Shabbos Chanukah: Then and Now

“Then I’ll complete with a song of mizmor, the Chanukas HaMizbeiach.” (Maoz Tzur)

WE

generally commemorate two nissim on Chanukah: the oil, and the victory. But the Rema adds another: Chanukas HaMizbeiach.

The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 52b) says that the Yevanim desecrated all the Keilim of the Beis Hamikdash. Therefore, they had to build a new Mizbeiach. Yet the Rambam says that on the 25th of Kislev they were still fighting. Although they won the war that day, there was no time then for building a Mizbeiach. So what Chanukas Hamizbeiach is the Rema referring to? (Rav Yisrael Reisman, Shiurim al Chumash)

It doesn’t take much to transport me back to that winter morning, Chanukah 2011. The ambulance was speeding along, its sirens wailing, as it navigated snarled traffic en route to the hospital. I was alone in the back with only the Arab attendant, my husband waiting for me at the hospital.

I was petrified, my hands shaking as I sat on the stretcher and I gripped its sides as the ambulance swung in a tight turn. I was only in my eighth month and already in labor. Hurry! Hurry! I pressed my feet against the floor as if I was flooring the gas pedal.

I can’t lose this baby. I can’t. Baby! Baby, I’ve carried you and loved you and please, hang on a little bit more. You’re going to be fine. Please, baby. Be fine.

Then I was there, my husband waiting for me, and I was rushed into an emergency birth. I got one quick glimpse of my precious boy before they whisked him up to the NICU… ruddy cheeks, dark eyes. My baby. He was alive.