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The Hanuka Festival- a Guipe, Forthe Restof Us

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The Hanuka Festival- a Guipe, Forthe Restof Us , NEWLYREVISED edition, -' i -'riffi:';,'i;,;',;,' tikf)ian'biiii,:f;'"' THE HANUKA FESTIVAL- A GUIPE, FORTHE RESTOF US by Hershl Hartman, vegyayzer A few words before we begin... Jews, both adults and children, even those from culturally consciousor religiously observant homes, cannot be convinced that khanikeis a reasonable substitute for the tinsel, glitter and sentimentality that surround Xmas, the American version of Christmasthat has virtually engulfed the world. Accordingly, it is nof the purpose of this work to help project khanikeas an "alternative Xmas" but, rather, to provide non-observantJewish families with a factual understanding of the festival'sorigins and traditions so that it may be celebratedmeaningfully and joyously in its own right. Why "...for the rest of us"? Increasingly,American Jews are identifying with their ethnic culture,rather than with the Jewishreligion. At the sametime, Hanuka is being projected more aggressivelyas a religiousholiday, focused on the "Miracle of the Lights," purporting to celebrate"history's first victorious struggle for religious freedom," to quote the inevitable editorial in your local newspaper.Actually, as we shall see, Hanuka is nothing of the sort. l'he issuesof "religious freedom" vs. "national liberation"vs. "multicultural rights" wereactually confronted back in the secondcentury B.C.E.,albeit with other terminology.'l'hisbooklet seeksto separate fact from fanry so that those who identify with Jewishculture will not feel excluded from celebratingthe festival. Now, about the matter of spelling. 1'he "right" way to spell it is: il!'tJrt.What is 'l'he the "best" way to transliteratethe Hebrew into English? earliest"official" form was Chanukah or its inexplicablevariants: Channukah and Chanukkah. Hearing non-speakersof Yiddish or Hebrew saying "tcha-noo-ka"convinced the arbitersof these things to try Hanuka and ifs variegatedversions: Hanukah, Hanrtukah, Hanukkah, etc.None of theseapproximate the Yiddish (Ashkenazi)pronunciation for which there is a transliterationstandard: khanlke.l'hat's the form that most satisfiesthe author, although he has bowed to common practicein this work. Yott arefree to makeyour own choices.The right to be differentis part of lvhat khanike is all about"' -Hershl Hartman Do you sometimesfind it difficult to maintainthe 'Hanukaspirit'when: .the Oil Miracleseems just too mythological? .the 'superiority'of Hebrewlore overGreek philosophy doesn't jibe with your collegeclassics course? rgiving childreneight gifts appears more like consumerismthan Judaism? ....evencelebrating the Maccabees'victory feels a bit too militaristicfor comfort? Takeheart: your ambivalenceis not unique in Jewishhistory and traditions. From its very beginning-even beforeits official beginning-Hanuka has been a controversialfestival. For almost 2,000 years, thanks to the Talmudicrabbis, it was considereda "minor holiday,"when ordinarywork is permitted.The recordof its historicalorigins, the Bookof Maccabees,was excluded from the Bible.To this day thereis continuingcontroversy over the "realmeaning" of Hanuka. To help sort it all out, perhapsit would be helpful to go backto the very beginning of a festivalthat the ancientHebrews and their descendantsin Palestine cameto know asNeyrot, or Lights. Primitive Origins Primitive peopleever;nvhere and especiallyin the easternMediterranean and the Middle East met the crisis of the winter solstice,the dying sun, with the traditionsof imitativemagic. To encouragethe rebirth of the sun, they lit bonfires or, as in the rites of Dionysus,ran through the hills, carrying torches.In some cultures,ever-larger fires were lit on successivenights. In more northerly Europe, the threatof the deathof all living thingswas ameliorated by the promiseof rebiith inherent in the evergreenfir tree.Worshipping it encouragedthe restof natureto be rebom. The trunk of that tree, the yule log,was set ablazeas an exampleto the sun of what wasexpected of it. In Scandinavia,young women paradeto the village squarewearing wreaths of candlesin their hair, creatinga blazeof light. In all these customs,human activity is seenas manipulating the forcesof nature,rather than posinghumans as the meresubjects or victimsof naturalor supernaturaiforces. In ancient Israel,these primitive winter solsticecustoms were retainedin the eight-day,folk_festival of Neyrot. As a folk holiday, it was disdainedby the priesthoodand is not mentionedin the Bible.Interestingly, when the Talrirudic rabbis sought to downplay the Maccabeanexploits, they turned to the flame- lighting traditions of Neyrot.Even such an unremittingly pagan tradition was preferable,it seems,to a celebrationof the hatedMaccabees. We,-however, need