30,000 COPIES PRINTED IN ISRAEL VOLUME 3 • ISSUE 6 כסלו תשפ"א TORAT ERETZ YISRAEL • PUBLISHED IN JERUSALEM • DISTRIBUTED AROUND THE WORLD DECEMBER 2020 ISRAEL EDITION WITH GRATEFUL THANKS TO THE FOUNDING SPONSORS OF HAMIZRACHI – THE LAMM FAMILY OF MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA Sivan Rahav Meir and Yedidya Meir Commemorating the Shloshim of with eight thoughts for eight days rabbi lord PAGE 14 Jonathan Rabbi David Stav reveals the best way sacksA Light Unto the Nations to spread Torah’s relevance PAGE 19 Shining the Light on Rabbanit Rachelle Fraenkel tells the inspiring story of chanukah Rav Goren during the War the Holiday of Education, Miracles of Independence and the Indomitable Jewish Spirit PAGE 23 Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi highlights the power of loneliness PAGE 22 Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis on the blessing of failure PAGE 24 Rabbanit Shani Taragin with an overview of Chanukah’s pivotal role in the year PAGE 9 לעילוי נשמת הרב יעקב צבי בן דוד אריה זצ”ל dedicated by the lay and professional leadership and staff of world mizrachi in memory of our teacher זצ"ל rabbi lord jonathan sacks his spiritual and moral leadership will remain a guiding force for us and he is mourned and missed www.mizrachi.org [email protected] +972 (0)2 620 9000 CHAIRMAN INSIDE Mr. Harvey Blitz EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN TORAT MIZRACHI CHANUKAH READING Rabbi Doron Perez Avraham, Chanukahand Rabbi Sacks Chanukah and Chinuch EDUCATIONAL DIRECTORS 3 Rabbi Doron Perez 38 Rabbi Efrem Goldberg Rabbi Reuven Taragin Growing in the Darkness Beware the Dangers of Jealousy Rabbanit Shani Taragin 6 Rabbi Ari Rockoff 42 Rabbi Zev Leff SPECIAL INTERVIEW The Children’s Holiday 7 Kurt Rothschild at 100 43 Rabbi Berel Wein Doing What We Can Can We Learn From the Greeks? 8 Rabbi Reuven Taragin 44 Rabbi Dov Lipman The End of The Beginning… Simcha and the Chanukah Candles and the Beginning of the End Rabbi Azarya Berzon Rabbanit Shani9 Taragin 46 Light in the Darkness We are All Kohanim on Chanukah PUBLISHED BY THE MIZRACHI WORLD MOVEMENT 47 Rabbi Hanoch Teller 10 Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon The War or the Oil? EDITORIAL TEAM Appreciate the Miracles 48 Rabbi Ari Z. Zivotofsky Daniel Verbov 11 Rabbanit Sharon Rimon The Messages of the Name of Chanukah Esther Shafier The Singular Light of Chanukah 49 Dr. Deena Zimmerman 12 Rabbi Danny Mirvis CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jonny Lipczer Eight Thoughts for Eight Days 14 Sivan Rahav Meir andYedidya Meir THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND GRAPHIC DESIGN Hadas Peretz RAV KOOK'S TEACHINGS 50 The Jews, the Greeks and Rabbi Sacks Rabbi Chanan Morrison PRODUCTION AND ADVERTISING MANAGER GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS Meyer Sterman The Three Foundational Mitzvot ISRAEL INSIGHT [email protected] Rabbi Avraham Shapira zt”l 52 Trump’s Mideast Innovations Should Stick 18 David M. Weinberg The Real Choice Today HaMizrachi seeks to spread Torat Eretz Yisrael throughout Rabbi David Stav WHAT’S IN A WORD the world. HaMizrachi also contains articles, opinion pieces 19 53 Illuminating Words David Curwin and advertisements that represent the diversity of views and Lighting the Candles at Home Rabbi Hershel Schachter interests in our communities. These do not necessarily reflect 20 RELIGIOUS ZIONIST LEADERS any official position of Mizrachi or its branches. Rabbi Yehuda Bibas Miracles and the Power of Loneliness 56 Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi If you don't want to keep HaMizrachi, you can double- 22 NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS wrap it before disposal, or place it directly into sheimos. 57 To Ignite the Candle Within Chanukah 1948 Gael Grunewald 23 Rabbanit Rachelle Fraenkel When is Failure a Blessing from G-d? 24 Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis GENERAL INTEREST SOCIAL COMMENTARY 58 What Would Washington Think Today? HaMizrachi REMEMBERING RABBI SACKS Rabbi Chaim Navon Dedication Zionist Congress, Mizrachi PARENTING & RELATIONSHIPS and the Influence of Rabbi Sacks 60 Preparing Our Children for Marriage Opportunities 26Rabbi Doron Perez Dr. David S. Ribner The Many Faces The Greatest Loss If you would like to dedicate an 28 of Rabbi Sacks 62 Rabbi Yuval Cherlow Lighting the Chanukah Candles issue of HaMizrachi in memory of HaMizrachi Family Page with Rabbi Sacks a loved one or in celebration of a 31 63 simcha, please send an email to Eight Lessons in 36 Rabbi Sacks’ Leadership [email protected] Rabbi Benji Levy Cover photo courtesy of The Office of Rabbi Sacks Cover photo courtesy of The Office 2 | TORAT MIZRACHI Rabbi Doron Perez Avraham, Chanukah and Rabbi Sacks ON RELIGION, NATIONHOOD AND UNIVERSALISM