The fact that Chanukah is an eight-day festival allows us, in this weekly “update”, to convey an additional holiday-related reflection to that in the update last week.
And because of the massacre at Bondi Beach, it is important not to let this opportunity pass without comment, without restating the obvious tie between the horrific Bondi event, Chanukah and the mission of Jews throughout the world, today, yesterday, tomorrow, always.
And with that grief came a familiar fear, one Jews have learned to recognize across generations: would Jewish life retreat, once again, into the shadows?
And yet, what followed was not retreat.
The editor of the Sapir Journal succinctly defined our – Jews – responsibility in responding to the craven cruelties of those who seek our harm.
“These hateful acts remind us that Jewish life across the planet has often been perilous, and that its continued survival is a miracle. Our responsibility as Jews is to keep lighting, night after night, no matter how dark the world gets.”
The second blessing of the lighting of the Chanukah candles is tightly-worded re-statement of the Sapir editorialist’s observation concerning the miracle of Jewish survival. We thank the Almighty “Who wrought miracles…. for our ancestors in those days, at this time.”
It is our duty to be ever thankful and to show gratitude for the remarkable inheritance and splendour of our Jewish lives. But it is also our duty to follow the instruction of our ancient Sages not to rely upon miracles.
Apart from the rare moments in Jewish history when the very rules of Nature were upended or suspended, as in the Exodus from Egypt, the “actual” miracles of Jewish life are the result of human “partnership” with God. It is our behaviour, our action, our resolve – in step with the moral imperatives of ethical, purposeful life ordained by the God of our history, our present and our future – that are the true miracles of Jewish survival and history. The editor of the Sapir Journal prescribed the Jewish response to terror aimed at us is unabating Jewish presence. At Chanukah, that means to “keep lighting the candles”.
Some people might regard such a public, in-your-face response as adding to peril, as counter-intuitive. But counter-intuition has always been the Jewish message to those who are intent on harming Jews, on spreading their hatred for Judaism. And as Chanukah reminds us, Jews have never cowered from in-you-face manifestations of the few against the many. Our courage to do the counter-intuitive, indeed, our strength, flow from our peoplehood and the life-affirming values in which it has been nurtured and nourished from the very beginning.
GAJE’s mission is to try to bring as many children as possible – through affordable Jewish education – to the discovery of their unique, history-changing people and peoplehood.
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Shabbat shalom
Chanukah Samayach
Am Yisrael Chai
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
December 19, 2025
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 