CHANUKAH, OH CHANUKAH- Revisited

A year ago I was kicked off a website called Kveller, for sounding off against Reform Judaism for muddying the issue of Jewish identity. It's a theme which I tend to go on about, I must confess. Kveller is a good website; it's about Jewish parenting and there are many contributing bloggers who write about diverse topics (I was Resident Bubbeh and people wrote in to ask me questions. When I wrote my rant, I was not in Bubbeh persona, I was just a commenter in a thread, but unfortunately I was not incognito so bye-bye Bubbeh. Anyway.) But there is this thing at Chanukah time on Kveller, now too,  (see for yourself <www.kveller.com>) about presents, presents and presents, for everybody, not just kids; for Mom and Dad and Bubbie and Zeidy and brother and sister and aunt and uncle and OMG it never ended, and I respectfully submitted the following article which didn't get published; and then I was ejected from the Kveller family. And then I became Doctor Booba who can say whatever she wants and doesn't need to tippy-toe quite as much as Bubbeh had to.
So this is the piece. I'm trying to say that Chanukah is NOT about presents, dammit! It's a celebration of Jewish identity and pride.

CHANUKAH, OH CHANUKAH

I love this time of year. I love Chanukah; I confess, I also like that I live in a secular, loosely constitutionally Christian country (Australia) where we are allowed to practice our customs in public, and happy festive non-Jews and Jews celebrate their customs without fear of punishment. It wasn't always like this, I am sure you know.

Chanukah seems to be about presents and parties, eating yummy fried foods, singing, playing dreidel and lighting the candles in the Chanukiah, the 8 + 1 branched menorah. What does it all mean?

How can you understand the meaning of anything without knowing some history? And boy, do we Jews have history. So here's a little bit; please bear with me!

Chanukah, like Purim, is a post-biblical holiday, unlike Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh haShana, Yom Kippur and Succot. These were all mentioned in the Torah, the 5 Books of Moses; but Purim took place in the era between the 2 Holy Temples, around 4th Century BCE, in Persia; and Chanukah in the 2nd century BCE. The Biblical, ie 'Heavy' sort of holydays, have a lot of do's and do-not's and can be pretty solemn at least some of the time. The other two are 'lighter', with fewer restrictions and prohibitions, and so they are often thought of as being less important. But in fact, these festivals 'speak' to us sometimes even more powerfully; not just because they are more fun! But because they celebrate and commemorate in a more immediate way, the same sort of trials which we face today.

In Purim, a Persian vizier, Haman, sought to annihilate the Jews, 'Man, woman, and child'. And today, a Persian leader, Ahmedinajad, wants to do the same thing; and in between, there have been plenty more 'Hamans'.

Chanukah is different; the bad guy Antiochus IV 'Epiphanes', a Seleucid (Syrian by geography, Greek by culture) sought to stamp out the practices of the Jews. He managed to kill a lot of people, including Chana and her 7 sons, but the idea was not to kill everyone, like Haman; it was to kill the Jewish identity. Jews could live, as long as they acted Greek- a spiritual death. So no holydays, no circumcision, no dietary laws, and no worship of the One G-d, HaShem; those who refused to 'Hellenize' were tortured and killed. Many did, in fact embrace Hellenism - worshipping strange gods, worshipping the body, adoring Reason, Intellect, Logic, Philosophy, Beauty; and following the practices du jour.

But Antiochus pushed too far when he insisted that a pig be sacrificed in the Temple. The Cohen Gadol, Matisyahu, refused; and when another Jew offered to do the deed himself, Matt killed him in fury and started the Maccabean revolt with the cry 'Mi LeHaShem, alai!' - whoever is for G-d, to me! (sounds better in Hebrew as a rallying cry.) His sons, the most famous being Yehuda, known as Maccabee, meaning 'the Hammer', led a small army which then defeated the large Seleucid/Greek army. A miracle! And then they sought to rededicate the Temple (Chanukah means Dedication), lighting the 7 branch Menorah with pure olive oil. A small sealed jug of oil was found- another miracle!- enough fuel for a day. But it burned for 8 days -yet another miracle!- which was enough time to make fresh, pure olive oil. And why the 25th of Kislev? Because that's when the fighting stopped; Chanu-Kah also means 'they rested on the 25th.'

SO. That's why:

1) 8 day festival starting on the 25th of Kislev.

2) Accent on lighting a candelabra commonly called a 'menorah', but really, the Menorah had 7 branches, and was in the Temple. What we light is 9 branched, a Chanukiah; 8 lights, one for each day, and the 9th for the Shamash, the candle that 'serves' by lighting the other candles or oil lamps, and by giving light which we can read by etc, unlike the other 8 lights which are not to be used for anything other than commemoration. THIS is the real heart of the festival, and there are rules and regulations about the blessings etc. We are celebrating the miracle of the oil, not the military victory. We sing special songs after lighting; I guess singing always makes things more special.

3) Fried foods! Latkes or doughnuts, the oil reminding us of the miracle of the oil.

What about the games? Different reasons are given, but one is that the Jewish kids would get together and learn Torah, but if a Greek soldier discovered them, they would pretend that they had just been playing with the Dreidel, a gambling game; that was OK. The dreidel is no holy artefact, but it is a tradition to play Dreidel for nuts or chocolate money; and by extension, many people have games nights with other board games; not so much real gambling with cards etc but I've heard of it. (Feh!)

And parties? Apparently after the initial Chanukah, there was an annual feast and party given by the High Priest/ leader.

And what about the presents?

The really traditional present is actually money, 'Chanukah gelt'. This originated from a Talmudic custom of going from door to door to ask for money to buy oil/candles for lighting as even the poorest Jew was supposed to light candles. So today we give money gifts to children for Chanukah. So if they are given chocolate money, they are not really getting anything of value; so we give them a gift that they will appreciate, a toy etc.

The whole lavish gift exchange thing is actually thought to be a result of Jews living among Christians and taking on the customs so that Jewish children wouldn't feel left out. This started as recently as the 1950's in the US. Christmas envy? I don't know. 

Chanukah celebrates and commemorates the spiritual deliverance of the Jews; Purim celebrates the physical deliverance of the Jews.

These are not at all trivial festivals, and it is only through lack of education that Jews can be a bit dismissive of them. They're not just for kids; there is a powerful message for us all today, about pride, about identity. Hellenism is alive and well today: the worship of strange gods- money and power: the worship of the body- 'nuff said; the adoration of Reason, Intellect, Logic, Philosophy, Beauty; and following the practices du jour. Not much difference, apart from the absence of a murderous tyrant (although Stalin would have fit that bill not so long ago). And the threat is as real; spiritual death for the Jew.

So many of us are like little lost children, unclear of our identities, ignorant of our customs and history. Education has to be the way to remedy this and give us a future as Jews. That, and having fun, too! 
'They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat!' Latkes, anyone?