Some progressive views of the Feast of Lights, mostly with the help of the magazine Tikkun.
Daniel Brook and Richard Schwarz argue that Jews should honor the holiday by becoming vegetarian.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs sees the holiday as a triumph of memory over history (the most interesting of these links to me).
Rabbi Michael Lerner cautions against the “smushing” of the holidays of Chanukah and Christmas.
Here’s a guide to the celebration itself.
Here’s a critique of the above-linked guide on the basis that it misrepresents the Hellenistic influence. Lerner responds that it is specifically the materialism of the Hellenistic influence to which he objects.
The South African Union for Progressive Judaism expands on some of the political points.
Lerner responds to arguments in the “War on Christmas” as well as the “Theft of Chanukah.”
Here is an account of a Chanukah celebration attended by Palestinians.
In a similar vein, this blogger requests that Palestinians be in the thoughts during celebrations. S/he asks when the Palestinians will get their Chanukah, but I would suggest they’re in more need of a Passover.
And in this video Jewish Standup Comedian Yisrael Campbell pokes some fun at the rationales for certain rules about the ritual.
As to the spelling, the “C” is an option but not a requirement apparently, and whether there is one “N” or two also appears to be unsettled, at least on the Internet.
Addendum: Here’s an hilarious list of the differences between Christmas and Chanukah. My favorites:
2. Christmas is a major holiday. Chanukah is a minor holiday with the same theme as most Jewish holidays. They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.
…
4. There is only one way to spell Christmas. No one can decide how to spell Chanukah , Chanukkah, Chanukka, Channukah, Hanukah , Hannukah, etc.
…
7. Christmas carols are beautiful…Silent Night, Come All Ye Faithful….Chanukah songs are about dreidels made from clay or having a party and dancing the hora. Of course, we are secretly pleased that many of the beautiful carols were composed and written by our tribal brethren. And don’t Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond sing them beautifully?
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December 22, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Lefty
Thank You for all the links Eric. I hate to nitpick, but, while that is a very nice looking menorah it’s not the kind used at Hanukkah. Neither is it the kind used at Chanukah, or any of those other spellings.
The spelling has always been a mystery at my house kind of like the pronunciation of Buhne St. here in Eureka. The bigger argument around here last night was whether Jelly Donuts would suffice instead of Latkes on the first night. I had to go to Google to prove my point.
Happy Hanukkah to all no matter how you spell it.
Happy Solstice to All who celebrate it.
Merry Christmas to All who celebrate it.
Happy Festuvus for the Rest of Us.
December 22, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Eric Kirk
You’re right. Not enough candles. I’ll see what I can find. I didn’t like the selection at photobucket.
December 22, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Eric Kirk
Okay, it helps to add an “H” to Menorah. Still don’t like the selection, but this one will do for now.
December 22, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Ernie Branscomb (South Fork Ernie)
I not really a participant in any religion, but I do enjoy the season, and I would like to add to your confusion.
“A Hanukkah menorah (otherwise known as a hanukkia and not to be confused with the menorah that was in use in the Temple, which had nothing to do with Hanukkah) has nine candles. Eight of these are the Hanukkah candles, and one is the shamash – the “assistant candle” that is used to light the others.
The structure of the hanukkiah reflects this: the shamash is not in a line with the others. It is either above the other eight or off to the side.
By the way, the menorah in use in the Temple had seven branches.”
December 22, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Anonymous
Hannukah isn’t really a major holiday in Judaism. It’s been played up in America due to its proximity to Christmas. But it’s worth celebrating for the potato pancakes alone. That’s speaking as someone not Jewish who loves potato pancakes.
December 22, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Not A Native
The only “correct” spelling is Hebrew and that has only four letters in it,
Well, a lamp staying lit for a few days doesn’t compare to coming back to life after death. But if that’s what you got, you’re happy to have it.
I’d say Chanukah commerates a military victory by religious fundamentalists. They probably resembled the Taliban in their quest for religious purity. Of course military victory was attributed to having G*d on their side.
