Hi All,
Last night I looked at the forum and saw that there is an interest ( a lot of clicks on what people have written) but little response. I thought I would write to try to give it a little more life.
For those who don't know me I was in the 7th class. I have seven children and we have been living in Israel for the last 13 years. My wife, Ruth, works as a nurse in the new born nursery at Haddash Hospital. I have worked as a rabbi, teacher, shochet, and most recently as a sofer. At the present I work in a factory in Jerusalem which produces tefilin. I check all the parchments which are put into the tefilin to make sure that they were written correctly. I also check mezuzot, megilot and sefrai torah which they sell. I have also written all of these things myself. If anyone is interested in any s.t.a.m. (s- sefer torah, t-tefilin and m- mezuzot) send me an e-mail or call me on my U.S. phone line 714 657-3295.
Being that it is chanukah now I thought to share with you a thought which I had. During chanukah there is a special prayer which we add called "al hanisim". In this prayer we thank G-d for "delivering the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and the arrogant into the hands of those who upkept the torah", what I didn't understand is why isn't the most famous miracle, that the oil which was enough to burn for only one night burned for eight nights mentioned? Even a bigger question is that the fact that a few Jews could beat the mighty Greek army doesn't seem to be a miracle at all. Modern history will show many examples of how the few, using gorilla fighting tactics can beat armies much greater then them. The Russians in Afganistan, the Americans in Vietnam and yes the Palesinians in Israel are all shining examples of this. So why are we thanking G-d for "delivering the many into the hands of few etc."? After giving this question a little more thought I think the answer is simple. There are many miracles which happen and we don't think of them as miracles or pay much attention to them at all. What could be a greater miracle then the fact that we are living and that we can breath, see and speak? Is there a bigger miracle then holding a new born baby in your hands. Could there be anything bigger then standing under the chupah of your child as they are about to start a new Jewish home continuing a tradition which started thousands of years ago. The rabbis who wrote the 'al hanisim' prayer were trying to make us aware of all the miracles which we might not even notice as miracles. It's for these hundreds of thousands of miracles that we have to thank G-d. May the chanukah candles that we light make it easier for us to see all the other miracles which surrond us daily. HAPPY CHANUKAH