When my brother was in kindergarten, where he was the only Jewish student, a
parent organizing enrichment activities asked my mother to tell the class the
story of Hanukkah. My mother obligingly brought in a picture book and began to
read about foreign conquerors who were not letting Jews in ancient Israel
worship freely, even defiling their temple, until a scrappy group led by the
Maccabee family overthrew one of the most powerful armies in the world and won
their liberty.
The woman was horrified. The Hanukkah story, she interrupted, was not about war.
It was about the miracle of an oil lamp that burned for eight days without
replenishing. She urged my mother to close the book. My mother refused. The woman wasn’t alone. Many Americans, Jews as well as
Christians, think that the legend of the long-lasting oil is the root of
Hanukkah’s commemoration. And perhaps that mistake is no surprise, given that
for many the holiday has morphed into “Christmas for Jews,” echoing the message
of peace on earth accompanied by gift giving. In doing so, the holiday’s own
message of Jewish survival and faith has been diluted.
Hanukkah is one of the most widely celebrated Jewish
holidays in America. But unlike Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Passover (or even
the lesser-known Sukkot and Shavuot), all of which are explicitly mentioned in
the Torah, Hanukkah gets only a brief, sketchy reference in the Talmud, the
voluminous collection of Jewish oral law and tradition written down hundreds of
years after the Maccabees’ revolt.
There for the first time the miracle of the oil is recorded: the ancient temple in Jerusalem held an eternal flame, but after the desecration by the foreign invaders — including the sacrificing of pigs, a non-kosher animal, on the altar — only one day’s worth of purified oil remained. Yet the faithful went ahead and lighted it. The oil burned in the rededicated temple for eight days, long enough for a new supply to arrive. Hence the practice of lighting candles for eight nights to observe Hanukkah, which means dedication in Hebrew. (Perhaps just as significantly, the reference to oil also gave rise to a holiday tradition of eating foods like potato pancakes and doughnuts that had been cooked in it.)
There for the first time the miracle of the oil is recorded: the ancient temple in Jerusalem held an eternal flame, but after the desecration by the foreign invaders — including the sacrificing of pigs, a non-kosher animal, on the altar — only one day’s worth of purified oil remained. Yet the faithful went ahead and lighted it. The oil burned in the rededicated temple for eight days, long enough for a new supply to arrive. Hence the practice of lighting candles for eight nights to observe Hanukkah, which means dedication in Hebrew. (Perhaps just as significantly, the reference to oil also gave rise to a holiday tradition of eating foods like potato pancakes and doughnuts that had been cooked in it.)
Though Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday, 19th-century
activists in America promoted it to encourage their coreligionists to take
pride in their heritage. During the 20th century it was embraced more broadly
by Jews who wanted to fit in with other Americans celebrating the holiday
season — and to make their kids feel better about not getting anything from
Santa. It helped, of course, that Hanukkah falls near
Christmas on the calendar and traditionally involved candles and small monetary
gifts. Over time, children began receiving grander presents, and
Hanukkah-themed season’s greeting cards proliferated. Some families even
started to purchase “Hanukkah bushes,” small trees often decked out with Stars
of David and miniature Maccabees.
By the 1980s, when I was a child, menorahs had been placed next to mangers in the public square and Hanukkah songs had been incorporated into winter holiday concerts. Despite this recognition, I still felt excluded enough to brag to classmates that my holiday was better than Christmas, since it had eight days of gift giving, instead of one. While elevating Hanukkah does a lot of good for children’s morale, ignoring or sanitizing its historical basis does a great disservice to the Jewish past and present.
By the 1980s, when I was a child, menorahs had been placed next to mangers in the public square and Hanukkah songs had been incorporated into winter holiday concerts. Despite this recognition, I still felt excluded enough to brag to classmates that my holiday was better than Christmas, since it had eight days of gift giving, instead of one. While elevating Hanukkah does a lot of good for children’s morale, ignoring or sanitizing its historical basis does a great disservice to the Jewish past and present.
The original miracle of Hanukkah was that a committed
band of people led a successful uprising against a much larger force, paving
the way for Jewish independence and perhaps keeping Judaism itself from
disappearing. It’s an amazing story, resonant with America’s own founding, that
offers powerful lessons about standing up for one’s convictions and challenging
those in power. Many believe the rabbis in the Talmud recounted the
miracle of the light alongside the military victory because they did not want
to glorify war. That in itself is an important teaching, as are the holiday’s
related messages of renewal, hope and turning away from darkness.
But it’s a story with dark chapters as well, including
the Maccabean leaders’ religious zealotry, forced conversions and deadly
attacks on their neighbors. These transgressions need to be grappled with. And
that is precisely what the most important Jewish holidays do: Jews on Passover
spill out wine from their glasses to acknowledge Egyptian suffering caused by
the 10 plagues, and congregations at Rosh Hashana read and struggle with God’s
order to Abraham to bind his son Isaac as a sacrifice. If we’re going to magnify Hanukkah, we should do so
because it offers the deeper meaning and opportunity for introspection that the
major Jewish holidays provide.
No comments:
Post a Comment