The Macabees refused to accept reforms that the Greeks(progressives of that time and still enshrined as founders of Western tradition) and their fellow Jewish Greek sympathizers were making to established cultural traditions and practices.
So, G*d intervened on behalf of the fundamentalist believers of truth and made a sign of approval through a miracle. The Greeks were repulsed. It would be another 230 years before progressive ideas would prevail in the guise of the Romans.
December 22, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Maccabee fan
Only problem with that theory Not Native is that the Greeks were the invaders. Maybe the comparison should be made that the Macabees were the Palestinians and the Greeks were the modern day Israelis.
December 22, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Jewish Person
N.A.N.: You’ve got it exactly backwards. The Greeks were the imperialists, with a long record of exploitation that stretched all the way to India. Could you possibly have missed that? They got what they richly deserved at the hands of the Macabees.
The renewal of the Temple–and the Jewish people–from ashes resonates over the millennia, which is why Chanukah is so important.
December 22, 2008 at 4:35 pm
investigator
Well, a lamp staying lit for a few days doesn’t compare to coming back to life after death. But if that’s what you got, you’re happy to have it.
…so true. And wasn’t it the great Jewish Prophet, Elijah, who foretold His birth?
December 22, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Eric Kirk
And wasn’t it the great Jewish Prophet, Elijah, who foretold His birth?
I think it’s a stretch when you read the actual Elijah quote cited by Matthew, but I’ll post it later and you can decide. According to Christian tradition, it foretells the birth of Christ. According to Jewish tradition it says something else entirely.
December 22, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Rose
Nice links, Eric, Thanks.
December 22, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Anonymous
Am I missing something or do you guys need to learn to count. Eric’s hanukkia has the perfect number of candles. Perhaps the photo has changed or ?
Next year may peace prevail both in Israel and here in our own home.
Dialog, compromise, understanding, more dialog, more compromise, more understanding…………
December 22, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Eric Kirk
I changed it. Had a temple menorah up before.
Thanks for the compliments Rose.
December 22, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Historian
Actually, it wasn’t Greek soldiers who fought the Macabees, but “Assyrians.” Technically, they may have been part of the Greek empire, but were part of what is now known as “Syria.”
December 22, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Rose
Eric, may I recommend a link… a great little book… ◼ One for Each Night: Chanukah Tales and Recipes.
December 22, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Eric Kirk
Thanks Rose. I’ll check it out. But I already make the best latkes west of the Mississippi. Or so my wife tells me.
December 22, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Rose
December 23, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Not A Native
Historian, Reread the history. It was Greek Seleucids who were defeated by the Macabees in 164 BCE. They were Hellenistic Greeks, successors to Alexander. The near East had been colonized by Greeks since Alexander’s conquests in 332 BCE. That was 170 years before the Macabeean victory.
The Selucid empire was a major centre of Hellenistic culture which maintained the preeminence of Greek customs and where a Greek-speaking Macedonian elite dominated, mostly in the urban areas
December 23, 2008 at 8:58 pm
anonymous
Happy Hannukah to you Eric, your wife and children.
Peace to all hearts!
December 23, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Historian
NAN: The Selucid empire included Syria (and stretched as far east as India). The “Assyrians” referred to the Syrian invaders, who were thrown out of Israel by the Macabees.
Then as now, Israel belonged to The Jewish People.
December 24, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Not A Native
Historian, read the reference link I gave, the Macabees fought the military of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greek Selucid Emperor. His generals are known but the identities of each soldier isn’t. But they were a Greek military force.
According to the link, the Selucid troops were “primarily of Greco-Macedonian origin, supplemented by Eastern people, since the Seleucid realm covered much of the eastern portions of the former Persian Empire.”
In my mind at least, all of that has little to do with any contemporary sovereignty disputes in the middle East. If you’re trying to infer a causal link between the Macabeees and the current country Israel, I’d say you have an entirely different agenda than celebrating or commerating Chanukah.
December 25, 2008 at 7:43 am
Jewish Person
” If you’re trying to infer a causal link between the Macabeees and the current country Israel, I’d say you have an entirely different agenda than celebrating or commerating Chanukah.”
