Counting on a miracle in today’s world?





 

 

O Chanukah, O Chanukah, the Festival of Lights;

Instead of just lasting one, it lasts for eight crazy nights.

Why? Why does this non-festival Festival attract so much prominence and attention? Is it because it rides the coattails of the birthday celebration of that renegade rabbi? Is it because its traditional celebration calls for the giving of gift money, which always comes in the right size and color?

A “minor holiday” Chanukah is not! Or perhaps we could say about

that like a tiny little error in calculations that could throw a rocket miles off course, or a slight misreading of a pharmaceutical prescription that could have tremendously adverse effect on a patient, its seeming insignificance is what makes it so critical after all. For it’s not always the bigger or more obvious phenomenon that is important— it’s the smaller, more unique one that is more interesting, more enduring or more critically significant.

After centuries of pushing Chanukah into a little box of insignificance, we now can accept the primacy of this celebration which marked the victory of the guerilla-warfare-“inventing” Maccabees over the more visibly powerful and slow-moving imperial forces. The spiritual zeal exemplified by the Maccabees may now be openly compared to the nothingless than-miraculous strength and tenacity of the Israeli people, its defense forces and diplomatic corps. Few other nations must contend with a “family of nations” that constantly does everything it can to de-legitimize this one “brother” despite all efforts toward normalization. Few other nations must be insulted from within and without due to a double standard that no other country is expected to uphold. So in the midst of us Diaspora Jews sharing the pain of this ongoing ostracism of our Israeli counterparts, why not mark with fanfare an historical event which captures the spirit of our people’s emotional fortitude of so long ago and links it to today’s struggle for religious and cultural freedom and long-awaited acceptance throughout the world?

And with regard to Chanukah’s proximity to Christmas? “Bring it on!” I say, “Bring it on!” All this does is highlight the very essence of the holiday! After all, one could argue that the tremendously significant message of Purim gets lost amidst the carnival frivolity and overshadowed by Passover’s imminence. Instead, I would say that the fact that Chanukah indeed gets dwarfed by Christmas in the court of public opinion is in fact strengthening to its message! What better way to experience and internalize its religious teaching than to have to make Chanukah into something “more than” it already is so that we don’t feel inferior to our Christian neighbors? That’s what the “miracle” of the oil lasting eight times longer than it should have is all about! Celebrate and be grateful for what you have by recognizing the magnificence and grandeur of even the smallest blessing. “Who is truly wealthy? One who is happy with the portion they have!”

So again, perhaps we ought to be thankful that this “minor” holiday—with its hard-to-spell transliterated name and its floating on-the-common-calendar, hard-to-know-when-it-actuallystarts this-year quirkiness— actually falls when it does! Maybe Chanukah (beginning each and every year on Kislev 25) would be lost to obscurity if it wasn’t pitted against its “ginormous” December 25 colleague. Then what? Then we’d have one less opportunity to celebrate our uniqueness and our ongoing struggle to repair the world’s brokenness and hypocrisy.

“Al ha-nissim…sha’Asita la’avoteinu ba-yamim ha-heim ba-z’man ha-zeh.” For all the miracles and for all the many other great, wondrous deeds You have done on our behalf all these years, O G-d, we are eternally grateful!

May each one of us stand tall and proud this Chanukah just as the Maccabees were helped to do in days gone by.

Chag Sameach! .


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *