The significance of Hanukkah in 2023
An article in The Jerusalem Post:
My comment:
I agree that Hanukkah has a very great significance. Like most of our other Holidays and most of our writings, Hanukkah also carries extremely important and deep symbolic meaning.
In the script of this Holiday, again, Jews faced existential danger due to the disunity between us, due to a large part of the Nation wanting to adopt the methods and lifestyles of others while abandoning the original Jewish values, most importantly, abandoning the unconditional and totally selfless unity and mutual guarantee within the nation.
Fast forward to our times, we see the same pattern: the modern State of Israel and Jews all over the world try to adopt the already failing “modern Western values” of narcissistic individuality and ruthless competition between individuals and different interest groups.
But what we learn again and again, what is a natural way of life for others, is a literal death sentence for Jews since we survive and prosper only through unity, and the collective becomes more important than any individual.
Moreover, what seemed an incomprehensible and “supernatural” — above inherent human nature — Jewish method for millennia has now become the only useful and practical remedy for global humanity heading for self-destruction due to the inherently egotistic, selfish, and exploitative human nature killing us like cancer.
The “miracle of Hanukkah” is how the original Jewish unity and mutual guarantee can safeguard both Jewish survival and the survival of mankind.