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CHANUKAH IS A CHOICE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH: CHOOSE LIFE  
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Alan Wagman
December 9, 2024
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_ We need not surrender Chanukah to Zionism’s dark vision. As
rabbis refocused Chanukah more than a millennium ago, we can honor the
instruction in Deuteronomy, “. . . I have set before you life and
death, blessings and curses. Now choose life . . . " _

, A replica of the menorah by the Temple Institute

 

Chanukah (or “Hanukah”) – “dedication” in Hebrew – is a
Jewish holiday celebrating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem
in 164 BCE after a victorious war. The story, told in the Book of the
Maccabees, has never been deemed worthy of admission into the Jewish
canon. Nonetheless, as Jews, we celebrate the minor festival decreed
in this scroll. This year, Chanukah runs from sundown on December 25
through sundown on January 2.

 

Most are unfamiliar with the original story and know it only from
secondary sources. As with many stories learned from “official”
rather than original sources, the Chanukah story is heavily censored
by authorities who would rather we not know too much of the history.
This is much like the reality distortion in American history and
civics textbooks and much like the heroic Zionist narratives
permeating Jewish religious education, too many rabbinic sermons, and
the American media.

 

In the familiar story, a brave band of guerrilla fighters, led by a
group of brothers – “the Maccabees” – fought for religious
freedom against the Seleucid Empire (a Greek state with one of its
capitals in Syria), expelled the Greeks from the Jewish nation-state,
and rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem. As with many such stories, it
contains essentially accurate facts but does not embody truth.

 

While there was indeed a war, it was not exactly a war for religious
freedom. Untold in the usual story is that the Maccabees’ first
targets were Jews who had assimilated into Greek religion and society,
adopted various Greek customs and morés, and took on what we might
call an ancient version of a “Western” lifestyle (1 Maccabees
1:10-15, 41-43, 52-53; 1 Maccabees 2:17-24; 42-48
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Jewish assimilation into other cultures is not unique to the ancients.
Most Jews in the United States have adopted American culture’s
manner of dress, spoken language, political philosophies, and even
modes of religious practice (or the absence of religious practice). We
reason using Greek logic. Some of us console children upset that we
don’t have Christmas by explaining that they get Chanukah gifts for
eight days rather than just one or by bringing a “Chanukah bush”
into our homes.

 

Such assimilation has always been anathema to Jewish fundamentalists.
Today’s fundamentalists say that liberal Jews brought on the Nazi
genocide. The Maccabees, though, went further: When some Jews obeyed
the Seleucid king’s orders to bow to statues of Greek gods, the
Maccabees hunted them down and slaughtered them. (1 Maccabees 3:1-9
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Only after this did the Maccabee fanatics turn their attention to the
occupying Greek forces. (1 Maccabees 3:10-4:35
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Once the Maccabees had driven the Seleucids from Jerusalem, they set
about rededicating the Temple, including lighting the Temple lamps. (1
Maccabees 4:36-55
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To celebrate, the Maccabees declared an eight-day festival, Chanukah.
(1 Maccabees 4:52-59
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However, hundreds of years later, rabbis were troubled that the
festival celebrated slaughter and militancy. To remedy this, although
the original story contained no hint of miraculous oil (1 Maccabees
4:52-59
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the rabbis writing the Talmud invented a story
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at the core of the narrative we know today: that although there was
only enough undefiled oil to light the Temple lamps for one day, the
oil miraculously burned for eight days. For centuries following this
Talmudic revision, Chanukah was a minor holiday celebration during
which we gave small gifts and lit candles on each of the festival’s
eight nights.

 

However, in the late 19th century, a new, secular political movement
emerged and turned the celebration on its head. Zionism used Chanukah
as a propaganda tool.
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The “Festival of Light,” epitomized by its candles, became a
celebration of masculinity and militarism. For example, at the Second
World Zionist Congress in 1898, a Hungarian Zionist, Max Nordau,
introduced the concept of _Mukeljundanten_, or “muscular Jewry,”
calling for Zionism to “revive the ancient tradition of the warrior
Maccabees.”

 

After the Holocaust, Zionists again propagandized Chanukah
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as a celebration of strength, militarism, and the glory of sacrificing
one’s life for the Jewish nation. Following this line at a Chanukah
candle lighting ceremony, Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed, “The
Maccabees were not Palestinians, they were Jews, brothers, fighters.
What heroism, what pride.”

 

Zionism has not stopped at _figuratively _invoking a warrior state.
Today’s fundamentalist Zionists _literally _seek to fulfill the
mission of Maccabee fanaticism: Just as the Maccabees of old
rededicated the Second Temple in Jerusalem, today’s fanatics plot
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to build a Third Temple and resume animal sacrifice. This is not a
fringe movement; they have the support of Israeli National Security
Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

 

Do we really want to celebrate the Maccabees? More to the point, do we
want celebrate a festival corrupted by Zionism?

 

We need not surrender Chanukah to Zionism’s dark vision. We can
reclaim, redeem, and rededicate our tradition. Our forebears
celebrated this as a festival of light, and it is upon us to honor
them by celebrating it as well. We can celebrate in a way that
embodies truth: Just as the rabbis refocused Chanukah more than a
millennium ago, we can focus on bringing light into darkness; we can
honor the instruction in Deuteronomy, “. . . I have set before you
life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life
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. . . .”

 

We can choose life. We can choose to live our lives with light. We can
choose – as did the rabbis who wrote the Talmud – to reject
narratives that lead us into the shadow of death. We can choose to
reject triumphalist but ultimately doomed nationalist/fundamentalist
narratives that separate our lives from the lives of others.

 

We can choose to live Jewish lives joined with Palestinian lives. We
can recognize that every Palestinian life is a victory over
oppression, is a light that overcomes the darkness of Zionism. When we
light the candles of the menorah, we will join our light to
Palestinian light.

We choose light. We choose life. Each night, for eight nights, we can
turn off artificial lighting and sit in stillness with our ancestors.
Then we can light a _shamash _(helper) candle and use that to light
the other candles: one the first night, two the second night . . . for
eight nights. Perhaps, if we sit again in the stillness on the ninth
night, a realization will come to us: We are the _shamash_. We will
say, “S_heh-ahsa nisim l’ahvotaynu v’imotaynu ba-yomim hah-haym
bahzmahn hahzeh_” – that there were miracles in those days, and we
will commit to work for miracles in these days.

 

_Ken y’hi ratzon_, May it be so.

 

_Alan Wagman is a retired public defender and long-time advocate for
human rights, social and economic justice, and peace. He is a member
of Jewish Voice for Peace, a former treasurer of one New Mexico
synagogue, former president of another, and a former board member of a
national Jewish spiritual organization._

_Thanks to the author for submitting this to xxxxxx._

* Judaism
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* zionism
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* Palestinians
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* Chanukah
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* peace
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