to recall and understandthe important episodein Jewishhistory that underliesthe modernfestival of Hanuka. Hanuka - The Historical Aspect Among the many major contributions of seculariststo the history and developmentof the Jewishpeople is their historians'rescue of the Maccabeanrevolt from the secretchamber into which it had been thrust by rabbinicJudaism for almost2,000 years. It is virtually impossibleto transmit the utter, iiberatedjoy of Jewishyoung peoplein the 1880sand beyond-both in "the old home" of Eastern Europeand "the new countries"in the Americas,Palestine, South Africa and Australia-upon learningthat the Maccabeesdid more than mint freshcoins upon rededicatingthe Templein Jerusalem;that they had conducteda successfulrevolt againsta mighty Empire.The Yiddishpoet Morris Rosenfeldrhapsodized: I havean ancientdream: few, you werea warcioronce; lew, you werea victoronce! O, how strangethat seems! More than poeticsexpressed their delight.In post-WorldWar I Europeand in the Palestinianyishuv, Zionist youth organizationsformed soccerteams and leagues calledmakabi and competedin tournamentscalled makabiadd, a sort of Jewish Olympics. (That the Maccabeanrevolt was directed,in paft, againstHellenic athleticsdid not seemto bother the young Zionist enthusiasts;one can only imagine the horror of the anti-ZionistOrthodox rabbinateof the time.) Beyond sports,the principleof armedJewish self-defense that was sharedby both Zionist and Socialistyouth took inspirationfrom the Maccabeesand waslater expressedin Jewishanti-Nazi resistance and in Israel'swar of independence. Hanuka,unlike otherJewish holidays, is basedon historicalfact, verified in the Bookof Maccabeesand in othersources. The historyof the Maccabeesis complex;what followsis a condensationof the summaryprovided by Dr. TheodorGaster (Festivals of thelewish Year): When Alexanderthe Great(356-323 B.C.E.) conquered the PersianEmpire, including Palestine,the influence of Hellenism (Greek culture, language, philosophy,religion) beganto spread,aided by a policy that we might call, nowadays,"cultural pluralism."The subjectpeoples of the HellenicEmpire, from Egyptto India,were permitted to "follow the waysof their fathers"as long asthey obeyedtheir rulersand paid their taxes.In the tiny but strategicallylocated corner of the empireknown asJudah, the nobility and much of the priesthoodbegan to becomeHellenized, but the peasantsand artisansresisted assimilation. After the deathof Alexander,the empirewas dividedamong his generalswho formed the separatekingdoms of Egyptin the south under the Ptolemaicdynasty and Syriain the north under the Seleuciddynasty. Palestine, which lay between them, passedfrom one to the other for over a centuryuntil, in 198 B.C.E.,it was conqueredby Antiochusthe Great,king of Syria.His son, AntiochusIV, ascended the throne in 175 B.C.E.and commencedplanning an attackon the Ptolemiesof Egypt,partly to preventthem from seekingto avengeor reversehis father'stheft of Palestine.Preparation for that effort required"national unity," which AntiochusIV soughtby replacingAlexander's traditional policy of "cultural pluralism"with one of "cultural imperialism." In Jerusalem,that poliry resultedin the removalof the moderatelyHellenistic high priest of the Temple,Onias, replaced by his more fully assimilatedbrother, Joshua,who promptly adoptedthe emphaticallynon-Jewish name, Jason. (This may comeas something of a shockto a whole generationof AmericanJews named Jason.) The Hellenistictrend that had startedgenerations earlier in a relativelynatural way now becameaccelerated under the pressuresof both the Seleucidimpedal state and the Jewishtheocratic state. Among the peasantsand artisans,however, state pressuresproduced stiffened resistance, rather than compliance.They could not gain statusby dressingin Greekcostumes or by playing in the gymnasium,but they would lose their own identitiesif they ceasedto be Jews.A resistancemovement developed,called the Pietists(hasidim-no relation to the current hasidicsects) which soughtonly a return of the right to "follow the ways of the fathers,"i.e., religiousfreedom. Antiochus,frustrated in his plansto conquerEgypt by a warning from Rome, the newly developingsuperpower, intensified his efforts to weld the disparate peoplesof his empireinto a singleSeleucid whole. It wasn'tthe classicalculture of Greciansplendor he had in mind. He proclaimedZeus to be a super-godwith whom all the lessergods of the subjectpeoples would be identified.He also declaredhimself to be "Epiphanes,"the living manifestationof the super-god.To makehimself perfectlyclear, he orderedthat the new title, AntiochusEpiphanes, appearon all newly-mintedcoins and that servicesin all religiousholy places-in Jerusalem,that meant the Temple-be conductedin accordancewith the new state religion.Failure to complywas punishable
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