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Chizuk<br />
<strong>Chanukah</strong>:<br />
Flickers of Faith<br />
By Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky/From Parsha Parables<br />
SHAAREI TIKVAH/ CHANUKAH <strong>2009</strong><br />
Under the gleeful eye of innocents, it twirls upon the<br />
floor. Its headless neck points upwards and after a<br />
few moments, in a drunken hobble, it begins to teeter. Each<br />
of its four sides bears a distinct message, which, unless read<br />
in its entirety, is meaningless. “Nes gadol hoya shom – A<br />
great miracle happened there.” Each side of the dreidel contains<br />
only a part of this message, yet lying on its side only<br />
one letter appears. Still, the children understand.<br />
A spinning dreidel and a nation in turmoil. It seems that<br />
the whole story of <strong>Chanukah</strong> is embodied in that spinning<br />
dreidel. After all, the tale of triumph that accompanies the<br />
holiday seems a strange victory. True, the Hasmoneans defeated<br />
the Syrians and returned to the Temple. But, the nation<br />
was in turmoil. The Kohanim had displaced the tribe<br />
of Judah as the kings and leaders of Israel. There were still<br />
pockets of Hellenist influence that impacted upon the<br />
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