energy limiting young drivers' ability to drive legally. We haphazardly install stop signs to ban driving the speed limit on major thoroughfares. But we won't address the serious and growing problem of elderly drivers who are no longer capable of driving a motor vehicle.
In Illinois, elderly drivers enjoy the courtesy of cutting to the front of the line at the Secretary of State's driver testing facilities, and their licenses are practically free. They do not undergo annual mandatory testing until 87 years old. Given the evidence of how elderly drivers' judgment is often impaired much earlier than that, it would seem that lowering the mandatory annual testing to 70 or 75 years old makes sense.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Ho ho ho
Now that the election is over, we can get down to business: the upcoming holiday season.
I wish there were a way to promote further Chanukah’s own identity and its importance in Jewish history. “Minor holiday,” one hears way too often. So Christians have a big holiday—the genesis of their faith—and we celebrate “just” another military victory? But like any other military victory of ours, if it had gone the other way, we wouldn’t be here. And if one studies the dominant Syrian-Greek civilization of the time, it’s chilling to consider their moral code continuing to our current era. So all beneficiaries of Western civilization—based on “Judeo-Christian values,” as our friend Pat Buchanan liked to say—should tip their hats to the Jewish heroes who fought so valiantly to preserve their Torah belief system.
It’s difficult to compete with the traditions associated with Christmas over the last several decades. The colors, the parties, the gifts, the decorations, the tree, the weather—when does Bethlehem ever get snow?—and of course, Santa Claus. With so much of the holiday aimed at children, it’s understandable that a Jewish child whose family doesn’t celebrate Christmas can feel lost or cheated. This means it’s even more important to demonstrate to a Jewish child that our tradition does matter, that we made a difference when we beat the Syrian-Greeks 2100 years ago and continue to do so.
I asked my friend and noted wise man Adam Davis about Chanukah in our modern era. His commentary:
I don't think we need a marketing ploy ala Santa Claus for Judaism as a religion. It might work, but it’s not needed. No matter where you fall in the denominational, observance or philosophical spectrum, Judaism itself has plenty of meaning that 'sells itself." The modern institutions and organizations purveying it in myriad forms, for a number of complex reasons, increasingly face some challenges with our generation and may well do so anyways. It doesn't hurt.
Our culture, a civilization, our Jewish aesthetic frowned on creating fixed images of specific individuals, lest our heroes be caricatured and lose esteem or worse, be mawkishly semi-deified.
That said, in this day and age, it should also be understood that marketing isn't simply a set of ploys. If we speak of it as putting smart strategies in place, then yes, it is needed. We can and should create tokens or platforms for Judaism, Jewish culture, life and community that affirm them, promote them in order to make our heritage more approachable, accessible and understandable.
Whether in tactical form it's Hanukah Harry, Zohan or Hebrew Hammer or something more tasteful is a more complex question that needs to be considered according to the audience, but the more meaningful touch points we offer, the more likely folks will connect with their Jewish identity.
I wish there were a way to promote further Chanukah’s own identity and its importance in Jewish history. “Minor holiday,” one hears way too often. So Christians have a big holiday—the genesis of their faith—and we celebrate “just” another military victory? But like any other military victory of ours, if it had gone the other way, we wouldn’t be here. And if one studies the dominant Syrian-Greek civilization of the time, it’s chilling to consider their moral code continuing to our current era. So all beneficiaries of Western civilization—based on “Judeo-Christian values,” as our friend Pat Buchanan liked to say—should tip their hats to the Jewish heroes who fought so valiantly to preserve their Torah belief system.
It’s difficult to compete with the traditions associated with Christmas over the last several decades. The colors, the parties, the gifts, the decorations, the tree, the weather—when does Bethlehem ever get snow?—and of course, Santa Claus. With so much of the holiday aimed at children, it’s understandable that a Jewish child whose family doesn’t celebrate Christmas can feel lost or cheated. This means it’s even more important to demonstrate to a Jewish child that our tradition does matter, that we made a difference when we beat the Syrian-Greeks 2100 years ago and continue to do so.
I asked my friend and noted wise man Adam Davis about Chanukah in our modern era. His commentary:
I don't think we need a marketing ploy ala Santa Claus for Judaism as a religion. It might work, but it’s not needed. No matter where you fall in the denominational, observance or philosophical spectrum, Judaism itself has plenty of meaning that 'sells itself." The modern institutions and organizations purveying it in myriad forms, for a number of complex reasons, increasingly face some challenges with our generation and may well do so anyways. It doesn't hurt.
Our culture, a civilization, our Jewish aesthetic frowned on creating fixed images of specific individuals, lest our heroes be caricatured and lose esteem or worse, be mawkishly semi-deified.
That said, in this day and age, it should also be understood that marketing isn't simply a set of ploys. If we speak of it as putting smart strategies in place, then yes, it is needed. We can and should create tokens or platforms for Judaism, Jewish culture, life and community that affirm them, promote them in order to make our heritage more approachable, accessible and understandable.
Whether in tactical form it's Hanukah Harry, Zohan or Hebrew Hammer or something more tasteful is a more complex question that needs to be considered according to the audience, but the more meaningful touch points we offer, the more likely folks will connect with their Jewish identity.
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