VOLUME 2 • ISSUE 7 כסלו תש"ף TORAT ERETZ YISRAEL • PUBLISHED IN JERUSALEM • DISTRIBUTED AROUND THE WORLD DECEMBER 2019 ISRAEL EDITION WITH GRATEFUL THANKS TO THE FOUNDING SPONSORS OF HAMIZRACHI – THE LAMM FAMILY OF MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA RABBI HERSHEL SCHACHTER The Menorah: on why G-d ‘changed the rules’ CHANUKAH 8 Illuminating Facts PAGE 10 PAGE 16 RABBANIT SHANI TARAGIN Light in the Darkness: talks about antibiotic and probiotic education A Moving Story from PAGE 7 Rabbi Hanoch Teller PAGE 31 RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS highlights what really keeps Israel Insight: the Jewish spirit alive PAGE 18 Wars Without, Wars Within RABBANIT RACHELLE PAGE 38 FRAENKEL tells two jokes to make one serious point Ashkelon Under Fire: PAGE 14 A Personal Account RABBI YOSEF ZVI PAGE 50 RIMON discusses feet and marketplaces nowadays PAGE 8 SIVAN RAHAV MEIR AND YEDIDYA MEIR with eight light and INSIDE! SPECIAL FEATURE IN ADVANCE OF THE 13TH SIYUM HASHAS: bright insights Who Really Initiated Daf Yomi? PAGE 22 PAGE 54 dedicated in memory of our late beloved zaidie ,ז"ל Aaron ben Moshe Menachem who always brought a ray of light and spark of joy to those surrounding him www.mizrachi.org [email protected] +972 (0)2 620 9000 Chairman Mr. Harvey Blitz Chief Executive Rabbi Doron Perez Educational Directors Rabbi Reuven Taragin Rabbanit Shani Taragin PUBLISHED BY THE MIZRACHI WORLD MOVEMENT Editor-in-Chief Daniel Verbov Assistant Editor Esther Shafier Creative Director Jonny Lipczer Graphic Designer Hadas Peretz חנוכה שמח Production and Advertising Manager Meyer Sterman [email protected] Chanukah Sameach HaMizrachi seeks to spread Torat Eretz Yisrael throughout the world. HaMizrachi also contains articles, opinion pieces and advertisements that represent the diversity of views and interests in our to all our readers communities. These do not necessarily reflect any official position of Mizrachi or its branches. around the world! HAMIZRACHI DEDICATION OPPORTUNITIES If you would like to dedicate an issue of HaMizrachi in memory of a loved one or in celebration of a simcha, please send an email to [email protected] 2 | TORAT HAMIZRACHI Rabbi Doron Perez THE IMPACT OF SO FEW ON SO MANY here are less Jews in the For me, one of the most profound children. Through their passionate world than a rounding error lessons of Jewish history is this belief in one G-d, a personal G-d of a Chinese population – so few can so deeply have who created us and the world for a Tcensus. an impact on so many. That purpose, the book lays the moral strength lies not in numbers foundations and spiritual building I read a few years ago that an but rather in the quality of blocks for an entire nation. acceptable mistake in such a census spirit. 20th century American is 30 million – double the number anthropologist, Margaret Mead, The Book of Shemot is about how of Jews in the world! Furthermore, made this point well when she this family gave birth to a people there are many more children in famously said, “Never doubt and nation whose redemption from first grade in China (approximately that a small group of thoughtful the clutches of Egyptian oppression, 20 million) than there are Jews. committed citizens can change its experience of Divine revelation Israel, one of the smallest countries the world; it is the only thing that and acceptance of the Torah at in the world, can fit a whopping 460 ever has.” Sinai, would eventually transform times into China’s landmass! the moral and spiritual course of all This is perhaps the story of the of human history. Despite these figures, the Jewish people in a nutshell. remarkable fact remains that So few impacting so profoundly on this tiny people, of less than one An explicit verse in the Torah so many. fifth of one percent of the world’s highlights this very point where population, has impacted the course it states that we are the smallest of 2 THE HASMONEANS of humanity’s moral and spiritual all nations. The verse implies that history significantly more than the basis for being singled out for Nowhere is this more obvious than China and arguably more than any a unique Divine role is not a result in the Chanukah story. One man, other nation in history. Historian of numerical strength but is rather Matityahu the Priest, and his five Paul Johnson makes this point in the rooted in the realm of the spirit. It sons: Yehudah, Shimon, Yochanan, closing chapter of his monumental is linked to being an Am Segula – a Elazar and Yonatan – one small work, “A History of the Jews,”1 treasured people, which is a unique family known as the Hasmoneans, when summing up the great Jewish spiritual and deeply transformative changed the course of Jewish history contribution to the world: