Chanukah on the other side of the world

About a year ago, I wrote an article in an online magazine considering the differences between the way Chanukah is celebrated in the northern and southern hemispheres. This past summer (northern winter), we were fortunate to have spent Chanukah in Israel, and what an experience that was!

For the first few days of Chanukah, we were in Eilat. Coming from the start of an Australian summer, that was itself a bit odd. During the day, the weather was delightful – sunny with temperature in the mid 20s. But as early as 3.30 in the afternoon, it started to cool down, and by 5pm it was nearly dark and a bit chilly. This is actually a blessing in disguise – usually it’s so difficult to get small children to bed in the summer, and here we had the best of both worlds: summery weather, and early nights!

The hotel at which we stayed advertised a public lighting at 6pm. Well before this, the lobby of the hotel was set up with two long tables covered with menorahs. We brought our own (with disposable solid oil), and put them out early. That was a mistake! By the time we came down a bit later to light (which was still before 6pm), one of our menorahs had disappeared, and another was already lit by another family. We grabbed a marker and wrote our names on our menorahs to ensure this wouldn’t happen again.

The hotel lighting ceremony was beautiful. Guests gathered around as the hotel Rabbi lit a very large menorah near the main entrance to the hotel, and everyone sung maoz tzur together to some musical accompaniment. Huge baskets of hot mini-doughnuts were passed around – they were just delicious. Families were lighting their individual menorahs and singing; the festive atmosphere was all around.

After a few nights of this, our stay in Eilat was over, and we drove back to Jerusalem. As we reached the outskirts of the city, the highway was lined with neon menorahs on the power poles. What a spectacular sight! It certainly made a pleasant change from driving down St Kilda Road or Lygon St at this time of year.

After benching licht in our apartment, we went out into the streets in search of food (as one does). On a dark, winter night, the streets were lit up by menorahs in glass boxes outside apartment blocks or seen through street-facing windows in a most beautiful display of pirsumei nisah (publicizing the miracle of Chanukah).

The restaurants all had lit menorahs, and we were greeted with a warm chag sameach by the staff. Even the taxi drivers wished us a chag sameach! Chanukah was everywhere, and it contributed to a fantastic atmosphere wherever we went. There were large Chabad menorahs in prominent places around the city – in squares, atop buildings, and even in front of the Prime Minister’s residence!

The bakeries all carried a vast assortment of fantastic doughnuts. The range of fillings and decorations were as endless as the queues out the doors. Doughnuts are best when they are fresh and warm, and I was fortunately able to prove this through extensive practical experiment. Fortunately, I was also able to offset the effect of this by walking around town as much as possible!

Walking home through the Jewish Quarter in the Old City after Shabbos, we saw families gathered outside their apartment buildings lighting their menorahs and singing maoz tzur together. The Mamillah mall was completely lit up (like the proverbial Chanukah menorah), and only once, on that motzei Shabbos (24^th of December) did we see a group of carollers outside the Mamillah hotel to give us some indication that the world was celebrating some other holiday at the same time.

There were no barbeques to be had, and no late and sultry summer nights keeping the kids up for candlelighting. I missed the former (just a little), but didn’t miss the latter. Chanukah with small children is definitely easier during winter. It certainly made a contrast with Chanukah down under, and I look forward to experiencing it again when the opportunity next comes up.

This article originally appeared in Melbourne Community Links magazine. 

Superbowl XLVI Preview

The two championship games played on Super Sunday were hard fought, close matches, and there were truly four possible outcomes for the Superbowl match-ups. The Patriots will line up again against the New York Giants in what should be an intriguing game.

We all thought the Patriots were done this year. Tom Brady kept doing his thing, and was a big part of the "year of the tight end" with Gronkowski and Fernandez as imposing targets. Gronkowski in particular has been a revelation. His huge size means he can rack up yards after the catch as he bursts through the secondary, and has proven to be a fantastic target in the end zone, setting a record for touchdowns by a tight end. But an ageing and ineffective defence meant they were playing shoot-out football (and still winning). This was all OK as long as the offence kept steaming along. Teams that were able to bring genuine pressure on the line found they were able to get Brady to actually make mistakes: missed passes and interceptions started to appear against quality defences.

After a good start, the Giants fell into a slump mid season, and just scraped into the playoffs with a win in week 17 over division rival Dallas, and a regular season record of just 9-7. Their mere presence in the Superbowl is an important lesson for other teams. The incremental advantage of a high seed position in the playoffs or an outstanding regular season win-loss record is small. You have to be in the playoffs, you have to be hitting form as a team at the right time, and you have to be able to win on the road.

The Giants did just enough to make the playoffs. They were in good form early in the season, and then really hit their straps in the last 2-3 weeks. That is what counts. And the key to winning on the road is being able to play a physical defence, and control the clock with a strong running game. They took a similar route to reach the Superbowl in 2008, and at that time, I described exactly what they had to do to beat the unbeatable Patriots, and they did it and won. Brady was protected by an outstanding offensive line that year, and no-one was able to pressure him. The Giants were, and things went downhill from there.

