“When I was last in America.. my eye was caught by a story on the front page of the New York Times. It was headed ‘The Assimilating Bagel’, and the tale it told was this. A bagel was once a hard, round roll with a large hole in the centre. It was a Jewish delicacy which you ate with cream cheese or smoked salmon and temporarily forgot the troubles of the world. But according to the New York Times the bagel was subtly changing. Its crust was getting softer. The hole was getting smaller. Little by little, the bagel was assimilating into a bun. For ‘bagel’ read ‘Jewry’ and the metaphor is clear. Jewish identity in America is vanishing with frightening, unprecedented speed.”
“After the [Holocaust], one phrase came to encapsulate the collective response of world Jewry: ‘Never again.’ Never again would we stand by defenseless as Jews were dying because they were Jews. Yet, albeit in a radically different form, it is happening again. Admittedly, it is not Jews who are dying. But it is no less significant from the perspective of Jewish continuity. Judaism and Jewish identity are dying: that which made us Jews and gave shape and meaning to our lives. Every nation that suffered casualties during the Second World War has since repopulated itself. Except the Jewish people. For every Jewish child who perished in the Holocaust there is a child today who could have been enjoying a free and secure Jewish identity, but is not, because its parents have divorced, or because one of its parents is not Jewish, or because it has no understanding or knowledge of what it is to be a Jew.”
[Rabbi Dr. Sacks]
SHAAAAAALOOMMMM SWEEEEETEST FRIENDSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
Chanukah is a Yom Tov that commemorates, among other things, the fight against assimilation. We were in other exiles but don't find Jews who were called מתמצרים - Jews who assimilated into the Egyptian culture, מתפרסים - Jews who wanted to assimilate into the Persian, but we DO FIND מתיוונים - Jews who tried very hard to assimilate into the general culture [pointed out by the Rosh Yeshiva ztz"l. This was a UNIQUE galus in that sense. We were in our OWN LAND but in exile.
When Jews assimilate, not only do WE lose out but the whole world loses out. how incredibly poor civilization would be w/o us.
Today, maybe the BIGGEST crisis we face is NOT the tuition-crisis, the shidduch-crisis, the Iran-nuclear-capability-they-want-to-nuke-us-chas-vishalom-crisis, the excessive-immersion-in-materialism-crisis, the addiction-to-technology-crisis, the border-crisis, the inflation-and-dollar-is-losing-value-fast-crisis, the we-thought-corona-was-gone-but-new-variants-keep-appearing-crisis, [some would say the Biden-wants-to-run-for-a-second-term-crisis but I won't go there....], the when-will-Ehrman-finally-take-me-off-his-email-list-crisis and the myriad of other crises afflicting our world. No. THE crisis is that the Jewish people are being DECIMATED. Not with weapons but with LOVE!!!
SEVENTY PERCENT INTERMARRIAGE in the USA!!! Look at the frightening new results of the latest Pew study. We are also losing many of our own children!!! About 30 percent of our children are leaving observance. "Corroborating the Pew study is The Hertog Study: Chabad on Campus, issued in 2016 by Brandeis University. The study found that 45 percent of Modern Orthodox students who attended Chabad programs on campus regularly for four years were no longer religious three years after they graduated." [Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald]
BELOVED FRIENDS!!!! What the Communists and Nazis couldn't do - we are doing to ourselves. Things are [relatively] great in Teaneck and Passaic and Lakewood and the Five Towns and Boro Park but Jew York and Jew Jersey are not the whole world. And even within our very own midst there are so many assimilated Jews. Almost anyone who works has coworkers who are far from any vestige of Jewish observance.
In Israel there is very little intermarriage ב"ה but there are MILLIONS in our very own מדינת ישראל who know next to nothing about Torah and keep almost nothing except maybe Yom Kippur and have a Pesach seder. There is a video where a Rav from Eretz Yisrael asks the Lubavitcher Rebbe about the criticism leveled against him. The Rebbe basically answers [among other things] that instead of being busy attacking him they should be busy worrying about the countless children in Eretz Yisrael who don't know Shema Yisrael!!! How TRUE!!!
What can WE do about it??
First thing - CARE!!!! The purpose of creation is that we recognize and connect to the Creator and that we should have pleasure from this. So many people are missing out. The GREATEST pleasure in life is to have MEANING and purpose. Not a contrived invented meaning but the REAL thing.
From the Alter Rebbe:
מודעת זאת מאמר רז"ל (תנחומא נשא טז. במדבר רבה פי"ג, ו) שתכלית בריאת עולם הזה הוא שנתאווה הקב"ה להיות לו דירה בתחתונים... וזהו עניין השתלשלות העולמות וירידתם ממדרגה למדרגה על ידי ריבוי הלבושים המסתירים האור והחיות שממנו יתברך, עד שנברא עולם הזה הגשמי והחומרי ממש...
