Several people on one of my mailing lists asked me about the meaning and celebration of Chanukah. I probably gave them more than they wanted to know! (It's not usually a good idea to ask me a question about history or theology unless you're actually interested in the answer, but at least with email they can delete if not interested.) Anyway, I wrote so much that I decided I ought to reuse it here, combining the original two emails into one post. I tend to repost "Light One Candle annually anyway, because I find it so poignantly timely. And as always feel free to surf elsewhere it it's too much detail. Note that much of the following, especially the first half, is the traditional belief, not necessarily my own in all points.
When the Syrian Greeks conquered the land of Judea (the remaining one of two kingdoms roughly where Israel is now - the other was the source of the Ten Lost Tribes), the king Antiochus ordered the Jews to worship Greek gods. (Actually, that's the children's version, the simplification. There were also Hellenized Jews who particiapted in all aspects of Greek life voluntarily. ) Antiochus' soldiers used the Temple in Jerusalem as a barracks, trashed the religious symbols, and deliberately brought pigs in to profane it. They forbade the observance of the Sabbath, calculating the new moon (Rosh Chodesh - the beginning of lunar months) and circumcision, which to Jews is part of our covenant with God - the word bris itself means covenant.
Matityahu and his sons, including Judah, gathered an army that became known as the Maccabbees and led guerilla warfare against the Greeks. There are very, very few examples (none, according to Robert A. Heinlein, who was clearly wrong in at least this instance -- at least if the legends I know match historical record!) of a conquered people throwing out their oppressors without outside help, but the Maccabbees did succeed, which is counted the first miracle of Chanukah.
One of their first steps was to rededicate the Temple. They cleaned it out but still needed to have the High Priest light the Eternal Lamp, which had to burn only consecrated oil. They searched and searched and found one small vial of consecrated oil, still sealed with the High Priest's seal, only enough for one day. Miraculously, it burned for eight days, enough time to make more oil.
Chanukah is the only traditional Jewish holiday commemorating a military victory. We celebrate by lighting candles in the menorah (actually, a special eight-branched menorah called a chanukiyah - the normal menorah you might see in a synagogue the rest of the year has six branches). We light first the Shammes, or "caretaker", the one candle that stands alone, then use it to light additional candles, one for the first day, two for the second, three for the third and so on.
Children play games with a dreidel, a four-sided top on whose sides are the Hebrew letters nun, gimel, hay, shin, which stand for "Nes Gadol Hayah Sham" or "A great miracle happened there". (In Israel, it's "Nes Gadol Hayah Po", for "A great miracle happened here.) Other traditions are that we eat potato pancakes and other fried foods and give gelt -- money -- to children. Mostly by proximity to Christmas, the latter has evolved in the US to giving gifts to everyone, one small gift for each day. Originally the Jewish gift holiday was Purim, which is in March. My parents would give us one big gift like a bike, and smaller gifts the other days. Rudder and I do a big gift for Christmas and small ones for Chanukah. (I usually take a basket and go through REI to find lots of small things for him!)
You can read the story in more detail here or more about traditional ways to celebrate Chanukah here.
During the centuries of exile, Jews were small farmers (think Tevye the dairyman), or teachers and doctors and scholars who were limited by laws to working among their own people, or moneylenders because that was the about the only profession they were allowed into. Because kings needed to borrow money, you see.... and then Edward I, whom Scots also have good reason to remember unkindly (think Braveheart) got around that by borrowing money, then expelling all the Jews from England, then only allowing them back when he needed to borrow more and then expelling them again - this time they weren't allowed back until the time of Cromwell, a man not otherwise noted for tolerance.
After a thousand centuries of survival by turning inwards, the military legacy of the Maccabbees became especially inspirational during the time of the Zionist movement and then the founding of the Israeli nation, when Jews again needed to form armies and fight. This is our only holiday celebrating military victory -- with God's help, as the legends are careful to remind us, but still a victory on our own terms without a deus ex machina stepping in, as in the parting of the Red Seas. The traditional Chanukah songs still exhort humility, though:
"Furious they assailed us
But thine arm availed us
And thy word broke their sword
When our own strength failed us."
from Rock of Ages, aka Ma'oz Tsur.
Of course, every Jewish holiday has multiple levels of symbolism; the sages in
those ghettos over the centuries studied and studied and eked out every drop of meaning they could find in every bit of Torah, Mishnah, lore and legend. The candles, like those in almost all traditions, also stand for the eternal fight of light against darkness. But to me personally today, the best summation of the candle flames' meaning is from Peter Yarrow, (of Peter, Paul, andMary), and I apologize for the length but for about the third time here I will give you the whole song. I wish a few people in government, ours as well as Israel's and others, would heed it! Once I've finished humming The Thanksgiving Song (by Bob Franke), I will be singing it to myself all month:
Light one candle for the Maccabee Children
With thanks that their light didn't die.
Light one candle for the pain they endured
When their right to exist was denied.
Light on candle for the terrible sacrifice
Justice and freedom demand.
Light one candle for the wisdom to know
When the peace maker's time is at hand.Don't let the light go out
It's lasted for so many years
Don't let the light go out
Let it shine through our love and our tears.Light one candle for the strength that we need
To never became our own foe.
Light one candle for those who are suffering
The pain we learned so long ago.
Light one candle for all we believe in
that anger won't tear us apart.
And light one candle to bring us together
With peace as the song in our hearts;.Don't let the light go out,
It's lasted for so many years.
Don't let the light go out,
Let it shine through our love and our fears.What is the memory that's valued so highly
That we keep it alive in that flame?
What's the commitment for those who have died,
When we cry out they have not died in vain?
We have come this far always believing
That justice would somehow prevail.
This is the burden, this is the promise,
THIS is why we will not fail.Don't let the light go out,
It's lasted for so many years.
Don't let the light go out,
Let it shine through our love and our fears.Don't let the light go out!
Posted by dichroic at November 23, 2003 10:24 AM
Don't let the light go out!
Don't let the light go out!