As I am writing this monthly message to you it is snowing, with light wisps of snow sticking in the trees outside of the synagogue, making for quite a beautiful display of the beauty of God’s Creation!

The highlight of this wintery February is the celebration of Purim. Of course, we have, as we do each year, planned all the usual festivities that surround Purim: music, jokes, costumes and general rejoicing—but behind the frolic of Purim there is a serious message. The story in the Book of Esther and the plot of the Persian Foreign Minister, Haman, to destroy the Jewish people, is a reminder of the oldest and most prevalent hatred in the history of the world—anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism has been with civilisation literally since the beginning of Jewish history, as the first chapter in the book of Exodus tells us of Pharaoh’s hatred of the Israelites in his midst, propagandising to his people, telling the Egyptians that the Israelites were “too numerous”, “taking over”...perhaps an early reference to the anti-Semite’s canard of the “Jewish lobby”?

This is the month of Hanukkah, our celebration of the victory of the Maccabees in 165 BCE over their pagan oppressors who, led by Seleucid Emperor, Antiochus Epiphanes IV, attempted to persecute and forbid the practice of Judaism in the Empire. The Maccabean revolt, which began in 167 BCE, marked the first time in human history when any group resisted the political authorities of any pagan domain for the right to practice religion in freedom.

The whole congregation got up close and personal with a Torah scroll as it was unrolled during the celebrations:

Chatan Bereshit Ben Wolf (left) and Chatan Torah Joe Brookes (right) hold up the scroll:

Dear Friends,

We are in the last month of the calendar year, the month of Elul, which, in the Jewish tradition, is devoted to an intensive period of introspection, called “heshbon hanefesh” (accounting of our souls). It is this month we try to clarify life’s goals, remove all facades, engage in the toughest issues that confront us as individuals, as a community, as a people and as a world, with the goal of bringing us closer to God.