והנה תכלית השתלשלות העולמות וירידתם ממדרגה למדרגה אינו בשביל עולמות העליונים... אלא התכלית הוא עולם הזה התחתון - שכך עלה ברצונו יתברך... שיאיר אור ה' אין סוף ברוך הוא במקום החושך והסטרא אחרא של כל עולם הזה כולו, ביתר שאת ויתר עז ויתרון אור מן החשך מהארתו בעולמות עליונים. [תניא פרק לו]
This world was created so that Hashem's INFINITE LIGHT should shine brightly. Isn't that what Chanukah is all about? Lighting in the DARK and in the LOWEST PLACES so that EVERYONE sees it!!!! We want everyone to have the light. We don't just light up our own homes and close the doors and lower the shades. We spread the light from the front door of our homes [ideally] to the public sphere!!!
If we would care enough - we would do more [myself included!!!]. The Goyim and such groups such as Jews for J spend tens if not HUNDREDS of millions of dollars a year to capture our Neshamos. So let us fight fire with [Chanukah] fire, DOLLAR WITH DOLLAR, say "מי לה' אלי" [as in the Chanukah story] and think of ways to help save our people. EVERY SOUL counts!!! Every Yiddishe Neshama deserves to taste the sweetness of Shabbos, of Tefilla, of an authentic Jewish simcha, of limmud HaTorah!!!!
BELOVED FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is up to US!!! Hashem gave us the means [endless Jewish money - when you control the world's banks, governments, Hollywood, the media etc. etc. as we are said to be doing - it gives us a lot of power. BTW - If we DO control the world's banks, I haven't been receiving my cut....] and Hashem gave us the command to be His partner in spreading the Light.
Said the Prophet Yeshayahu in the Name of Hashem:
כֹּה־אָמַ֞ר הָאֵ֣ל ׀ יְהֹוָ֗ה בּוֹרֵ֤א הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ וְנ֣וֹטֵיהֶ֔ם רֹקַ֥ע הָאָ֖רֶץ וְצֶאֱצָאֶ֑יהָ נֹתֵ֤ן נְשָׁמָה֙ לָעָ֣ם עָלֶ֔יהָ וְר֖וּחַ לַהֹלְכִ֥ים בָּֽהּ׃
Thus said God the LORD,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and what it brings forth,
Who gave breath to the people upon it
And life to those who walk thereon:
אֲנִ֧י יְהֹוָ֛ה קְרָאתִ֥יךָֽ בְצֶ֖דֶק וְאַחְזֵ֣ק בְּיָדֶ֑ךָ וְאֶצׇּרְךָ֗ וְאֶתֶּנְךָ֛ לִבְרִ֥ית עָ֖ם לְא֥וֹר גּוֹיִֽם׃
I the LORD, in My grace, have summoned you,
And I have grasped you by the hand.
I created you, and appointed you
A light of nations
לִפְקֹ֖חַ עֵינַ֣יִם עִוְר֑וֹת לְהוֹצִ֤יא מִמַּסְגֵּר֙ אַסִּ֔יר מִבֵּ֥ית כֶּ֖לֶא יֹ֥שְׁבֵי חֹֽשֶׁךְ׃ dAn idiom meaning “freeing the imprisoned”; cf. 61.1.Opening eyes deprived of light,-d
Rescuing prisoners from confinement,
From the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
SO BY GOLLY!!! Let's get to it and think of ways of spreading the Light to all of our brothers and sisters - with love, smiles and genuine warmth. The Rambam says [ספר המצוות מצוה ג] that the mitzva of loving Hashem is fulfilled when we tell OTHERS about our love. Think of how impoverished we would be if we had no Judaism in our lives. No Shabbos, no Yuntiv, no singing כי לקח טוב as the Torah is returned to the Aron Kadosh, we would all have two dogs
, a cat
, a child and three quarters
and then 1.9 grandchildren, no delicious sweet Torah, no knowledge that we truly matter and that our actions really matter, no faith that all is Under Control by a Loving All Powerful G-d etc. etc. W/O all the RICHNESS of Jewish life! How INCREDIBLY sad. How lonely. Dr. AJ Heschel - "When man abandons G-d, G-d is not alone. Man is." As Dr. Seuss would say, that is "truer than true". We don't want to be alone in this world and certainly not for eternity. So let us share the gifts of knowledge of Hashem and Torah we have with others!!! MUCH LOVE AND BRACHOS TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
