Something about that meme struck me. Perhaps it's the reduction of the concept to standing on a single foot. Or maybe it's the juxtaposition of ancient and modern. Whatever it is, on a very gut level it's ultimately very wrong.
Hanukkah is not much of a religious holiday. It's more political than anything else, miracle of the lasting lights not withstanding. So, here's the short version of what happened.
They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat.
Okay, that's a little too flip. Let's try a slightly longer version. Here's a brief academic timeline from Wikipedia:
- 198 BCE: Armies of the Seleucid King Antiochus III (Antiochus the Great) oust Ptolemy V from Judea and Samaria.[29]
- 175 BCE: Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) ascends the Seleucid throne.[49]
- 168 BCE: Under the reign of Antiochus IV, the second Temple is looted, Jews are massacred, and Judaism is outlawed.[50]
- 167 BCE: Antiochus orders an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. Mattathias and his five sons John, Simon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Judah lead a rebellion against Antiochus. Judah becomes known as Judah Maccabee ("Judah the Hammer").
- 166 BCE: Mattathias dies, and Judah takes his place as leader. The Hasmonean Jewish Kingdom begins; It lasts until 63 BCE.
- 165 BCE: The Jewish revolt against the Seleucid monarchy is successful in recapturing the Temple, which is liberated and rededicated (Hanukkah)
Add to that the idea that there are sources who suspect Antiochus IV was really trying to quash an internal civil war between the Maccabean Jews and the more Hellanized Jews and got caught in the middle. Extrapolate, kids. Sound a little familiar, does it?????
Unlike the High Holy Days of the Fall, plus Sukkot (Tabernacles,) Pesach (Passover,) and Shavuot (Pentecost,) all of which appear in the Torah and have work prohibitions (as in observant Jews go to synagogue, not work nor school) Hanukkah does not have that same status. Since it's not in the Torah, and not recorded into the canon until quite late, there are some Jews, like Beta Israel of Ethiopia, who are Biblical Jews or Pre-Rabbinic Jews, who were unaware of anything after Written Law (Torah) until modernity stepped in. But I digress. This holiday is unlike the others. It's about a revolt, a political and military victory, and it's about reunification of Jews in Jerusalem. It's a holiday of re-dedication.
There are a couple of big take-aways from this story.
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| The Merneptah Stele |
- The first is that all this happened at the Second Temple... before Jesus was born and long before Mohammed was born. Which kinda reinforces the idea that Jews were living there, building there, worshiping there, and periodically operating their own country there in between invasions, exiles, and assorted disasters. This little stele is from the the Iron Age, circa 1209 B.C.E and is the earliest recorded use of the word ISRAEL to define a separate nation. We've been around the neighborhood for a while.
- They did try to kill us and we won. Now, it's entire possible there was an internal struggle going down at the same time, but have you ever known Jews not to argue amongst themselves? You've heard the old joke, two Jews, three Temples...one they can both agree they'd never set foot in. This kind of fight, however, was more serious. It also makes me wonder if this particular fight will ever end. It's still going on, in different forms, today. In Israel. But that's another story.
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| Spoils of Jerusalem, Arch of Titus, circa 82 CE This is a menorah from the Temple with 7 branches. |
If you're lighting a Hanukiah (that thing most people incorrectly call a menorah,) you are marking the time when the Second Temple was taken back from the Greeks and rededicated. This is a joyous time, but it doesn't hurt to consider how this observance came to be. We are celebrating freedom from tyranny...albeit temporarily...and we are celebrating self-determination. We are standing tall as Jews. Period. We are what we are. Jews have spent TWO millennia fighting off attempts to assimilate us into the collective. And when we didn't eagerly assimilate, they stuffed us in ghettos and gas chambers.
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| The hanukiah from Grandma Sarah and Grandpa Moishe's house. I am generation 3. |
If you're lighting a Hanukiah because you are observing Hanukkah, it's because you are the product of generations of people who refused to give in. Don't just light it because you think you're supposed to. Light it to be proud of the strength of will and lineage that has gotten you to this moment.
If you're lighting a Hanukiah because you think this is some sort of symbolic Jew thing your grandmother said you should always do, well, you're right. It is symbolic. But consider this: does being a Jew mean anything to you?
If you're lighting a Hanukiah because you think this is some sort of symbolic Jew thing your grandmother said you should always do, well, you're right. It is symbolic. But consider this: does being a Jew mean anything to you?
Maybe this year, instead of going through a rote ritual, you'll pause to consider why you're lighting those candles in the first place.
Did the Jews of Germany and Austria even had the same thoughts? Was there a moment they knew they were in trouble? When they lit their Hanukiahs, did it ever occur to them that this was an act of defiance? I know it did later, in the ghettos and the camps, but when the storm clouds were on the horizon, did anyone recognize them for what they were?
If you are a Jew and are not lighting a Hanukiah this year, for whatever reasons, it does not absolve you from being one of us. When push comes to shove, you'll still be considered a Jew.
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
You didn't have to agree with President George H.W. Bush's policies,
(I sure didn't)
but he was a class act.
Maybe the last of his kind.
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