Hannukah Lights

This weekend we were busy and I did not get a chance to make an entry.
On Shabbat, we went to a Bar Mitzvah--we were ushers because N. is the next Bar Mitzvah. When Shabbat was over, I was busy with getting my e-mail caught up. Yesterday, I mopped the floors and cleaned the bathrooms while Bruce worked on preparing to put a new tub into our bathroom. But we did get up early yesterday to see the totally awesome conjunction of Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn. They rose at about 6:00 AM and were visible until just before sunrise on the south-eastern horizon.

Friday evening we had my daughter's gentleman-friend over for Shabbat dinner. I had baked him a pie since he helped with the tub last weekend. He came in and immediately asked why we don't have our "Hannukah Lights" on. (Our house had white twinkle-lights on the eaves when we bought it. We have not taken them down but neither have we ever used them. They are white light and would ruin night vision for astronomical observations). The conversation went like this:
A.: "Why don't you have your Hannukah lights on?"
Me: "They are not Hannukah lights and anyway Hannukah does not start until next week."
A.: Aw--why not turn them on? They are on the house."
Me: "We don't do that."
A.: "But why not?"
Me: "We don't do that."
And the conversation went on to other things.

The point here is not that A. was trying to get us to celebrate Christmas, but that A. does not understand what Hannukah is. I have noticed that Christians, whether nominal or religious, who celebrate Christmas according to the customs here in the United States, tend to think of Hannukah as sort of a Jewish version of Christmas. They may be somewhat aware of the story we tell about Hannukah (the miracle of the lights) but they do not get at all the meaning that Jews ascribe to that miracle. So here, in short, is an explanation of the meaning and purpose of the celebration of Hannukah.

Hannukah is a minor holiday (that is it was not biblically ordained) and it commemorates the victory of the Maccabees (a priestly family) in a guerilla war against the Selucid tyrant, Antioches IV (called Antioches Epiphanes--meaning Antioches who is god made manifest). That war was the end result of an assimilationist religious policy that Antioches mandated for all the nations of the Selucid empire. (This empire was ruled by Hellenized Syrians from Antioch). The purpose of the policy was to unite the empire under one religious system in which all subjects were required to pay homage to Antioches and were also free to worship their own gods as secondary deities. This was acceptable to most of the subject cities of the Selucids, but it was not acceptable to certain Jews in Judea and the Galilee. Many of the Jews living in these places were quite Hellenized--they spoke the Koine, they went to the gymnasium, and they even tolerated the command to make sacrifice in homage of the emperor twice a year. The high priests often also had Greek names (such as Jason or Alexander). For this reason, as the edicts came down from Antioch, the response of the Jews as a whole was to tolerate them, while secretly they called the emperor "Antiochus Epimanes" which means "Antiochus the fool." However, there were some Jews, such as the priestly family of Mattiyahu in Modi'in, Judea, whose tolerance was limited. When the emperor commanded that pigs be sacrificed in his honor in all of the temples of the Selucid empire (including Jewish synagogues and the Temple in Jerusalem), these Jews protested. Circumcision and the study of the Torah was then forbidden--which created an open rebellion by the sons of Mattiyahu, including Judah called Maccabee. After three years of war, Antioches gave up and the Maccabees became the rulers of Judea and the Galilee. They had missed the celebration of Sukkot (a major festival that lasts 8 days), so when they rededicated the temple (Hannukat ha-bayit), the proclaimed a holiday to last 8 days beginning on the 25th day of Kislev (approximately mid-winter in the Hebrew calendar). That is the holiday of Hannukah--meaning rededication. The story of the lights does not appear in the books of the Maccabees (which are NOT part of the Jewish Bible because they were written in Greek and not Hebrew). The miracle of lights is a Rabbinic midrash that appears in the Talmud, when the celebration of Hannukah was already customary among the Jews.

The meaning ascribed to the celebration of Hannukah is that of resistance to assimilation. We live among the nations but we have our own identity. We say the Al-Hanissim prayer during the eight days, reminding ourselves of "the miracles, wonders, and battles" which the Eternal "did for our ancestors in those days at this season." Those miracles, wonders, and battles resulted in the survival of our people as a people apart. Hannukah happens for eight days sometime between Thanksgiving and New Years Day on the western calendar. However, it is not even remotely related to Christmas--which is a major Christian Feast and also a major Madison-Avenue mid-winter Event. Religious Christians celebrate the Feast, but most secular Americans celebrate the Event. As a Jews, my family does neither, though we do recognize that our Christian neighbors are celebrating a major feast. I enjoy looking at the lights and I appreciate the joy Christians feel at this time. However, it is inappropriate for me, as a Jew, to keep Christmas as a Christian feast because I am not a Christian. It feels even more inappropriate for me, as a Jew, to celebrate the Event of Christmas, which has pagan roots and tends to ignore the religious aspect so important to my Christian neighbors.

Hannukah is a holiday during which Jews celebrate the right and responsibility to be who we are. In our celebration of Hannukah, we commemorate the miracle of our persistance as a people who have retained our identity despite the many times tyrants have tried to make us assimilate throughout our long history. For these reasons, I find it disingenuous to put up "Hannukah" lights or have a "Hannukah Bush" in my home. These assimilationist practices are contrary to the purpose of commemorating the victory of the Maccabees. As our rabbis taught us, that victory should not be remembered primarily as a military victory but as a victory of the Jewish spirit. The miracle of the lights is a metaphor for the miracle of the continued existence of the Jewish people as a people with a unique identity among the nations. At Hannukah, as we chant the blessings and sing the songs, I am reminded that it is my responsibility and my privilege to guard the stubborn flame of Jewish identity for my children and their children.