We are currently dealing with one of the most challenging and tense periods that the State of Israel has known in its 75 years of existence. Worried parents, children fighting on the front lines and millions of citizens who don't know what the day will bring. The Jewish people has known countless hardships and destructions in its history: the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the destruction of the Jews of Baghdad, the expulsion of France, England, Spain, the Holocaust of European Jewry and more. But alongside them, Israel's history is also characterized by many stories of reconstruction, growth and prosperity.
For example, in 1492 there was the expulsion from Spain, in which tens of thousands of Jews, who lost all their possessions, past and status, were brutally expelled and left the Iberian Peninsula for long wanderings penniless. Within not many years, communities of Spanish expellees arose around the world, absorbed by their brethren in the Diaspora or established thriving new communities from scratch.
Children preparing menorahs for IDF soldiers // Credit: Arnon Busani and Elad Cohen
Seeing the historical past is also our comfort and strength. These days, on the eve of Hanukkah – the great festival of light that we have been marking for almost 2,200 years, in memory of the miracles that happened to our ancestors in those days against the Greek enemy that no longer exists – we were privileged to survive and reestablish our home in our land. Indeed, this year turned from our secular, Simchat Torah, to a day of mourning and sacrifice, but it is important to remember that throughout the 3,700 years of Judaism we have proven that crises, no matter how difficult, only strengthen the spirit of the "phoenix," which is renewed from generation to generation and from disaster to revival.
On Simchat Torah night, the people of Israel rose up and shook off their ashes and ashes, and began to rebuild what the murderous terrorists had sown and destroyed in cold blood. And so, for two months, the people of Israel showed a generous spirit, a spirit of purity, and Jewish volunteers went on reserve duty, collecting the bodies and bringing them to Israel's grave, to make the soldiers and wounded happy, to evacuate the residents of the envelope to hotels, to feed the fighters. Endless and boundless generosity.
From now on and for future generations we will remember the Simchat Torah pogrom and the 1,200 of our brothers and sisters who were murdered for Kiddush Hashem - and in the same breath we will note the countless stories of miracles, sacrifice and heroism, some of the greatest in the history of mankind. The generosity and spirit of purity, and the ability of the people of Israel to reestablish themselves, to make the wilderness and desolation bloom, and to establish Yad Vashem for the saints.
Body camera footage of commandos from the fighting in Khan Yunis // IDF Spokesperson
During the eight days of Chanukah, we shine a light that symbolizes resistance to attempts to darken our world. The "darkness" - the Greek kingdom, which sought to bring down the curtain on the people of Israel and stop our existence. It is precisely here that light and goodness will multiply, and we will prove once again, as we have proven throughout thousands of years of history, that the eternity of Israel will not lie.
In the face of the forces of evil in every generation, and in our day against the Hamas oppressor, we will shine light and illuminate the darkness, and to the thousands of volunteers we will salute and say thank you. You have proven that the people of Israel are alive and well forever.
We believe that the advantage of light from darkness, because it is precisely out of the darkness and darkness that the haters of Israel sought to impose on us that we will illuminate the space and win, God willing.
The writer is an Israel Prize laureate and president of the Migdal Or institutions
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