Hanukkah for Dummies (and the Union for Reform Judaism, but I repeat myself)

Hanukkah for Dummies (and the Union for Reform Judaism, but I repeat myself) by Bill Levinson

In 2000, Rabbi Eric Yoffie of the Union of "American" "Hebrew" Congregations (UAHC), now the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), allowed himself to make the following noises:

Controlling guns is not only a political matter, it is a solemn religious obligation. Our gun-flooded society has turned weapons into idols, and the worship of idols must be recognized for what it is-blasphemy. Although 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations like UAHC are not allowed to endorse political candidates, Yoffie said this at a thinly-disguised May 2000 campaign rally for Albert Gore,

We're going to find out who's getting NRA funds, and benefiting from NRA ads, and we're going to vote for the other guy. ...The American people, I believe, are ready for a leader who will take on the fanatics and support sensible gun control. I am not sure which Torah Mr. Yoffie was reading when he found a "solemn religious obligation" to control guns, unless it was a music roll in a restroom stall at the Brady Center (Handgun Control Inc.) If so, I can understand Mr. Yoffie's confusion because the Torah also comes on rolls, although a Torah is parchment as opposed to soft perforated paper and it is also written in Hebrew. In any event, this is the right time of year to recall the story of Hanukkah and its lessons, which MOST Jews learn when they are children.

Alexander the Great was fairly tolerant of local religions but his heirs weren't. Antiochus wanted to force the Jews to worship the Greek gods, and he used Saddam Hussein-like methods to gain compliance. A mother and her seven sons refused and were put to death; according to Geoffrey Abbott's The Book of Execution, all were tortured and then burned or fried alive. This detail might be left out of a play for children, but don't throw out the underlying lesson: freedom isn't free.

Judah and the Maccabees ("Hammers") took exception to religious persecution, and they led a revolution against the Greeks. During one of the battles, a Macedonian war elephant was wreaking havoc in the Jewish ranks. Judah's son Eleazer rode under the elephant and stabbed it but didn't get clear in time; the stricken animal fell on him and crushed him.

If it had been up to Eric Yoffie, the Maccabees would have had no swords, or they would have been "idolators" for using them. The Maccabees used those swords, and many lost their lives, so that thousands of years later we can practice Judaism instead of worshipping REAL idols (as the Greeks demanded) or following some other state religion. If that had happened, by the way, our Christian friends would not be celebrating Christmas today because Jesus would have been a good idol-worshipping polytheist like everyone else.

Two thousand or so years later, some people known as Minutemen used privately-owned firearms in the American War of Independence. Some endured hardships at places like Valley Forge, and others lost their lives, to create a country with freedom of religion. Many Jews emigrated from Europe and other places and came to America so they could practice Judaism. This lesson also appears lost on UAHC, AJC, and other organizations that now seem to think that freedom is free.

In 1943, Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto revolted against their Nazi oppressors. "The first armed resistance occurred when a 17- year-old girl named Emily Landau flung a grenade into a cluster of SS men from a rooftop on Gesia Street, killing or wounding a dozen of them. The SS promptly assaulted the building with submachine guns blazing, only to be met by a volley of return fire that felled four or five Germans and drove the rest back in disorder. Emily Landau was bending down to recover a pistol from a slain SS officer when she was struck by a bullet fired by a German rifleman covering his comrades’ retreat. The first to fight, she was also the first to die" (Jon Guttmann, "Genocide Delayed"). This Jewish heroine (or was she an idolatress, Mr. Yoffie?) lost her life while trying to capture a precious firearm with which to protect Jewish lives.

In 1947, Jews founded the Nation of Israel in the face of immense hardships (e.g. as portrayed in the movie Exodus). Its Arab neighbors invaded and the Jews fought back desperately with whatever firearms they could buy, beg, borrow, or steal. That is why there is a State of Israel today. Were those Jews idolators, Mr. Yoffie? You (and I) never had to pay the real price of freedom but we can at least learn from those who have.

I encourage Mr. Yoffie to watch Cast a Giant Shadow with Kirk Douglas as Colonel Mickey Marcus, the American hero who built the Israeli Army and who is probably responsible for Israel's very existence. The British-controlled territory had exactly the kind of strict gun control laws that Eric Yoffie and his fellow travelers support: possession of a gun was in fact punishable by death. What this meant in practice was that the Arabs had a lot of guns while the Jews had relatively few guns, and the Arabs felt free to take potshots at any Jews or Jewish convoys they saw. This is the world that Eric Yoffie and his fellow travelers would have us live in.

It is eminently clear that Eric Yoffie's Union for Reform Judaism is a stooge and useful idiot for every anti-Semite and dictator on earth, because dictators love disarmed subjects who can't fight back. As long as Eric Yoffie speaks for the URJ, I as a Jewish-American do not recognize the URJ's right to speak for me or any other Jewish-American. In fact, I consider the URJ an enemy organization, in the same class as Gentile fifth column organizations and enemy sympathizers like the Presbyterian Church USA (whose elders met with Hezbollah terrorists) and the American Friends of Terrorists and Submission to Islam Service Committee (AFSC).

In summary, I encourage Mr. Yoffie and his cohorts to actually THINK about what those candles on the Menorah stand for when they light them tomorrow at sundown, because they sure as heck doesn't stand for their Left Coast political agenda.

From 1 Maccabees, chapter 3:

1: Then Judas his son, who was called Maccabeus, took command in his place.
2: All his brothers and all who had joined his father helped him; they gladly fought for Israel.
3: He extended the glory of his people. Like a giant he put on his breastplate; he girded on his armor of war and waged battles, protecting the host by his sword.
4: He was like a lion in his deeds, like a lion's cub roaring for prey.
5: He searched out and pursued the lawless; he burned those who troubled his people.
6: Lawless men shrank back for fear of him; all the evildoers were confounded; and deliverance prospered by his hand.
7: He embittered many kings, but he made Jacob glad by his deeds, and his memory is blessed for ever.
8: He went through the cities of Judah; he destroyed the ungodly out of the land; thus he turned away wrath from Israel.
9: He was renowned to the ends of the earth; he gathered in those who were perishing.
10: But Apollonius gathered together Gentiles and a large force from Samaria to fight against Israel.
11: When Judas learned of it, he went out to meet him, and he defeated and killed him. Many were wounded and fell, and the rest fled.
12: Then they seized their spoils; and Judas took the sword of Apollonius, and used it in battle the rest of his life.
13: Now when Seron, the commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had gathered a large company, including a body of faithful men who stayed with him and went out to battle,
14: he said, "I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will make war on Judas and his companions, who scorn the king's command."
15: And again a strong army of ungodly men went up with him to help him, to take vengeance on the sons of Israel.
16: When he approached the ascent of Beth-horon, Judas went out to meet him with a small company.
17: But when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said to Judas, "How can we, few as we are, fight against so great and strong a multitude? And we are faint, for we have eaten nothing today."
18: Judas replied, "It is easy for many to be hemmed in by few, for in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between saving by many or by few.
19: It is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven.
20: They come against us in great pride and lawlessness to destroy us and our wives and our children, and to despoil us;
21: but we fight for our lives and our laws.
22: He himself will crush them before us; as for you, do not be afraid of them."
23: When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly against Seron and his army, and they were crushed before him.
24: They pursued them down the descent of Beth-horon to the plain; eight hundred of them fell, and the rest fled into the land of the Philistines.
25: Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and terror fell upon the Gentiles round about them.

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