December is one of my favorite months. Growing up in the southwest the weather always cooled and there was a smell of spice in the air as everyone prepared for a nice holiday season. This December while most of the world is decorating their trees our thoughts are to the Latkes and dreidels of our holiday Hanukkah. Hanukkah is the most universally observed “ritual” amongst the Jews not only in our community in Cape May County but throughout the American Jewish culture, so to understand Hanukkah we must understand the American culture.
Beth Judah Temple has done some amazing events this last year and we are looking forward to our Hanukkah Party on Dec. 13 and our interfaith service on Dec. 11 so we can project a reconnection to the community both Jewish and gentile. With all these symbols of light and joy many ask what does Chanukah mean for all of us? The true aspect of Chanukah is our connection to others and our desire for unity both within the Jewish and Gentile worlds.
Hanukkah has been assimilated into the surrounding culture. It has become something of a Jewish Christmas, not in its Christian religious sense, but in its secular consumer sense. Hanukkah gifts have become Jewish Christmas presents. Schools, streets and shops wanting to reflect American multiculturalism put the Christmas tree and the menorah side by side even if their symbolism is very different in its religious content. I shouldn’t have to say it here, but I will: Hanukkah and Christmas are very different; to make them equivalent is to deprive each of its true character.
It’s ironic that the two festivals should be put in the same basket. Hanukkah has its origins in the very opposition to the dominant non-Jewish culture, which Christmas celebrates. Hanukkah marks our ancestors’ refusal to assimilate. They wanted to stand up to the all-pervasive culture of their day, a culture that induced the Jewish upper classes of second pre-Christian century Judea to copy the ways of the Gentiles. The world might have adopted Greek culture but a select few stood against the tide of history and refused and thus changed the world for a small moment. The world would have been very different without that small few who felt Judaism was a faith and culture unique and should not be absorbed into the Greek cultural world.
Nothing would have enraged the ancients more than making the festival a vehicle for Jewish assimilation. They would have seen it as the victory of that which the heroes of Hanukkah thought they had defeated. The fact that, in the process, Hanukkah has become much more prominent and celebrated than it has ever been before would have given them little comfort. It was never intended to be a major Jewish festival in the first place but a small joyful festival in which for a brief moment we can be proud that we have remained faithful to our religion.
This year Chanukah comes early on Dec. 11 and thus we get the chance to share our glow of unity earlier than most years giving us extra time to appreciate the holiday and our time together while the rest of the word prepares for its commercial experience of the season. This makes the comparison between the two festivals particularly strange, even if, no doubt, some Jewish families will do what they can to postpone Hanukkah celebrations for the sake of conformity to the popular culture of Christmas. Hanukkah, then, stands in Jewish tradition as a challenge to the surrounding dominant culture and thus a challenge to make this Jewish tradition unique to our faith while still respecting the dominate culture of Christmas and sharing the joy with our Christian neighbors.
The goal of Hanukkah is to celebrate the uniqueness of Judaism by making Judaism special through joy and celebration. We do this by fine food and embrace with good friends and reveal this to the world through the lighting of the Menorah. This is a time for families and friends to come together and share our unique faith and shout out the darkness with the light of our Menorah. We can do this with everyone at our table but we must find a way to make our Jewishness shine in our hearts.
Hanukah, being a symbol of Jewish unity, has the potential to be a catalyst for the redemption of our world.
The lights are not only a remembrance of the military victory to preserve our faith, but they are also a symbol of the Menorah that stood in the Temple, and so they represent the potential for a true peace for all and a return to Jerusalem with a united people with no fear of violence. When you light the flames you can have in your heart a prayer for the unity of the Jewish people and redemption for the world. Through Jewish unity we can unite the world in peace and harmony for all Jews and Gentiles alike.
When we take time this year to look deeper into others hearts we can find good and make things better. Through unity of spirit we begin to gain unity of our world. Let us take this time for all members of Beth Judah Temple and all in our community of Cape May County to unite in spirit and build something great here for all to take pleasure in. As we approach the darkest time of the year let the lights of our Menorah be a light of friendship to all who enter our grounds. Through this unity we can rekindle the flames in all our hearts and truly make a peaceful year.
Rabbi Jeffrey Lipschultz is the spiritual leader of Beth Judah Temple in Wildwood and he welcomes your comments at dvjewish@rof.net
Lower Township – With all Joe Bidens stops in Pennsylvania this week, I am still reeling from his story about his uncle maybe being eaten by cannibals. This madness has to stop in November. We are the laughingstock…
