Chanukah is,
arguably, the most beloved of all Jewish festivals. Periodic surveys of the Jewish community in
the United States show, time after time, that lighting Chanukah candles is the
one Jewish ritual that ‘marginal’ Jews are most likely to do. In other words, if a Jew does only one overtly
Jewish thing all year, it’s probably going to be celebrating Chanukah. There’s no reason to suspect it is any
different here in Australia.
Given this, one would think that we’d
have a good handle on the lessons that Chanukah comes to teach us. Sadly, that is not the case for most Jews.
We focus on the external
enemy. On the malefactor from without
who seeks to harm us – who seeks to destroy us.
Most Jews, in retelling the Chanukah story to celebrate the festival,
focus on the sins of the ‘evil’ Assyrians under their despotic king, Antiochus
Epiphanes. They tried to wipe out all
vestiges of Jewish practice. They took
extreme measures to get the Jews to turn away from their religious practices
and adopt the pagan cult of their conquerors.
As a result, the Jews rebelled and mounted a guerilla war against the
Assyrian occupation. The Jews succeeded
in expelling the enemy. Then they
rededicated their Temple to the worship of G-d.
The story, presented thusly, sounds
compelling. Presented thusly, it is a
source of pride for Jews. And we need
a source of pride! Our history since
then has left enough of a pride deficit that, once a year in December, the injection
of pride ‘serum’ is needed and welcome.
Just when our neighbours are preparing to celebrate their own major festival
of Christmas which by definition excludes us, we need to feel some measure of
pride at being Jewish. The Chanukah
story as presented, succeds in providing that measure.
The only problem is that the story, as
presented, is a lie. Or at the very
least, it is grossly incomplete. And in
its incompleteness, it misses the important lesson it could teach us. That important lesson is the danger of
assimilation. That is, of trying too
hard to accommodate our Jewish-ness to the circumstances – and to the
attractions – of the world around us.
There are those Jews who take
incredible measures to separate themselves from their surrounding world. They dress and present themselves in ways
that ensure they cannot be identified as anything other than Jews. They congregate with other Jews to the point
that they hardly have contact with the greater world. They affect lifestyles, and even mannerisms,
that clearly allude to Jewish-ness. They
relish the degree, to which they insulate themselves from the world around
them.
But most Jews are not hyper-insular.
Most Jews reading this, unless I miss my
guess completely, are the type of Jew who mixes freely in the non-Jewish world
around them. They struggle, not to find
ways to express themselves in the wider world, but to find ways to express themselves
as Jews. This, without reducing
their opportunities to mix in the wider world. It is for these Jews that the lesson of
the Chanukah story is most potentially beneficial.
The Assyrian king did not concoct the
notion that depriving the Jews of their religion would make them loyal subjects
of his empire. He got the notion by
observing the many Jews who were happy to cast off their religion in order to
embrace Hellenism. When Hellenism came
calling, many Jews were enamoured of the new culture. They sought to integrate fully with the
society of their conquerors no matter what the ‘cost’ in terms of distancing
themselves from Judaism. It was the
loyalty and ‘usefulness’ of these Jews to the Assyrian empire, that informed
Antiochus of the wisdom of wiping out Jewish practice.
We need not look all the way to events
of 2,200 years ago to learn this lesson.
Many have been the periods when similar desire by many Jews to adopt to
the dominant culture, have resulted in disaster for the Jewish people. But because the Chanukah story is one that
resonates so strongly with Jews today, it is certainly one that we should not
sanitise to the point of removing its message.
We do not live in a Jewish society
that has been conquered by outside forces. We live in a multicultural, liberal, society
which is – at least superficially – not hostile at all to the religious
practices that cause Jews and other distinctive groups to appear, and act,
different. But you and I know that it is
often challenging to be true to our religion whilst also participating fully in
society. So if we’re going to be
true to any degree to our religious imperative, then that counsels an
acceptance that our Jewish-ness by its very nature – and the nature of society –
lessens our ability to participate in the latter.
How might this lessening of our
ability ro participate, manifest itself?
In varying ways. Because I have
come to a point where I put a fence around Shabbat, I must turn down many opportunities
to mix socially and in other ways with my gentile friends. I must forego many cultural opportunities. There are all sorts of things that happen on
Friday nights and Saturdays that I might enjoy, that I don’t even consider. This could be termed a loss. But it doesn’t feel like a loss because
I acknowledge the profound satisfaction I derive from Shabbat. Everything else about Jewish life, where it
puts me in a position of sacrificing the ‘freedom’ to do one thing for the
meaning that Judaism adds to my life, is similar. We all know this. And yet we sometimes make choices that
indicate we’ve assigned little value to the meaning that Judaism adds to our
lives.
So celebrate Chanukah. But when we tell its story, let’s not santise
it to where it loses its meaning. The lesson
of Chanukah is the danger of assimilation. Assimilation to where we’re willing to choose
the ways of the many over our ways. Assimilation to where it becomes easy to
subsume our very identity as Jews, in favour of our identity as citizens of the
land. Our present circumstances do not require
this. And yet, so many Jews today, in
Australia and other free societies, choose that very course. That’s unfortunate. Especially when we consider how many times in
our history when the tendency of Jews to choose that very course, has brought
on disaster and suffering to Jews. Something
to think about. Shabbat Shalom, and a
Joyous Chanukah!
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