A Hanukkah message

What is Hanukkah? Our Rabbis taught: the 25th of the Hebrew month of Kislev begins the commemoration of Hanukkah, eight days during which it is forbidden to lament the dead or to fast. For when the Greeks entered the Sanctuary they contaminated all the oils which were therein, and when the kingdom of the Hasmonean house rose up and defeated them, they searched and found only a single vial of oil which had been left with the seal of the High Priest (and had therefore not been contaminated). There was only enough oil to light for one day. And a miracle was done as the oil lasted for eight days. The following year they fixed these eight festive days, with praise and thanksgiving.

The Talmudic passage basically paraphrases Megillat Ta’anit, an ancient document which lists a variety of days throughout the Hebrew calendar (all told some forty in number) that were marked by a certain degree of joy and festivity.

What is missing here? The passage only makes one small reference to the war conducted by the Hasmoneans against the Greek authorities which restored Jewish sovereignty, thereby giving the Jews the opportunity to once again live their lives according to their ancient traditions and enabling them to observe the Sabbath, practice circumcision and the laws of kashrut to name a few.

And so every Hanukkah we return to the same old debate as to whether the holiday is “essentially” a festival of national liberation or one of religious devotion and commitment. The religionists, especially the more pious, argue one way and the Zionists, or those who interpret Jewishness primarily as “identity”, “ethnicity”, or “civilization,” argue the other way.

The truth (as I perceive it) is that Hanukkah is really both: it manifests both the religious and the national aspects of Judaism. Hence the Maccabean victory was at one and the same time a blow struck for what we call Jewish religion as well as for Jewish national identity and political autonomy. The fact that different Jewish communities have found various different meanings by which to define Hanukkah drives home the truth about all religious rituals. They thrive only as long as they deliver meaning to people and so they have a venue by which to externalize deeply felt concerns. Often when we are attached to a ritual such as the lighting of the menorah we infuse it with “our” special meaning.