| The Rabbis established two Jewish Holidays in Galus (exile), Chanukah and Purim. They enacted these holidays because without these vehicles of expression we would not be able to withstand the hardships of Galus. Chanukah was established as a day Le`Hodos U`Lehallel“ To give thanks and praise” [to Hashem] (for the miracles he performed for the Macabees). Chanukah is not just a commemoration of a victory and miracles that happened over 2,000 years ago. Our annual observance of these eight days give us the strength and fortitude to overcome the tribulations of every generation’s persecutions and to keep the light of Judaism burning strongly.The story presented here is a well-known story that occurred during the Holocaust. We urge our readers to read and be inspired by this vignette of the dark days of our recent history. THE FIRST CHANUKAH LIGHT IN BERGEN BELSEN In Bergen Belsen, on the eve of Chanukah, a selection took place. Early in the morning, three German commandants, meticulously dressed in their festive black uniforms and in visibly high spirits, entered the men`s barracks. They ordered the men to stand at the foot of their three-tiered bunk beds. The selection began. No passports were required, no papers were checked, there was no roll call and no head count. One of the three commandants just lifted the index finger in his snow-white glove and pointed in the direction of a pale face, while his mouth pronounced the death sentence with one single word: Come! The men selected were marched outside. S. S. men with rubber truncheons and iron prods awaited them. They kicked, beat, and tortured the innocent victims. When the tortured body no longer responded, the revolver was used . . . . The brutal massacre continued outside of the barracks until sundown. When the Nazi black angels of death departed, they left behind heaps of hundreds of tortured and twisted bodies. Then Chanukah came to Bergen Belsen. It was time to kindle the Chanukah lights. A jug of oil was not to be found, no candle was in sight, and a hanukkiah belonged to the distant past. Instead, a wooden clog, the shoe of one of the inmates, became a hanukkiah; strings pulled from a concentration-camp uniform, a wick; and the black camp shoe polish, pure oil. Not far from the heaps of the bodies, the living skeletons assembled to participate in the kindling of Chanukah lights. The Rabbi of Bluzhov lit the first light and chanted the first two blessings in his pleasant voice, and the festive melody was filled with sorrow and pain. When he was about to recite the third blessing, he stopped, turned his head, and looked around as if he were searching for something. But immediately, he turned his face back to the quivering small lights and in a strong, reassuring, comforting voice, chanted the third blessing: Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us alive, and hast preserved us, and enabled us to reach this season.
Among the people present at the kindling of the lights was a Mr. Zamietchkowski, one of the leaders of the Warsaw Bund. He was a clever, sincere person with a passion for discussing matters of religion, faith, and truth. He never missed an opportunity to engage in such a conversation. As soon as the Rabbi of Bluzhov had finished the ceremony of kindling the lights, Zamietchkowski elbowed his way to the rabbi and said, Spira, you are a clever and honest person. I can understand your need to light Chanukah candles in these wretched times. I can even understand the historical note of the second blessing, `Who wroughtest miracles for our fathers in days of old, at this season.` But the fact that you recited the third blessing is beyond me. How could you thank God and say `Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us alive, and hast preserved us, and enabled us to reach this season`? How could you say it when hundreds of dead Jewish bodies are literally lying within the shadows of the Chanukah lights, when thousands of living Jewish skeletons are walking around in camp, and millions more are being massacred? For this you are thankful to God? For this you praise the Lord? This you call `keeping us alive`? Zamietchkowski, you are a hundred percent right, answered the rabbi. When I reached the third blessing, I also hesitated and asked myself, what should I do with this blessing? I turned my head in order to ask the Rabbi of Zaner and other distinguished rabbis who were standing near me, if indeed I might recite the blessing. But just as I was turning my head, I noticed that behind me a throng was standing, a large crowd of living Jews, their faces expressing faith, devotion, and concentration as they were listening to the rite of the kindling of the Chanukah lights. I said to myself, if God, blessed be He, has such a nation that at times like these, when during the lighting of the Chanukah lights they see in front of them the heaps of bodies of their beloved fathers, brothers, and sons, and death is looking from every corner, if despite all that, they stand in throngs and with devotion listening to the Chanukah blessing `Who wrought miracles for our fathers in days of old, at this season`; if, indeed, I was blessed to see such a people with so much faith and fervor, then I am under a special obligation to recite the third blessing.
Some years after liberation, the Rabbi of Bluzhov, received regards from Mr. Zamietchkowski. Zamietchkowski asked the son of the Skabiner Rabbi to tell Israel Spira, the Rabbi of Bluzhov, that the answer he gave him that dark Chanukah night in Bergen Belsen had stayed with him ever since, and was a constant source of inspiration during hard and troubled times. |
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