hat did Avraham Avinu repeatedly promised that G-d will abhorrent, he loved all of humanity a great and impassioned G-d not to destroy , ּג וֹ י ָ ּג ד וֹ ל stand for? bless him with a What were the core prin- people, with a particular task, in this His creatures. Wciples he instituted that formed the very Land. Nowhere is this national- authentic blueprint for Judaism and ist impulse clearer than in his desire The more Avraham searched for G-d, the spiritual mission of the Jewish to save his errant nephew Lot. As the more he found his fellow man. people? soon as he hears Lot has been taken captive, Avraham springs into action, So Avraham Avinu is a blend of all Let us examine this question from takes up arms and is prepared to fight three – the staunch advocate of faith, three different vantage points: against regional powers to do what- the proud nationalist, and the ardent ever it takes to rescue him. humanist devoted to all people cre- 1. Spiritual. Avraham is the consum- ated in the image of G-d. mate ambassador of faith and man of Although not commanded by G-d, G-d. We are first introduced to him as he is prepared to sacrifice everything In his own groundbreaking way, he G-d commands him to leave his coun- – his life and the lives of his follow- was able to blend the religious, the try, his land of birth and his father’s ers – to save one lost soul. All for one national and the universal into one house, and we are privy to many more [member of the tribe] and one for all. complete whole. The founder of the Divine commands and conversations Jewish faith laid the foundations that 3. Universal. Avraham is also the throughout his life. make Judaism so wholesome, mean- ַה ְכ ָנ ַסת humanist par excellence. His ingful and life-enhancing. .his hospitality, is unmatched ,אוֹ ְר ִחים We see a man deeply connected to G-d, commanded by G-d and abso- In great pain after his circumcision, Unsurprisingly, it is precisely these lutely obedient to Him. Nowhere is he runs to welcome pagan guests – three elements at the core of Jewish this obedience clearer than in the later to be revealed as angels – into being that Rav Kook writes about perplexing command to sacrifice his his home and treats them like noble- when describing the ideological bat- beloved son Yitzchak, an impossi- men. Although these people were the tles raging in the early 1900s in pre- ble task in itself, yet made even more ideological antithesis of everything 2 challenging by G-d’s earlier promise he stood for – he was teaching mono- State Palestine. He described the that Yitzchak would be the forebear theism and belief in a purposeful and three ideological camps in the Jewish of a great nation. Nevertheless, Avra- personal G-d and they were espousing world – the religious, the nationalist ham does not deviate in his adher- paganism and idol worship and the and the universalist (perhaps religious ence to what he perceives as the will belief in many impersonal gods – he parties, right-wing parties and left- of Heaven. A man of incompara- had no hesitation in welcoming them wing parties in today’s parlance). ble religious fervor, dedication and into his home. commitment. Rav Kook explains how each one He washed the dust of idolatry off represents part of the whole truth 2. National. Avraham is also the their feet1 and found a way to bridge of what Judaism is about and that a epitome of nationalism. His entire the boundaries and sit together. Fur- complete understanding of the Jewish life revolves around journeying to thermore, when G-d informed him of mission must incorporate all three the specific land G-d showed him, His plan to destroy Sodom, Avraham weaved into one seamless whole. the Land of Canaan, settling in dif- did everything in his power to pre- ferent parts of that Land and being vent it. Although their actions were Continued on page 4 | 3 TORAT MIZRACHI Continued from page 3 Of course, Jewish life is rooted in our belief in G-d and His Torah. Without belief in G-d and acceptance of the moral and spiritual laws revealed at Sinai, we miss the mark of Jewish des- tiny. It defines who we are and what G-d wants from us. At the same time, the G-dliness revealed to Avraham very clearly and profoundly includes both a national and a universal ethos. The principle of Am Yisrael, our col- lective responsibility and destiny, is critical to the Jewish story. Yes, G-d revealed himself to one man, tend to agree with this basic premise individual Jew), and a defender of who became the founder of a singular but laud the additional component of Israel while conveying Torah values in people given a particular land and a the political and military leadership the broadest, most inspiring, univer- role adopted by the Hasmoneans and sal and engaging way? distinct set of laws to fulfill their pur- 3 pose in this world.