A Wort on Chanukah by Rav Shimon SCHWAB And Zionist-Religious Hate-Reaction from Inside his Kehilla

 

A Wort on Chanukah by Rav Shimon SCHWAB

And Zionist-religious Hate-Reaction from Inside his Kehilla 

  We will see below how Rav SCHWAB was unable to even say a simple dvar Torah, without mentioning Zionism or applying it to any real-life situation, that the Jews in the days of the Chashmonaim would never go to war to reclaim the Bais Hamikdash that was conquered and defiled by the Greeks, without being harassed and called a terrorist-lover.

 R. Shimon SCHWAB once said a vort on Chanukah for his kehillah: We describe in the Al Hanissim prayer the sequence of events that transpired on Chanukah. We start by saying the Greeks tried to force us to give up Torah and mitzvos, then the Jews rebelled, the many and the strong were defeated by the few and de weak, and there was great salvation. Then we say, “And afterwards” (v’achar kein), the Jewish people went to the Bais Hamikdash and purified it, etc.? Question: Why do we interrupt the narrative with the phrase “and afterwards”? Why can we not simply continue the sequence of events by saying there was a military victory and then they went to the Bais Hamikdash, etc. ? Why do we add in that extra phrase of “vachar kein”?

 R. SCHWAB answered that we do this to ensure that nobody should think the reason the Jews went to war in the days of the Chashmonaim was in order to reclaim the Bais Hamikdash. It would not be worth going to war to reclaim territory, even our Bais Hamikdash. One Jewish life is worth more than all the land in the world, including the Bais Hamikdash. There is only one reason the Jews would go to war against the Greeks – because the Greeks wanted “to make them forget Your Torah and violate You mitzvos”. We went to war because of the shmad. Not for political or territorial reasons. Only when the war was over – after “You handed over the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, wicked ones into the hands of those who are busy with Your Torah” – only after the war was over, and it was safe, did we approach the Bais Hamikdash and purify it. That is why we insert the phrase “v’achar kein” between the war narrative and the purification of the Bais Hamikdash. Part one: There was a war, and we won. Achar kein – after that part of the narrative was over – ba’u banecha, we came to purify the Bais Hamikdash.

 R. SCHWAB said this during Chanukah, which occurs around the same time of year as a Christian holiday. And so, shortly after his said this vort, R. SCHWAB received a Christmas card in the mail. On the cover, right under the “Merry Christmas” banner, the sender(s) wrote “To our Dear Friend, Rabbi SCHWAB.” Inside, it said “From your good friends, Gamal Nasser, Idi Amin, Ayatollah Khomeini.”[1]

 Source: Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro “  THE EMPTY WAGON – Zionism’s Journey from identity crisis to identity theft ” NY 2018 – available in the better Judaica Store.

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[1 Heard from Rav SCHWAB. (the identity of the particular Arab leaders whose names were affixed to the letter are described here to the best of my memory.)

This was not the only time Rav SCHWAB was called an anti-Semite by religious Zionists because of his opposition to Zionism.