Being A Proud Jew

    There is a story told about a person who entered a restaurant and asked the owner if it was kosher. The owner replied by pointing to a picture hanging on the wall of a rabbi with a long white beard, and claiming that that man was his grandfather. The customer replied, "If your picture would be hanging on the wall and the man in the picture would be serving me I know I could trust the kashrus, but under the present circumstances I am a bit skeptical!"

    In our daily lives we encounter many people who take much pride in the Jewish appearance and lifestyles led by their grandmother and grandfather. One would expect from such a person a Jewish life similar to theirs. Unfortunately, this is not the case. They tend to leave those memories hanging on the wall, and as high as can be. Those people have no connection with the earth. They have no connection with America. They are higher than America. Yes, higher, the grandson admits. But it is not in America. The way of life represented by the picture is, for him, an anachronism.

    We must say to this individual: You are so proud of your grandparents-but you also have a son and daughter! Why should you not raise your son in such a way that when he is 90 years old he, too, will have a long white beard-by seeing to it that when he is twenty years old he has a long black beard? Then you won't have to bring a proof of your Jewish pride from a picture hanging on the wall. Bring a proof from a living picture, your own son.

    One of the lessons of Chanukah taught to us by the Chashmonaim is the we must never relinquish our Judaism to the past. We must make it a part of our present. We should be proud of our past. But this is not accomplished by hanging pictures of the past, by building museums and making movies about those times. The pride should be expressed by continuing to live a life as exemplified by them. We must act like the Chashmonaim of then, by fighting the influences of the modern day Hellenists. To our luck, we do not have to use physical weapons to fight this war. The weapons of this war are the spiritual powers given to the Jewish nation in the Torah through the observance of its commandments. When a Jew keeps the Torah and Mitzvos with pride, and teaches it to his fellow Jew, the light generated by these actions create a light so strong that dispels any spiritual darkness that exists around us.

    One of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first speeches was that one of his goals while in office is to restore Jewish pride to the youth in Israel and abroad. The heroes of today's youngsters should be Moshe Rabbeinu, Dovid HaMelech and the Rambam and not the movie stars of Hollywood and pop singers. The Prime Minister is confronted now with a very difficult situation concerning the so-called "Peace Process" where he has to decide if to give back land to Arab terrorists. If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to instill in today's youth a sense of Jewish pride, now is the opportunity. Declare to the Arabs and the entire world that Chevron is a Jewish city, bought for cash by our patriarch Abraham, and therefore whatever was promised by any previous government is null and void. And if the Arabs truly want peace, a different solution can be found. This declaration is certain to bring back to our youth the sense of pride of being Jewish. Being proud to stand for what we are.

    Wishing all our readers a happy Chanukah,

Rabbi Michoel Lozenik