This is looking a lot like a repeat. Brady has succumbed to pressure in several games this year. The Giants have the pass rush to break through their offensive line, bat down balls, and create the pressure that Brady doesn't deal with very often. On offence, their two large running backs Jacobs and Bradshaw will be pounding all day even if they get little return - it will eventually come. The big difference is Eli Manning, who in my opinion is outshining his brother Peyton. Eli is far more athletic than his brother out of the pocket and on the move, and when the play breaks down. He can convert on third-and-long to keep drives alive. Victor Cruz has been an excellent target this year - he's quick, has sure hands, and if he's double teamed, then Nicks will be open. The Giants offence is much better than 3 years ago, and their defence just as good. The Patriots offence is almost as good, and their defence just isn't good enough.

But I give Bill Belichik far more credit than that. He is one of the smartest coaches in the NFL, and has shown his ability to create a winning teams from players others have ignored or discarded. We will see things on Sunday on offence and defence that he has never shown before - formations particularly using the two tight ends and the running game. If the Patriots win, it will be because of his superior coaching.

Prediction: Patriots come out with some big surprise plays early to get ahead, Giants settle down, then slowly build scoreboard pressure until a wild fourth quarter where intercept Brady a couple of times to run away with the win.

How do we solve a problem like Beit Shemesh?

The term ‘sectarian violence’ has been used extensively to describe the conflicts that have been occurring within various Arab countries, in Iraq and Afghanistan during the wars there, and more recently with the instability that has come as a result of the ‘Arab Spring’ movement. Unfortunately, this is the term that can now be used to describe what is going on in pockets within Israel.

Most recently, things have flared up in the town of Beit Shemesh, between people who have been called "ultra-Orthodox", and others who are "not quite as ultra-Orthodox". A 7-year-old Orthodox girl was spat upon by people who objected to her "immodest" attire. This friction has been strongly condemned equally by the Right and the Left. As an Orthodox Jew, I am disgusted that other Jews can do this in the name of our religion. This sentiment is echoed by the vast majority of the Orthodox Jewish world - indeed the representations made by the protagonists on a local Channel 2 story in Israel don't appear to be coming from their leadership (sadly and typically absent).

The Left are equally strident in their condemnation of the incidents, but more than this seem worried at the growing trend of friction - be it segregated seating on buses, or women singing at ceremonies - and see the whole country slipping into the control of these awful "ultra-Orthodox" (despite an official statement from an Orthodox Rabbi on the issue of segregation, for example). As an aside, there does seem to be a common theme here with the Left constantly being more concerned about what might happen (the end of democracy in Israel because of subtle changes in disclosure laws for not-for-profits or the appointment of high court judges, the "demographic time bomb" that will transform Israel into a bi-national state, the "occupation" that is ripping the soul out of the country, the impending hostile takeover by the ultra-Orthodox) than what is happening.

This a sectarian conflict, because it's going on between groups - between different religious denominations. But how are these groups defined and labelled? I think the labelling is part of the problem. What exactly is an ultra-Orthodox Jew? Well, that depends on who you ask, and is actually a relative term. Some of my (Jewish) friends consider me ultra-Orthodox, but someone from Neturei Karta is likely to abuse me for walking the street wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

It's far better to think in terms of a spectrum of Jewish observance, and I liken this to the ATP tennis rankings, which is a scale that appears logarithmic. This means that to someone who is ranked 500 in the world, any player in the top 10 would seem equally better than them. But the further you go up the scale, the gap between the players becomes wider. Number 5 is a lot better than number 10, and number 2 far better than 5.

It's much the same with Jewish observance. A modern-Orthodox Jew or secular Jew (and certainly the non-Jewish world) is likely to bundle all the ultra-Orthodox groups together and stereotype their behaviour. But the fact is that there are many hundreds of different ultra-Orthodox groups - mostly Chassidic dynasties that over generations have split and fractured into a very diverse world of its own. The behaviour we have seen in Beit Shemesh is far from representative of even mainstream ultra-Orthodoxy (to the extent that there is such a thing). It is an insult to Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox alike, and it is incumbent on the leadership of all Jewish groups to publicly condemn and disassociate themselves from them. Because of the way the non-Jewish world perceives ultra-Orthodoxy, it is particularly important to clarify this diversity to the wider community.

In describing the holiday of Shemini Atzeret, which follows immediately after Succot, the phrase used is  "Kosheh Olai Pridaschem" - God figuratively says it's difficult for Him to say goodbye, so He wants the pilgrims to stay on for an additional holiday. The famous alternative explanation of the term is "Kosheh Olai Pridaschem"  - God says that it's difficult for Him to see how His beloved children are separated by classes and levels of frumkeit. How much sadder God must be to see this awful frummer than thou attitude that continues to fracture our nation.