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Rabbi Yehuda {Leonard} Blank MS, BCC
Vice President of Professional Development and External Affairs
Chair of the Chaplaincy Commission
Rabbinical Alliance of America/Igud HaRabbonim
917-446-2126 rablenblank@gmail.com
*December 18, 2025, 28, Kislev, 5786*
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There is so much strife, so much hatred and ill feelings between and amongst people throughout the world. There doesn’t seem to be room for understanding, for kindness, for empathy, or for any goodness. One wonders what has happened to humanity. Antisemitism continues to show us it’s ugly face this time with such senseless acts of violence by terrorists with the death of 15 innocent men, women and children in Australia during a Chanukah event for no other reason than the victims were Jewish. There doesn’t seem to be an end to such senseless acts of hatred against us the Jewish people. What response can we give, what actions can we take, what should we do.
Chanukah is a celebration of religious freedom. It is a celebration of being able to be mekayeim all that our Torah represents. Chanukah is also a time to remember the mesiras nefesh of those who under difficult and challenging times kept the mitzvos and how the Maccabees with Matisyahu and many others fought for religious freedom and to be proud Jews. We know the story of Chanukah and the miracles that occurred. An immense challenge was bringing Klal Yisrael together under the banner of Judaism. The following was the response by the father-in-law of Rabbi Eli Shlanger, one victim of the terror attack in Australia. Matzav
Father-In-Law of Sydney Victim Calls for Chizuk and Achdus After Terror Attack
December 15, 2025
[Video at this link.] Sydney’s Rabbi Yehoram Ulman delivered a stirring message of resolve and unity during Shacharis in the aftermath of the devastating terror attack that left 15 people murdered.
Overcome with emotion, Rabbi Ulman at one point broke down and recited “Baruch dayan haemes.”
Among those killed was his own son-in-law, Rabbi Eli Schlanger Hy”d.
Addressing the congregation, Rabbi Ulman framed the tragedy as a call to action rather than retreat. “For whatever reason, they died al kiddush hashem,” he said.
He stressed that the victims’ legacy now rests with the living. “And now, they’re looking to us to continue, to make sure that everything they worked for, everything that they’ve done, continues stronger and stronger,” he said. Warning against surrendering to fear, he added, “We cannot allow terrorists – all they want to do is stifle our life as Jews, all they want to do is… bring us down, destroy us, make us despondent, lose hope.”
Rabbi Ulman acknowledged the emotional paralysis many feel in the wake of the attack but rejected it as an option. “At the moment, it seems, how can we go forward? How can we continue? But that’s not what any of the kedoshim would have ever agreed to. They never would have reacted in such a way, and we have to step up and do the same. We have no choice.”
Concluding his remarks, he appealed for unity within the Jewish people during this painful moment. “We have to remember that now is the time to be as much [in] achdus as possible, united.”
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From the Jewish Views December 10 – December 16, 2025. “Chanukah: Days of Compassion.” By Rabbi Eli Mansour. “The Gemara in Masechet Shabbat (21b) tells the story of the Chanukah miracle, and then adds that “Le’shana Aheret”- the next year – the Rabbis established Chanukah as an annual celebration. The clear implication is that the Rabbis did not institute the holiday of Chanukah immediately after the miraculous triumph over the Greeks and the miracle of the oil of the Menorah. The decision to establish this holiday was made only the next year. Why?
Rav Moshe Yechiel Epstein of Ozorov (1889-1971), in his Be’er Moshe, explains that the Rabbis waited to see if the spiritual powers that existed during the time of the miracles returned the following year. H has performed and continues to perform many miracles for Am Yisrael, but special holidays are instituted to commemorate only a small number of these miracles. A holiday is instituted only if the Rabbis sensed that each year, on the date when the miracle occurred, the spiritual forces that facilitated the miracle return, empowering us to achieve what our ancestors achieved at the time of the original story. During the Chanukah story, the Be’er Moshe writes, the Jews were blessed with a special element of divine compassion and grace. The vast majority of the nation had assimilated, succumbing to the immense pressure placed on them by the Greeks to abandon their faith and embraced Greek culture. Only a very small group of Jews retained their commitment to Torah. H showered the people with exceptional mercy and grace, providing them with miraculous assistance that they did not deserve. Despite having assimilated almost completely, H enabled them to defeat the Greek’s and then sustained the lamps of the menorah in miraculous fashion. The following year, the Rabbi sensed that this unique grace and compassion returned, that H brought us this special gift, the opportunity to receive underserved kindness and assisted one again. At that point, the Rabbis instituted the annual celebration of Chanukah.
Indeed, the Arizal (Rav Yishak Luria, 1534-1572) taught that the thirteen words that comprise the first bracha recited over the Chanukah lighting (according to Sephardic custom) correspond to H’s thirteen Middot Rahamim – attributes of mercy. Each word of the Beracha is associated with a different Midda. On each of the first seven days of Chanukah, we receive an especially large measure of one of the thirteen attributes, and on the eighth and final day of Chanukah, we are showered with an abundance of all the remaining attributes, from the eighth through the thirteenth. (This is why the eighth day of Chanukah is especially significant and sacred day in Kabbalistic tradition.) The days of Chanukah are not just a time to commemorate and express gratitude for the miracles that H performed for our ancestors. This is, of course, the basic purpose of Chanukah, but in addition, this is a time of great compassion, when H bestows upon us undeserved grace and kindness. This is a precious time to beseech G for all that we need, for the assistance that we require. Just as H graced our ancestors with undeserved kindness, granting them a miraculous victory, so is He prepared to shower us with this same element of kindness.
Let us take advantage of this special opportunity by turning to H in sincere, heartfelt prayer, and humbly beseeching Him for undeserved kindness and compassion, that we be blessed with all that we need, even if we are unworthy of it.”
Those who died in the terror attack in Australia died Al Kiddush H, just because they were Jewish. It did not matter what their affiliation might have been. They had one thing in common, they were Jewish!
May we all have compassion. May we all find goodness and kindness in each other. May we all continue to love H as H loves us. May we continue to feel strongly about the essence of Am Yisrael Chai, Chaveirim Kol Yisrael,
Sincerely, Rabbi Yehuda Blank