metaphysical trait facilitating the forever. An event which took place ability to impact far beyond a 2,300 years ago continues to echo “To them we owe the idea of 3 number quantum. into eternity. equality before the law, both Divine and human; of the ONE FAMILY, ONE PEOPLE It was a time of Greek world sanctity of life and the dignity domination, systematic global of the human person; of the This fundamental idea of so few acculturation and the assimilation individual conscience and so people having so great an impact of the inhabitants of the conquered of personal redemption; of the is at the heart of Jewish living nations and minorities throughout collective conscience and so of since time immemorial. Indeed, the Empire. Judea, the Jewish social responsibility; of peace as the whole book of Bereishit is country at the time, was heavily an abstract ideal and love as the the story of one family. Adam influenced by the enticing foundation of justice, and many and Eve and their children, Noah hedonistic lure of Hellenistic other items which constitute and his wife and children and the the basic moral furniture of the family of Abraham and Sarah, our Continued on page 4 human mind. forefathers and mothers and their • | 3 Continued from page 3 culture. The Jewish people were in With a tiny group of untrained men, over the course of a few short grave danger of losing their national the Hasmoneans not only defeated decades into arguably the largest and spiritual identity and – G-d this huge army, but continued for cadre of Torah learners our people forbid – vanishing as a distinct many years to fight even larger has ever had. And out of the culture from the platform of human forces continually sent to put down desolate backwater of the Ottoman history, the fate of so many ancient the rebellion… and even greater Empire, a small band of Zionist nations. Had this small Hasmonean miraculous victories took place. The pioneers created the miracle of family not placed its finger into the Book of Maccabees recounts that: modern-day Israel. Reviving a rupturing dyke, and not cemented “On the 25th day of the 9th month, nation, reclaiming a land, rebuilding the breach of the tumultuous which is the month of Kislev, and on a country, revitalizing a language and raging waters of cultural the very date that the heathens had and reigniting our spirit. assimilation, the flame of Torah and profaned it (the Temple), on this Two powerful examples of the Jewish destiny may very well have very day was it dedicated afresh.” essence of Jewish history and been snuffed out forever. The reason we still observe Divinely-directed destiny. Of how so This one family stood up against Chanukah today, over two few can have such a deep impact on the harsh decrees of the Syrian millennia later, is a testament to the so many. Greek King Antiochus Epiphanes, Maccabees’ display of incredible who threatened to uproot every courage and faith, and their belief last vestige of authentic Jewish life. in the justice of the cause of Jewish 1 Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1987, p. 585. They attracted supporters and grew destiny. It was this that enabled 2 Devarim 7:6-8. in number, sparked a revolution, them to prevail in the face of 3 Nevertheless, this verse – “the fewest rebuilt a Jewish sovereign state, of all peoples” – needs to be reconciled impossible political and military with the multiple promises made to brought cultural independence to odds. our forefathers of their progeny being Judea and rededicated the Temple compared to the dust of the earth and in Yerushalayim. They succeeded The few against the many. stars of the sky, too numerous to count. There are many answers but I will just in not only stemming the tide, mention one. Rav S.R. Hirsch (Bere- but in reinvigorating the Jewish THE HASMONEAN SPIRIT ishit 13:16) suggests that these promises people’s belief in themselves and IN OUR TIME refer to the eternal nature of the Jewish people. All other nations, while perhaps G-d, enabling them to survive and much larger in number in any particular push back the military, political and We live in a privileged generation generation, eventually die out and cease cultural onslaught of the dominant which has seen a remarkable revival to exist as a nation. Their numbers are therefore finite. The Jewish people, superpower at the time. of the Hasmonean spirit. After while small in number in every gener- the devastation of the Shoah – the ation, have a Divine promise to exist Outnumbered by 20-1, Judah made horrific murder of one-third of eternally, outliving all the other nations. the following remarkable speech our people and the destruction of Hence their collective numbers over all before facing one of his many generations are infinite.