The Menorah Versus the Swastika
When it is my turn to “ramble” I typically like to come up with a creative essay based on some personal anecdote that resonates with me. However, this week I heard one of the most moving and poignant stories I have ever heard and I feel compelled to share it with all of you.
It was December 31st, 1932, the 8th and final night of Chanukah, which coincided with Friday night that year. In the German city of Kuehl lived Rabbi Ahron Posner and his wife, Rachel Posner. Rabbi Posner, the rabbi of the city, had set up his menorah with all 8 candles and was waiting for his wife to finish getting ready for Shabbat before lighting the menorah, after which she was going to light the Shabbat candles.
With the menorah all set and waiting on the windowsill, Rachel could not help but notice through the window a Nazi flag draped from the building across the street with the infamous swastika symbol featured prominently.
Rachel was struck by the contrasting images, and despite the rush to light candles before the onset of Shabbat, she ran to grab a camera and quickly took a picture of the two contrasting symbols.
Rabbi Posner then lit his menorah and Rachel lit the Shabbat candles.
After Shabbat, Rachel Posner developed her picture and wrote an inscription on the back as follows:
“Chanukah 1932. ‘Judah will die,’ says the flag. ‘Judah will live forever!’ thus say the lights.”
Just a mere month later, on January 30, 1933, Germany elected Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. Thus began a 12-year period of terror and decimation the likes of which the world had never seen, as six million of our people were murdered. Indeed, the flame of Judaism came as close as it ever has come to being completely extinguished.
Fast forward to 2018, 80 years since the terrifying night known as Kristallnacht, which is know as the unofficial beginning of the Holocaust.
President Walter Steinmeier of Germany approached Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, an Orthodox rabbi in Berlin, and told him that he would like to commemorate the anniversary of Kristallnacht. “What would the Rabbi suggest as an appropriate gesture?” he asked. Rabbi Teichtal, a member of the Chabad group of chassidim, responded as follows. “As a student of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson) we were always taught that in the places and situations where one finds darkness it is incumbent upon us to bring light in its place.”
Rabbi Teichtal then proceeded to make the following suggestion. In Berlin stands the famous Brandenburg gate. At this gate Hitler (may his name be erased) used to deliver fiery and impassioned speeches to hundreds of thousands of Germans, inciting them to carry forth his life’s mission of exterminating the Jewish people. Rabbi Teichtal asked President Steinmeier if the Jewish community can light the world’s largest menorah at the Brandenburg gate, thereby replacing Hitler’s darkness with the eternal light of the menorah.
President Steinmeier was so excited about this suggestion that he asked if he can personally light the menorah. Rabbi Teichtal agreed to give the President the personal distinction of lighting the shamash (the central candle which is used to light the other candles).
And so it was on the first night of Chanukah just a few days ago, German President Walter Steinmeier, a successor to that former German chancellor less than a century ago, lit a massive menorah in the very spot where darkness, tyranny and evil were once espoused. In the very same location which once spawned a near annihilation of the Jewish nation, there now stands a symbol of the continued existence of our people.
And on that same night of Chanukah, in a tiny country called Israel, a Jew by the name of Yehuda Mansbach took out the same menorah he has been lighting for decades. You see, this menorah is an heirloom he received from his grandparents who used to live in Germany. Khuel, Germany, to be exact. For Yehuda is the grandson of Rabbi Ahron and Rachel Posner. And every year when he lights this menorah he takes out the picture that he inherited along with it and reads the inscription aloud to his children and grandchildren. “Chanukah, 1932. ‘Judah will die,” says the flag. ‘Judah will live forever!’ thus say the lights.”
Indeed, it is Hitler and his cohorts who are long gone but Judah, the Jewish people, live on.
Chanukah is a celebration of the endurance of the Jewish people. A celebration of the freedom of the human spirit. Of the few who wanted to serve G-d over the many who were much mightier and sought to stop them. Of the power of light over darkness. Of a little menorah on a windowsill in a small city in Germany outlasting the powerful empire of the Third Reich.
Let us utilize the remaining days of Chanukah to appreciate the holiday for what it stands for and use it as a catalyst to be inspired and grow in our love for G-d and desire to serve Him better. In this way we will be sure to merit His protection so that we can continue to be a “light unto the nations” and will no longer be threatened by our enemies that wish to stop us from our holy mission.
Shabbat shalom and Happy Chanukah!
Rabbi Yosef
