Thought of the Week: 29 December 2016

Written by Writings & Sermons by others — 29 December 2016

This week Alyth has been a global Synagogue. #AlythChanukah photos have been sent in from more than fifty locations as our fellow Synagogue members light their Chanukah candles and post a photo to Instagram or send it to Mike Mendoza (mike@alyth.org.uk). Our farthest flung Alyth Chanukah candle lighting photos sent in have been in India and South Africa and we have had #AlythChanukah photos with Alyth members lighting candles in Israel, France and even Oman! Most of us have of course stayed at home, so we have had photos from all the areas in North West London where the majority of Alyth members live, whilst over fifty Alyth members of all generations have been at Limmud, from where I write this Thought for the Week.

As well as having the chance to learn from great teachers and to teach a numbers of sessions myself, I have led a number of the Reform and Liberal Daily Services here at Limmud. This week of Chanukah every Jewish service includes a special prayer in the middle of the “modim” prayer of thanksgiving. It is the prayer found on page 374 of our Siddur – “al ha nissim”, thanking God at this time of the Jewish year for all the miracles that were performed for our ancestors in the days of old. The prayer recounts the essentials of the story of Chanukah.

It’s not difficult in a week like this to recognise the miracles that are worthy of thanksgiving. The “al ha nissim” prayer reminds us that the challenge to our ancestors was that we were ordered to forget our traditions and our Torah and its observance by the regime of Antiochus Epiphanes. We were told that we were a small people, not worth much in the world in comparison to the great Greek empire, we would disappear soon. We were made to understand that the Jewish people were far too weak to survive in the cut and thrust of the strong warrior nations of the world.

Yet here we are in 2016 – two millennia and more after what was already the third attempt by an empire to wipe out the Jewish people. In 2016  Jewish people the world over, including Alyth members of course, are lighting Chanukah candles in celebration of our tradition and our values and their almost incredible tenacity. Here we are in 2016 – two millennia and more after the study and reading of Torah was banned by Antionchus – with more than two and a half thousand Jews coming together here at the Birmingham NEC to do just that, learn Torah together in its widest sense, here at Limmud, through text, discussion, art, Jewish culture, film and music. We Jews truly have miracles to be thankful for.