If you’re looking for cheer, please click on something else.
I don’t have many words right now.
I am in the depths of pain, and I’ve realized it’s a Jewish thing. I’ve always cared too much about the things I believe in. To my detriment, many times. I have never done anything by halves. I am often left with nothing except the knowledge that I cared about it too much and did what I thought was right. My heart is naked but the world is often not prepared for it. And such is my destiny. You’ve found me so here we are.
The Maccabees, for whom we celebrate Chanukah, also cared too much, and I take comfort from them, because they succeeded. Judah and his brothers were not prepared to let go of the Jewish religion and its customs, so they rose up against the mighty Greeks and founded the Hasmonean era, ruling over Judea. They saw that Hellenism was catching on with fellow Jews due to influencer of the era Alexander the Great, and they weren’t chill with Jewish people choosing the Greek lifestyle over Jewish practices. The Maccabees cared too much about being Jewish. They were prepared to die for it. They said to hell with Hellenism, and what ensued was – kind of – in modern terms a battle between Zionism (ie Judaism) and Antizionism (ie Hellenism). The Maccabees won, and it wasn’t just Judaism that defeated Hellenism, but Judea was liberated from Antiochus, and the Maccabees ruled. Awesome.
Hence, Chanukah.
The IDF are our modern Maccabees. The IDF also cares too much and are prepared to die over it. If the IDF cared less, Gaza would have been nuked to oblivion two months ago. Today, the IDF, after flooding Hamas’s rat tunnels, managed to force hundreds of these vermin to surrender. The terrorists are now turning themselves in en masse, and are providing much-needed intelligence. May it continue over the next eight days and nights.
Oh and in case you’re seeing the copious shit-takes online calling for the humanitarian treatment of these rats, you will see here that more copies of a certain book were found in Gaza today, too.
Today marks two months since October 7. For two whole months, Jewish people have been living in a nightmare and the existential threat to us as a people has not left us for a second. But on top of that we have had to face an intense isolation unlike anything most of us have ever known. We keep going. But the way people have behaved since October 7 is truly something we will never forget.
I’ll be honest. I feel like shattered glass. I don’t know how to collect the pieces of me that have broken in this time. But the Maccabees taught us that miracles happen in the darkest of days, so we must let the light shine.
At the western wall tonight in Jerusalem, 138 menorahs were lit for the remaining hostages. What I would give to be there right now.
Instead in LA, I saw this tonight. Tonight I light my Menorah for Tal Haimi.
Be a Maccabee. Be the rebel warrior. Fight for your people. Fight for yourself. When nobody else does, you have to have the courage to believe that you will overcome the forces that seek to destroy you.
On this night of Hanukkah, even during such horrible dark times going on, you bring a light to shine with educating anyone who doesn't know about the miracle of Hanukkah. When I lit mine earlier, I was thinking of you and all that you share about what's going on in the world spilling your soul about it all. Don't ever lose yourself, stay you and help try to show people to not just put some blinders on. Blinders make it too easy to pretend things are normal when they are anything but. May calm and peace find all.
You are full of courage and encourage me to be brave. I’ve had to say goodbye to family who do not support our very existence. I cry as I write but feel so supported your energy and force , sharing the truths that enabled us survive through all these forces of evil