On the eve of Chanukah
Sometimes I think that Chanukah became such a popular holiday in the last two hundred years, because it falls usually, close in time to Christmas, and so it has this advantage of being a counter weight to the Christian holiday, celebrated in Europe and America. It fits too, because the usual restrictions of associated with Jewish holiday (not to use electricity, or a motor car, and many other activities) do not apply on this holiday. But the fact is, that for most of the history of the last 2200 years, this was not one of the major Jewish holidays.
All the same, it is certainly a very popular holiday now, even if the message of the holiday has become somewhat obscured by the naοve celebration surrounding the holiday. Yes, there are presents for the kids, and the lighting of candles, and the spinning of a top (seemingly the forbearer of the roulette wheel, because it is used for gambling), and so on. But what is it all about?
Chanukah, more than it is the story of the struggle against the occupation of the Greeks in the holy land, in the second century BCE, is about the struggle within the Jewish society of that time, in which the majority of the Jews had become enamored with the Hellenist values. They looked upon traditional Jews as primitive and backward, and imitated the pagan behavior of the Greeks. Though the Greeks were heralded for their practice of democracy, it is worth mentioning that at the time, democracy was for citizens only, and that there were ten slaves for every democratic citizen. And though the laws of slavery were extremely barbaric compared to our laws, and though our culture was more concerned with the rights of the individual, equality before the law, responsibility for the weak and the poor, and guarantees of the right of privacy, it was the Greeks who promoted the Gay Revolution back then. In fact, they thought that heterosexuality was lame.
Oh, how often we've done that; become more French than the French, more German than the Germans (before the Nazis cleaned up Europe), the most progressive of the socialists, and nowadays, more American than the Americans. That is one of our faults, this endless enthusiasm for the latest in modern cultural progress. But often, in the heat of our obsessive imitation of the latest and greatest cultural advances, we forget the treasure that we have inherited from generations of scholars and masters of thought and practice. We take what we have for granted, and neglect our own values out of passion for something new. In many ways, the great miracle of Chanukah was that a handful of Jews who could no longer suffer pagan practices in our holy temple, were able to reform the values of a generation, and re-establish a kingdom based on our historical ethics.
Today, our situation is not all that different. Though we do have sovereignty in our homeland, we are constantly criticized (by the enlightened peoples of the world) for not caring enough for our barbarian neighbors who are willing to sacrifice themselves, if only to destroy us. We've gone whole hog for the materialism, and celebrate liberal 'causes' from extremist environmentalism to affirmative discrimination as if they were great spiritual values.
And this holiday, though most famous for its potato pancakes, could also be an opportunity for some thoughts about values.
anyone who wishes to comment is invited to send their response to humpict@017.net.il
