Hanukkah is more than candles and latkes

This year, Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa will overlap and many Americans will be celebrating important holidays at the same time. While Hanukkah is not as important to Judaism as Christmas is to Christians, the historical events associated with Hanukkah have great relevance today.

The events of Hanukah occurred in the world of Greek domination and the assimilation of Greek culture. Every nation that came under Greek rule became enthralled with Greek culture. Amazing cultural synthesis occurred in which Greek forms were adopted and adopted to many other cultures. The Jews and Judaism were also greatly influenced by this trend. In a very real sense, the Greek or Hellenistic world of the second century BCE was the first multicultural civilization in human history.

The challenge facing the Jewish people, as well as others, was how Greek could one be and still be authentically Jewish. Of course Judaism in that period was still Biblical, with a Temple in Jerusalem, a priesthood and a worship system based on offerings of animals and produce to God. Greek culture was extremely powerful and seductive and Jews took Greek names, learned to speak and read Greek, and began to develop the arts and sciences we know as Greek culture. And then, political and military considerations bought the process into a crisis.

When the two major Hellenistic dynasties, the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Assyria, began to wage war, the Jewish people were caught in the middle. As the Jewish leadership classes submitted more and more to the demands of the Assyrian Greeks, the Jewish populace revolted. The Assyrians invaded, seized and defiled the Holy Temple and a guerilla war ensued and lasted for more than two decades.

Chanukah celebrates the victory of the Jewish people in recapturing and rededicating the Temple in the year 165 BCE. If not for this victory, and the ultimate victory of the Jewish people years later, Judaism would not have survived and who knows if Christianity would have emerged. Thus, the victory of the Jewish people in preserving Judaism has universal significance. We hope that all our neighbors will rejoice in the survival of Judaism when they see the lighted menorahs in our windows. And we wish everyone the blessings of peace that flow from mutual respect and appreciation. Happy Holidays.

Rabbi Art Vernon is the rabbi at the Jewish Community Center of West Hempstead