If you don’t get the link, you don’t understand Chanukah or Israel.
December 26, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Not A Native
“If you don’t get the link, you don’t understand Chanukah or Israel”
If you believe your interpretation of Chanukah is the only meaningful one, you haven’t rigoriously studied either Torah or the historical record.
December 26, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Eric Kirk
Well, Chanukah specifically is described in the Apochropha (spelling?), not the Torah. Neither the Jews, nor Protestants, accept those books as divinely inspired text. They are incorporated into the Catholic Bible.
December 26, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Nick Bravo
How do the books of Enoch (first temple) fit into modern day jewish tradition? They don’t! They are ignored despite their cultural and spiritual value.
December 27, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Not A Native
Eric, you’re correct, Chanukah is not a biblical holiday. That’s precisely why its religious meaning and significance has to be found in sacred texts rather than contemporaneous accounts, hence my reference to Torah.
In Jewish tradition, Chanukah was originated to commerate a miracle and reestablishment of the Temple. At the time, the Temple would be everlasting. The Temple’s existance and operation was then foundational to Jewish fulfillment of covenantal obligations.
By the 12th Century, long after the Temple was again destroyed, Chanukah was reinterpreted also as symbolic of religious freedom and endurance against overwhelming forces. That interpretation served as explanation, rationale to endure, and hope, to Jews who were now living as minorities tempted to assimilate into majorities. Those meanings hold to this day.
There are quite a few more recent interpretations that are posited by readers Torah and history. And Jews in general see personal, unscholarly meanings of Chanukah applied to current themes of freedom, liberty, and human rights. One enduring power of Jewish practice, in my opinion, is its ability to adapt to meet the practical and emotional human needs that Jews actually experience in their individual lives, rather than being appropriate only at a particular time and place.
Interpretations that arise as a result of study and reflection are welcomed within the community of pious Jewish discourse. Even those that are arcane and extreme. But little critical credence is given to opinions that show no awareness, appreciation, and respect for the theologic and historical record. Especially those from individuals without educational background and that seek to justify immediate political agendas and actions.
December 28, 2008 at 6:52 am
Historian
“Interpretations that arise as a result of study and reflection are welcomed within the community of pious Jewish discourse.”
What “community” of self appointed experts did you have in mind?
December 29, 2008 at 11:21 am
Not A Native
If you don’t know what comprises the religious Jewish community and its authorities, you’re not part of it.
Jewish theology holds that essential individual nature is goodness. But there’s also a destructive “evil impulse”, overcome through communal study and piety. The Haggadah parable of the wicked son explains how evil must be opposed. Athough often mistranslated, the traditional text says the response to the question is to “blunt his teeth”, meaning to lead him away from alienation and toward his essential nature.
December 29, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Historian
Jewish theology should make it easy for you to understand the meaning of Channukah. But you still managed to get it a** backwards.
Does this so-called “religious Jewish community” you belong to consist of you and two friends?
December 29, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Not A Native
The more anger and resentment you display, the more you implicate yourself. With no references to anyone or anything, its a lack of education. Continue to be the wicked son, if you must.
December 29, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Historian
I see…those who correct you are “wicked.”
I did explain the rather obvious meaning of Channukah above…with references. It’s not difficult to grasp.
December 30, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Not A Native
You’ve no references, just baseless assertions. “Obvious” isn’t a valid rationale. Of course, anything you assert is so just becuase you say so. The wicked son is defined as such since his question showed malice, not deserving the respect of a direct answer.
December 30, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Eric Kirk
Guys. The war has been over for about 2500 years now.
December 31, 2008 at 12:07 am
Not A Native
Well Eric, 2500 years is like yesterday. Chanukah is celebrated every year by Jews so it won’t be forgotten, despite the passage of time. Your post is about its “meaning”. Remember, its a sectarian religious event whose understanding is a matter of faith and dogma. Historian has derived a meaning that you may not have expected or welcomed.
You know, I don’t think I’ve seen any mention locally of “Kwanza” this year. Wonder why that is…..?