24 Kislev 5779
2 December 2018
Special Notice!
Chanukah, our 8-day holiday of freedom and light, begins tonight at sundown, as the 25th of Kislev begins. Israelstreet wishes each of you a wonderful holiday full of family, friends, latkes and souvganiot! If you haven’t seen the Bohemian Rhapsody version of the Chanukah story at aish.com click here to be uplifted!
The world’s largest chanukiah will have its first candle lit this evening. Located on the roof of the Hadar Mall in Jerusalem, it is 11 meters high and 56 meters wide. It will be able to be seen throughout Jerusalem.
The News on the Israeli Street
Don’t fry your latkes? . . .
Are you kidding? We’ve all been frying latkes from since Eastern European Jews started the practice in the mid-1800s. But now, we are told that frying potatoes (or anything else for that matter) causes cancer because frying releases the chemical acrylamide.
Instead of frying them, we should now bake them at 170 degrees C.
Hahahahahahahahaha!
Sure thing, baked latkes: how many folks are going to serve that for Chanukah?
Netanyahu and Case 4000 . . .
Much to no one’s surprise, the Israel police have leaked that they believe that PM Netanyahu and his wife should be indicted on Case 4000. Essentially, the case revolves around whether Netanyahu, in his capacity as Communications Head, gave regulatory favors to Shaul Elovitch, the owner of the Walla! website, in return for favorable media coverage on Walla!
Yawn.
Netanyahu and Walla! (Case 4000), and Netanyahu and Yediot Ahronot newspaper (Case 2000) are both absurd. Has there ever been an Israeli PM more vilified in the press than Benjamin Netanyahu? It would seem to your humble servant that all Netanyahu would have to do to defend himself is cite the hundreds of anti-Netanyahu articles in recent years.
By the way, there is substantial evidence today that we may be heading for new elections in May. However, your humble servant still believes that Netanyahu would like to put off elections until he passes David Ben Gurion’s 4,872 days as Prime Minister. To achieve that record, he will need to serve until July 17, 2019.
Also by the way, Netanyahu completely revamped his legal defense team over the past few days. There is every reason to believe that Attorney General Mandelblit will seek an indictment against him on Cases 4000 and 1000; however, Netanyahu has already said that he will continue to serve as PM even if he is indicted.
TODAY’S BLOG:
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Some Pre-Chanukah Musings About Kislev 24
As you can see from the above date today, we are at Kislev 24, the day before the start of Chanukah.
Your humble servant thought it would be interesting to take a look at Kislev 24 in Jewish history and how it relates to the holiday.
Interestingly, the first time Kislev 24 is mentioned is in the book of Haggai: 18-22 (presumably written around 520 BCE* following the destruction of the First Temple and before the inauguration of the Second Temple–and a little more than 350 years before the Maccabees):
18 ‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid. Give careful thought:19 Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.“
‘From this day on I will bless you.’”
20 The word of the Lord came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month: 21 “Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. 22 I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.”
The above verses and those that precede them are a discussion of the purity of the Temple, and the redemption of Israel. Jewish tradition holds that the cornerstone of the Second Temple was laid on Kislev 24.
In this context, the passage from Haggai almost seems like a precursor to what actually happened in 166 BCE when the Maccabees rose up and revolted against the Seleucids and hellenized Jews (“I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms”). Of course, in doing so, the Maccabees purified the Temple and made it fit for Judaism again.
Interestingly, even though we mark Chanukah as beginning on Kislev 25, it was actually on Kislev 24 that the Maccabees finally vanquished Antiochus and his forces.
One additional fact about Kislev 24. It was on this date in 1917 that the British conquered Jerusalem, and took over rule of the city from Ottomans, ending hundreds of years of Muslim rule. Obviously, it was the day that British General Allenby famously dismounted his horse and walked into the city.
*Please note that some sects of orthodox Judaism set the date of Haggai at 354 BCE).
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.