Hat tip: Ace
What better way to kick off the holiday than to link an article about "Green Hanukkia Campaign Sparks Ire." Yes, a bunch of crazed Israeli environmentalists want all Jews to light one less Hanukkah candle to cut down on carbon dioxide emissions.
For those of you who aren't familiar, on Hanukkah, Jews light an increasing number of candles on each night of Hanukkah. There is also a "Shamash" candle that is used to light the rest. So basically, one candle is lit on the first night (plus the Shamash), and it increases to eight (plus the Shamash) by the last night of the holiday. So the total number of candles lit is 45. So these green whack jobs want to light 37 instead?
Here's what some rabbis had to say, according to the article:
"The environmentalists should think about how much pollution is caused by one solitary diesel truck on the road," Ze'ev said. "They should be fighting the trucks instead of Judaism. This is so trivial, so anti-Jewish and so anti-religious that even the worst anti-Semites couldn't think of it. Just like the Helenists, they are trying to extinguish the flames of the Jewish soul."
United Torah Judaism MK Avraham Ravitz called the environmentalists "crazy people who are playing with the minds of innocent Jewish people." He said the campaign would only convince people who do not light candles anyway.
Note: MK = Member of Knesset, the Israeli Parliament
The Hellenist comparison is apt. Clearly, these anti-religious nuts have lost the true meaning of the holiday, and are picking a different deity (Gaia? Appropriately Greek!) of their own.
Somehow I think the "Hellenists" aren't exactly shomer Shabbat (keeping Sabbath). Why don't these idiots just sit a couple of extra hours in the dark?
