The first candle was lit on Sunday, the first day of one of Judaism’s biggest holidays, Hanukkah, on the menorah in Budapest’s Nyugati Square.
Shlomo Köves, Chief Rabbi of EMIH — The Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities, said that believing in miracles does not work counter to action, it is a precondition.
„If we work for a miracle, then there will be a miracle”
– he said.
He stressed that the Hungarian Jewish community knows that the last 25-30 years are a real miracle. It is a miracle that today in Hungary they can proudly live their religion and their faith; however, for this miracle to take place, above all, they were needed themselves, they themselves had to take action.
Shlomo Köves recalled that 25 years ago, as a 19-year-old young man, he imagined the miracle of the day when celebrating Hanukkah would become completely natural in Budapest and in Hungary. He imagined the miracle that his children at school would no longer be ashamed to say that it was Hanukkah, not Christmas, in their country.
He added that he had imagined this miracle and then, together with nine other young people, thought it was time to make it happen. It was time to have a public Hanukkah celebration in Budapest, on Nyugati Square, then in other parts of the city and later in several rural towns.
„Twenty-five years on, the miracle has happened.”
– he added.
The Chief Rabbi of EMIH said that Hanukkah also teaches us not only to hope for a miracle, but also to do something about it.
„The small army of Maccabean freedom fighters took on the oppressive Greeks; thus, the miracle of defeating them could happen. Then they went into the temple in Jerusalem to purify it of idols and light the flames of the menorah. Then the second miracle happened, that the little oil they found lit the sanctuary for not one but eight days, just long enough for the new oil to be prepared,” added Shlomo Köves.
Balázs Fürjes, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, wished the Jewish communities of Hungary a happy holiday on behalf of the Government, and emphasized that the Christian and Jewish communities, the people of the Old Testament and the people of the New Testament, are somewhere deeply one.
„Our peoples and our religions come from the same root”
– he said.
He said he was deeply convinced that there will come a time when „we will be completely one, but we can already say that there is much more that unites us than divides us.”
According to Balázs Fürjes, two questions must be asked on the celebration of miracles: Do we believe in miracles and what is needed for a miracle?
The first question is important because if you don’t believe in miracles, you will never have a miracle. The second condition for a miracle is action, and the third is grace, the action of the eternal,” he added.
The state secretary wished the Jewish community to be strengthened in what it must do on this holiday as well, and to have the freedom to accept God’s will.
„I wish the entire community, individually and collectively, to believe in miracles”
– Balázs Fürjes added.
