Month: November 2021

Hanukkah 5781

A great miracle took place: In the 2nd century BCE, Judea was ruled by the Seleucids (Greco-Syrians), who wanted to force the Jews to deny the Torah and accept Greek culture and beliefs. But a small group of Jews, led by the Maccabee family, defeated them, drove them out of the country, and purified the Temple. When they tried to light the seven-branched candelabra, they found only one vial of undefiled olive oil. However, they lit it, and the oil barely enough for a day lasted eight days. To commemorate and make known these miracles the Sages instituted the festival of Chanukkah.

Diffusion of light: The synagogue in Kazan (Tatarstan, Russia) was built in 1915. In 1920, it was confiscated by the Soviet authorities. A portrait of Lenin will even be incorporated into the walls. Gradually the synagogue is deteriorating. When it is returned to the local Jewish community in 1996, it will be in a state of disrepair. A few years later, a renovation is undertaken, which will be completed in September 2015.

A hanukkiah was placed in front of the building.

Parashat Vayeshev (וישב – And he settled down), Genesis 37:1-40:23

Genesis 39:1
וְיוֹסֵף, הוּרַד מִצְרָיְמָה; וַיִּקְנֵהוּ פּוֹטִיפַר סְרִיס פַּרְעֹה שַׂר הַטַּבָּחִים, אִישׁ מִצְרִי, מִיַּד הַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים, אֲשֶׁר הוֹרִדֻהוּ שָׁמָּה
Joseph was taken to Egypt. Putiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, chief executor, an Egyptian,
 bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

Joseph’s business.
The Shaar HaChamaïm (Gate of Heaven) synagogue in Cairo was built between 1905 and 1907 and financed by the neighborhood’s Cairo families. The building was imagined in an Egyptian historicist style by the architects Edward Matasek and Maurice Yossef Cattaui, The latter was the nephew of Joseph Aslan Cattaui Pasha, businessman, Egyptian politician and president of the Jewish community of Cairo from 1924 to 1942. In 1980, it was restored with funding from the Sephardic Jewish community in Geneva. It is the largest synagogue in Cairo.

Parashat Vayishlach (וַיִּשְׁלַח – And he sent), Genesis 32-4, 36-43.

The haftarah is read in the book of Ovadia (עֹבדיה – the one who the servant of Lord).
This book consists of only 21 verses, making it the shortest Torah scroll. He foretells the revenge that the children of Israel will take on the kingdom of Edom.
Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg in East Prussia, is a city located in the Russian territorial enclave, between Poland and Lithuania.
The Synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis during the Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938 – Cheshvan 16, 5699). Rebuilt, it was inaugurated on November 10, 2018. It has regained its splendor (hadar – הדר – splendor, majesty. Hadar is also the name of the last king of Edom, Genesis 36-39).