Hanukkah greetings from Rabbi Caroline Sim

Hanukkah is known as the Festival of Lights. It tells the story of the Maccabees, ancient Israelite revolutionaries who win independence from the oppressive rule of the Syrian Greeks. However, even after they successfully drive out the Syrian Greeks, the Jews are not left with a complete victory. The Syrian Greeks ransacked the Temple while they held Jerusalem, destroying sacred objects and defiling sacred spaces. In the aftermath, the Israelites come together to clean up the Temple to resume worship there, but find that there is only enough oil left for a single day’s worth of light. The miracle we celebrate during Hanukkah is that this oil lasted eight days – enough time for new oil to be found and brought into the Temple, so worship could resume.

But why did the Jews need oil in the first place? Many of us are familiar with the special menorah (called a chanukiah) associated with Hanukkah. It has eight branches to commemorate the eight days of the miracle. So what did the Jews need the oil for before the miracle?

We often don’t think about this, but before there were cell phones, watches, and clocks, it was hard to keep track of time. The ancient Israelites used a menorah (a candelabrum with seven branches) in the Temple to keep track of the day of the week, using one light for each day. This way, they would know which day was Shabbat. Part of the miracle of Hanukkah is that instead of one day, the oil lasted a week and a day - enough to know what day was Shabbat, to be able to celebrate it properly, and to get back into a normal cycle of the week, a normal cycle of daily life, in the wake of the chaos of war.

Make no mistake: win or lose, right or wrong, ancient or modern, war is chaos. It disrupts daily life. It makes us alter how we conduct ourselves, and what we consider to be appropriate or inappropriate action. It wreaks physical destruction on the world around us, and spiritual destruction on our souls and psyches. It robs us of our loved ones through service or sacrifice.

When we tell our stories of wars, we concentrate on the struggle, on victory or defeat. Rarely do we go into the aftermath, the fallout, the rebuilding that inevitably follows conflict. For me, one of the enduring miracles of Hanukkah is that after the conflict, the Israelites were confronted with something devastating – the desecration of the Temple – and instead of despairing or giving up, the Israelites came together as a community and did their best to put things back together. Although they only found one cruse of oil, they lit the menorah, even knowing that it wouldn’t be enough. Because it was the action of lighting the menorah anyway, keeping the faith, that was the important part, not how much oil they could find. Many focus on God’s answering miracle extending the days the menorah could be lit. But one thing we should keep in mind when we light our own Hanukkah lights is the resilience and endurance demonstrated by the ancient Israelites. We should remember their courage, not just in battle, but in reconstructing and living life after.