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We don't get many opportunities to be astonished by dates.  When that happens I am grateful to be around as witness.

Astonishing Advances In Home Health Care #4

THE CHALLIE AND THE I.V.

HAPPY CHANUKKAH!

A Time For Miracles

The Greek Empire, led by Alexander of Macedon, ruled the land of Judea beginning in the fourth century B.C.E. (Before the Common Era).  After Alexander's death, Judea became a part of the Seleucid Empire, ruled by the Syrian-Greek king Antiochus Ephiphanes.  Unlike the rulers before him, who were content to collect tributes and leave the people to their beliefs, Antiochus wanted his empire to be completely Hellenized, and all the people to follow Greek religion and culture.  Jewish law and customs, such as observing the Sabbath, dietary laws, and circumcision, were outlawed, and the sacrifice (and eating) of pigs, and bowing down to Greek idols were forced upon the people.  In the town of Modi'in, an elderly priest named Mattathias and his sons, called the Maccabees, stood up to the king's soldiers, and began a revolt that lasted three years.  At the end of that time, the Seleucids had been defeated and forced to leave Judea and the Maccabees and their descendents (called the Hasmoneans)  ruled Judea for over 100 years.  The Temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated by pagan sacrifices and idols, was re-dedicated, and the celebration of this military victory was called Chanukah, the Hebrew word for dedication.  The victory of the Maccabees over the Greek armies was the miracle that was celebrated.

Centuries later, in the Talmud (Shabbat 21b), we find a different account of the miracle of Chanukah.  It is told that the Jews cleaning up the Temple found only one undefiled cruse of oil for the Eternal Light, which would ordinarily only last one day, but that this little cruse of oil burned for eight days and nights.There are reasons for focusing on one explanation or the other.  Long after the victory, when the Hasmoneans were ancient history, and most of the people no longer lived in the Holy Land, perhaps it became more relevant to focus on a spiritual miracle, rather than one  of a military victory that may no longer have been meaningful.  As Michael Strassfeld writes in The Jewish Holidays: A Guide and Commentary, comparing the two versions to the flickering flames of a menorah: "The flame never looks the same from one instant to the next, but at its core it remains unchanged".

So then, what is the message of Chanukah?  That it is worth fighting to hold on to your own beliefs and values when others are trying to make you change them.  That a small band of volunteers can triumph over a trained army because they are fighting for what they care about.  And that sometimes, an impossibility can become a reality.  If you don't believe it, look at your own life.  What have you accomplished that you thought you could never do?  What have you received that is a gift from God, simply because you needed it?  And celebrate that, along with the miracles of the Maccabees and the lights, on this festival of Chanukah.

Talk About A Temporary Position

Bessie Cooper of Georgia died on Tuesday.  At the time of her death she was 116 years old and the oldest person in the world.
The oldest person in the world is dead so long live the oldest person in the world the saying goes because clearly someone will always be the oldest person in the world.  As it works out, though, most generally never for very long.
And so we welcome Dina Manfredini -- age 115 years old -- to the title of oldest living person in the world.  May her reign out last that of Bessie of blessed memory.
Dina lives in Des Moines, Iowa.
I spent a year in Des Moines, Iowa, and at the end of that year I felt like I was at least a hundred years old but did I get a title?  No.  I did, however, get out of Iowa which was enough for me at the time.
At any rate, Dina was born on April 4, 1897, in Italy.  She moved to this country in 1920.
We wish her well and extend our heartiest congratulations.
Live it up, Dina.  You've got nothing to lose except your title.

California Weather Is Like Night And Day

And, seriously, that is the entire story about California weather.  However, I am fascinated by those here in Southern California who think there really is weather and dress as if their delusions were reality rooted.  Here's what I mean.  Over the weekend the weather here in LaLaLand dropped to perhaps sixty degrees and it -- unbelievably -- rained.  Yes!  Wet stuff fell from the sky.  It's a given when that happens drivers will lose all ability to operate their vehicles in anything resembling a sane manner.  We get that.  We expect that.  What we don't expect -- even though at this point it should be expected -- is for people to dress on those sixty degree days as though they had just been beamed to one pole or the other -- North or South -- and dressed for that weather.  Hoods.  Mittens.  Muk Luks.  Fleece Lined Things Covering The Faces.  Hip Boots.  I even saw a woman bent forward as though trudging home through fierce winds except that there was nothing blowing.  I knew her gait wasn't a physical need because when she reached the security of a traffic signal -- desperately hanging on -- she stood up straight.
On the east coast when people dress like its cold, it really is cold.  Here in Southern California when people dress like its cold, it isn't.  It may, however, be night.  Or possibly day.
And that's the way it is here in LaLaLand.

The More You Do

The less overwhelmed you feel.  Even if what you choose to do seems to have little to do with what ever it is that's contributing to your feeling overwhelmed you will, very quickly, stop feeling like life is closing in and over and on you.  Why?  Because when we do something - when we do anything - we give ourselves a clear message that we aren't stuck -- that we can make change in our lives.  Give it a try.  Stack those papers neatly into one area of the desk.  Sort through the mail.  Put your clean clothes in the drawer.  You will feel that you did something and doing something helps us feel better.

Wrestling

In last week's Torah portion, we encountered Jacob running away from his brother Esau's wrath to his mother's people in Haran and having a middle-of-the night encounter with the divine..  This week's portion, Vayishlach (Gen. 32:4-36:43) finds him some twenty years later, with two wives, two concubines, eleven sons and a daughter, and much material wealth, heading back from Haran to the land of Canaan, and frightened at the thought of facing his brother once again. Hearing that Esau is approaching with 400 men, and fearing that he means Jacob harm, he sends everyone in his party and everything he owned across the river, and spent the night alone.  Alone, that is, until once again he encounters the divine, this time in the form of a man who wrestles with him until daybreak.  This mysterious man could not win the wrestling contest, but was able to wrench Jacob's hip-socket, and then pleads, "Let me go before daybreak" but Jacob will not let the man go without first blessing him.  The man tells him that his name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, the one who has wrestled with God and with human beings, and has prevailed.
Who was it, really, with whom Jacob wrestled?  With God?  With an angel?  Modern Torah scholar Nehama Leibowitz echoes some of the classic commentators by suggesting that it is Esau's guardian angel, sent to weaken him before he meets his brother.  Or is he encountering the divine in himself, facing all of the deception and lies that he has perpetrated throughout his life and shedding them as he becomes a better person, literally, overnight? This view is supported by commentator B. Jacob (as quoted in the Etz Chaim Torah Commentary), who writes, "God answers a person's prayers if the person prays by searching himself, becoming his own opponent."