Hanukkah

 Coming back to Judaism is a tough pill at times. It's very difficult to turn off the voice that says you're collaborating with all sorts of forces and notions of which should make us all sick, and one of those which makes me sickest is Hanukkah....

Even at its best, one has to acknowledge that Hanukkah is at bottom a stupid holiday that isn't really a holiday. It's not even Canonical, the Book of Maccabees is only in the Christian Bible. It's a minor festival clearly based on the Winter Solstice whose significance is as ancillary to the root story of Judaism as Israeli Independence Day, who saw its significance vastly blown up by a bunch of 19th century Reform Rabbis from its natural proportions to this Leviathan of Jewish life that has so little reason to be celebrated more than Shavuot or Simchat Torah except for its proximity for American Jews to the two-month Christmas season of which we can't participate without technically being idolworshippers, and similarly blown up in Israel because it's a holiday that celebrates one of the few times Jews won a war.

And that's only the charitable interpretation. The uncharitable interpretation is that Hanukkah is a celebration of fanaticism over rationality, of superstition over progress, of the idea that the most backward parts of our religion are worth killing over.

Now, I realize, that's incredibly uncharitable. The Selucid Greeks were proto-imperialists like any other, and they were trying to confiscate Jewish identity as they did the cultures of every other ancient civilization the Greco-Romans ransacked. Just as imperialism created the worst of Marxism, so did the excesses of the Classical world incubate the worst monotheistic practices.

But let's face it. If the Maccabees were alive today, they wouldn't just be living in an Israeli settlement or voting Likud, they'd be writing 'Kahane Tzodek' graffiti on the highways. They'd be throwing rocks at Palestinians and volunteering for the army jobs that let them do the worst harassment. They would be correctly reviled by all but the most reactionary elements in Jewish life, and to make a holiday celebrating them would rightly be considered an abomination.

But yeah, that's all 2000 years ago, and come on, if Christmas can be coopted to mean anything but the Birth of Christ, we can also incorporate whatever we want Hanukkah to mean. So what does Hanukkah mean now?

Like Christmas, like Winter Solstice, it is a 'festival of light' amid the darkest evenings of the year. For all the talk on Hannukah about Jewish identity and pride and preserving the faith, the best of Hanukkah is the opposite of unique to us.

For most of its 2150ish year history, Hanukkah was not made into a festival for an era of prosperity, it was made into a holiday for an era of desperation, and it is meant to remind us in dark times that better times are possible. In eras when Jews were slaughtered, it tells us that the slaughter is not inevitable. In eras when Jews were persecuted, it tells us that persecution can be resisted. In eras when Jews have been utterly defeated, it tells us that there will come times of victory. It is not just a festival of light but a festival of hope.

The very title of the pre-eminent Hanukkah song "Maoz Tzur" was made into the titular line of perhaps the preeminent English Christian hymn: "Rock of Ages." Unfortunately, the only verse we sing on Hanukkah is the verse that's entirely about slaughtering the enemies, but the hymn itself is the contradiction of Hanukkah, on the one hand, nearly every verse has something about slaughtering your enemies. On the other hand, when you're being slaughtered, it's difficult to remember that you should set an example of mercy. The crazy contradiction of Hanukkah, jingoism and murder on the one side, hope and light on the other, is shot through the whole song as it is the whole holiday. It is both, and while we all need hope, it's also a testament to how easily hope can turn into hopes for vengeance. Does that then mean that all hope is false hope?

I wish there was a more optimistic conclusion for this essay...

The full Maoz Tsur - a 13th century Piyut - in English:

"My Refuge, my Rock of Salvation! 'Tis pleasant to sing Your praises.

Let our house of prayer be restored. And there we will offer You our thanks.

When You will have slaughtered the barking foe.

Then we will celebrate with song and psalm the altar's dedication.

My soul was sated with misery, My strength was spent with grief.

They embittered my life with hardship, When enslaved under the rule of Egypt.

But God with his mighty power Brought out His treasured people;

While Pharaoh's host and followers Sank like a stone into the deep.

He brought me to His holy abode; Even there, I found no rest.

The oppressor came and exiled me, Because I served strange gods,

and drank poisonous wine. Yet scarcely had I gone into exile,

When Babylon fell and Zerubbabel took charge; Within seventy years I was saved.

The Agagite, son of Hammedatha, plotted to cut down the lofty fir;

But it proved a snare to him, and his insolence was silenced.

You raised the head of the Benjamite, but the enemy's name You blotted out.

His numerous sons and his household You hanged upon the gallows.

The Greeks gathered against me, in days of the Hasmoneans.

They broke down the walls of my towers, and defiled all the oils.

But from the last remaining flask a miracle was wrought for the Jews.

Therefore the sages of the day ordained these eight for songs of praise.

O bare Your holy arm and bring the end of salvation.

Wreak vengeance upon the wicked nation, On behalf of your faithful servants.

For deliverance has too long been delayed; And the evil days are endless.

O Reject the enemy into the shadows of idolatry, and set up for us the seven shepherds."