Searching for Light in Dark Times

Friday December 19, 2025/29 Kislev 5786/Shabbat Hanukkah

Hevre/Friends,

15 people murdered. More than 40 injured. The losses of love, friendships, community are impossible to quantify. But there’s another loss from the Sydney terrorist attack that’s even harder to assess. 

The images are so incongruous: in Sydney, a man rushes to tackle the shooter, wresting the gun from his hands and neutralizing him. With his white shirt and black slacks, the hero might have easily been confused for a Chabad man. But no. Ahmed el Ahmed, a Muslim, risked his life not because “his” people were being attacked, but because “people” were being attacked. Period.

A day later, on a subway in Manhattan, two young Chabadniks were physically harassed by two assailants - one choked - as a car full of passengers either looked on passively or kept their heads down. No heroes in New York City that day. Sadly, we’ve seen that reel many times before.

In today’s often unruly and violent society, many of us just try to get where we’re going and do our thing without drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves. The prevalence of guns and weapons makes us all wary of unstable characters around us, lest we trigger them in any way and find ourselves being shot at or stabbed.

Notwithstanding the inspiring acts of defiance following the Sydney shooting when Jews around the world gathered for public Hanukkah lightings, refusing to hide or diminish Jewish pride in the face of such hatred, many of us find ourselves in complicated territory. The short clip below of an Australian mother agonizing over whether to keep her family’s public-facing Hanukkiah lit as her children panic over being targeted is deeply affecting. 

We want our children to live proudly as Jews. But we also want to teach them to protect themselves from the aggressive hatefulness of antisemites. Where is the line between self-preservation and moral abdication? Between courage and recklessness?

The Hanukkah story of Hannah and her seven sons dying as Jewish martyrs rather than submitting to the perverse demands of King Antiochus remains marginal to most people’s understanding of the holiday. What is more commonly known and celebrated is how Judaism is a tradition of life, meant to enlighten the world as to the infinite value and dignity of all human beings. There is no more important cause for which we labour. Our enemies glorify death. It’s one of the most pronounced differences that accounts not just for the cultural chasms between us, but our opposing military strategies.

Sociologists’ research shows that in times of crisis more people than we think overcome fear and hesitation and run towards, rather than away from, danger. Interestingly, our brave and compassionate tradition teaches us both to protect the vulnerable and to protect ourselves. We’re taught to never stand idly by the blood of our fellow human beings, and, in a famous teaching by Rabbi Akiva about two people walking in the desert with only enough water to sustain one person, to preserve our own safety even sometimes at the expense of someone else’s. 

No one is in a position to judge another over their willingness or reluctance to put themselves or their loved ones at risk. Had I been on Bondi beach that day with my kids or grandkids, I admit that I would probably have searched for a way for us to escape the chaos before seeing if I could disarm the shooter. There were others - Jewish and not - who tried to intervene, some of whom paid the ultimate price by being shot and killed, and others who are left with life-changing injuries. When you think about it, what do you imagine you would have done? How do you teach the next generation about their responsibilities to fellow human beings and the importance of protecting themselves?

The loss of life in Sydney is beyond tragic. The painful loss of moral clarity in a relentlessly violent, hate-filled world, is a tragedy whose toll is ongoing. May the Hanukkah lights help illuminate these dark times and keep the flames of our Jewish - and human - pride kindled.

With continued prayers for the return of the last murdered hostage, Ran Gvili, for the bereaved and the injured in Sydney, and with blessings for a Shabbat Shalom and an enlightened Hanukkah,

Dini

Photo by Ronen Avisror