If you would seek my opinion on the importance of Chanukah, it would go without saying that from all aspects – religious, historical and national, Chanukah has an important place in our tradition and implementation for all the Children of Israel – free people having their own land, culture and traditions and willing to undertake all risks to keep this freedom.

But even without going back in history for more than 2000 years, even today when we light the Chanukah candles and say the prayers we remember the miracles of G-d – the miracles that took place then, in this thme.

In our present days, when we try to be realistic and wouldn’t want to ‘believe’ in such happenings, it is important to remember and remind others that miracles do happen every day and we should be grateful for them - as we say in our prayer of “modim”: for Your miracles that take place each day for us ‘Al Nissecha SheB’chol Yom Imanu’.

In order to emphasize the importance of this message to our present times, I would like to recall and share with you two personal incidents that took place during the festival of Chanukah.

In the winter of 1974, it was after the Yom Kippur war and I was still serving in the army. My regiment was located south of the Suez Canal, close to the Egyptian line, in front of Ismaelia. On the fifth day of Chanukah, my regiment was placed on the front-line and I had to replace a releasing soldier that day. Before supper, when I wanted to light the Chanukah candles, I had to convince most of my reluctant comrades to join me in lighting them. Each one of them questioned the need and the importance of Chanukah-: why remember the miracles that took place ‘then’ in this time?, when they had such an important military task on hand the next day. On that same night, just before dawn, the Egyptians attacked – it was a miracle that the bullets scraped centimeters close to us, but none of us were injured and we all had a miraculous escape. All of us were so surprised and shocked on how we had all escaped this shower of attack. When morning came and I was doing my daily morning prayers and reading the Hallel for Chanukah and Rosh Chodesh Tevet, I felt as if King David was praying through me. And many of my comrades joined me in the Morning Prayer, asking for help and advice on how to put on the tefillin, say the blessing of the” Hagomel’. The next night, the seventh light of Chanukah, was lit with full participation from all the regiment, in true spirit of the miracle that had taken place and with no questions asked.

The other incident that I want to narrate relates to one of my neighbours in Modi’in and who is a high-ranked officer in the army. About five years ago, he became critically ill and was advised to undergo surgery with a minimum chance of success. We had been good neighbours to each other and were very concerned of his degrading health, praying for his recovery each day. On one Chanukah night, I received a call from his wife that he would like me to visit him in the hospital. I immediately left for the hospital, taking along with me a Chanukiah and two Chanukah candles. A pleasant surprise awaited me as I saw him in a miraculously better state – he insisted on getting up from his bed and lighting the candles and when we were saying the blessing of ”Shechiyanu ve kiemanu”, he uncontrollably burst out into tears. A few weeks later he was discharged from the hospital. At a special party held in honour of his recovery, my neighbour spoke about the lighting of the Chanukah candle as his true expression of belief of the personal miracle that had taken place.

To conclude, I will talk about the city of Modi’in, though presently I am located here in New Zealand as the Rabbi. As you know we moved to Modi’in about 10 years ago. While today’s Modi’in is called ‘The future city” , it was built on the foundation of the historical city of Modi’in- the city of the Macabees. If you ever go there and wander through the streets of this modern town, you can still feel the history of the Macabees – alongside your present. This is the big miracle that we see, remember and are thankful for each day.

Rabbi H. Dovrat