Like most Jewish kids, Hanukkah was my favorite holiday growing up. I loved everything about it: the decorations, the gifts, the fried food, and of course getting to play with fire. As an adult, I have a harder time with it. Of course I still love all of those things, but I wrestle with the story and how to teach it to my students.
As modern Jews in the Reform Movement, we have embraced assimilation and a way of life that lets us fit into secular society. In a way, we are a modern version of the Hellenist Jews who chose to assimilate to the Greek way of life, something that the Maccabees would not tolerate because it had never been done successfully. In the Maccabees’ experience, people were either loyal to their god and their temple, or they weren’t. The Maccabees even fought and killed Jews who assimilated, and yet, the Maccabees are the heroes of the story. When we tell the story to children, we usually leave out that the military victory was not over just the Seleucid army, but over the Greek way of life and all who embraced it.
There are, however, some key differences between assimilation now and its ancient analogue. Remember: This was before the Diaspora, before assimilation became a tool for survival. Yes, those of us whose forebearers immigrated to the United States had to assimilate to secular American life in many respects, but they still taught our great grandparents, our grandparents, our parents, and us the core values and traditions that connect us to our people and our history.
The Maccabian revolt was against an invading and occupying military force that used both overt and more insidious ways to overthrow and undermine the Judean way of life: The Seleucids not only defiled the Temple, but tempted the Jews with acceptance, simplicity, comfort, and ease if they converted to a Greek existence. The Maccabees were not fighting assimilation as we know it today. Rather, they were fighting against the erasure of our people, and against the complacency and fear of those members of their own nation who would permit that erasure.
I believe that we can (and should) look at this holiday in a more nuanced way, where we can talk frankly about zealotry and the danger of putting religious beliefs over human lives while also talking about pride in our religion and culture, freedom of religion, and—of course—the miracle of the oil lasting eight days.
My favorite Hanukkah song is “Light One Candle,” by Peter, Paul, and Mary. It is a song about having hope in dark times and not letting anyone extinguish our light. The second verse goes like this:
“Light one candle for the strength that we need
To never become our own foe
And light one candle for those who are suffering
Pain we learned so long ago
Light one candle for all we believe in
That anger not tear us apart
And light one candle to find us together
With peace as the song in our hearts”
With so many people out there who wish to destroy the Jews, we must remember what we have had to overcome in the past so we can protect our future. We must never let our light go out.
—Cantorial Intern Andrew Paskil