Chanukah
The uniqueness of the holiday of Chanuka is apparent in the fact that it is
so widely celebrated amongst the Jews the world over and no matter what
their level of Jewish observance is. It is not only that Chanuka has the
"good fortune" of always falling in the month of December that accounts for
this level of interest in it. This is definitely a factor, but I do not
believe it to be the deciding factor. I think rather that Chanuka
represents the last refuge of Jews who want to be Jewish but are unable to
verbalize or express in their actions that inner desire. So, Jews allow
Chanuka to speak for us. For Chanuka declares clearly that there is a God
in the world, that there are basic principles of faith and godly behavior
that are worth great sacrifices, that a little light can overcome a sea of
darkness and that God demands a certain greatness from the Jewish people
and He will perform miracles to guarantee human realization of His presence
in world events. Jews really believe in these ideas but somehow they are
not publicly expressed in our lives. It may be that in our modern world
that has cast away so much of the positive of the past, it is embarrassing
to mouth these eternal truths. Certainly in this century when Marx, Lenin,
Stalin, Hitler and other representatives of the new, modern, progressive
world, were ascendant, the lights of Chanuka were certainly dim and the
ideas they represented were only capable of being whispered but not
proclaimed. So the Jewish person retreated into Chanuka and let the holiday
itself speak for them and their inner being and hopes.
One of the qualities of Chanuka, which the Talmud emphasizes, is the
concept of pirsuma nissa - the requirement to publicize and make known the
miracle of Chanuka. Thus the lights of Chanuka are lit in a window that
opens to the outside street. In Israel we light the lights of Chanuka in
the passageway of our outside doors so that they shine on the street and
the passerbys. The lights of Chanuka, the symbol of the miracle and the
lessons of this holiday, thereby become a public statement of Jewish faith
and of our deepest instincts and godly intuition. What we cannot say in
words, either out of ignorance, shame, or weakness, we say therefore with
the lights of Chanuka themselves.
The problems in Jewish life that Chanuka records for us are still present
today in the Jewish world. The Hellenistic Jews no longer go by that name
but their program of advocating unchecked Jewish assimilation, no matter
what the cost, still lives on. There are other Jews in our time that
advocate putting all of our trust in our own might and power, even though
all of the history of the events of this bloody century seem to deny the
validity of such a strategy. There are still other Jews that are blind to
the realities of being subjugated and are unappreciative of the benefits,
spiritual and physical, of being an independent nation. All of these groups
existed within the Jewish world of the Hasmoneans almost twenty-two
centuries ago. The victory and miracles of Chanuka stand as a stark
reminder to all of us that we have been through this trial once before. A
wise people learn from its past history. Chanuka and its lights are a
powerful memory aid for all of us.
The Torah records for us in this week's reading the story of the
fulfillment of Yosef's dreams. The Torah reading of Miketz almost
invariably coincides with the Sabbath of Chanuka. The message here is also
clear. Chanuka and Jewish dreams are inseparable. In order to have a
meaningful, spiritual, Jewish life, one must be a dreamer. One must have a
maximum vision of one's self and one's importance and contributions to
Jewish life and destiny. Without that vision, it is difficult to appreciate
the lights of Chanuka. For Chanuka not only commemorates our past, it is
meant to illustrate our future. It gives hope for our dreams' fulfillment
and a sense of confidence - Jewish confidence - that somehow all will yet
be right for us and for all of humankind.
Happy Chanuka.
Rabbi Berel Wein
Text Copyright © 2000 Rabbi Berel Wein and
Project Genesis, Inc.
