The eight days of Hanukkah begin tonight. This Jewish celebration is one of the many ways that people of faith pause and witness during this season of long nights. The Solstice, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Christmas… all ways that communities mark this season of the turning year. 

Hanukkah means “dedication” in Hebrew and the holiday commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem during the second century Before the Common Era (BCE). Syria, the empire then dominating Palestine, outlawed the practice of Judaism. Syrian soldiers occupied Jerusalem and desecrated the Temple by erecting an altar to Zeus and sacrificing pigs within the Temple compound. 

Led by a priest and his five sons, the Jews rose up in guerilla rebellion and under the priests’ son, Judah Maccabee, eventually drove the Syrians from the city. They cleansed the Temple, rebuilt the altar and lit the menorah, the gold candelabra whose flames were supposed to be kept burning every night. 

Like many religious stories, Hanukkah recalls a miracle. The Talmud tells that only enough untainted oil was found to keep the lights burning for one day, but the flames continued for eight. The Jewish priests declared an eight day festival to celebrate. One of the eight branches of the Menorah is lit each night in commemoration of the miracle. 

There are other versions of the story. The Books of I and II Maccabees (which are in the Catholic Bible, not the Talmut or Torah) tell the story without the miracle. Some Jewish scholars believe this was a belated celebration of Sukkot, the important harvest festival, delayed by the revolt. 

Hanukkah became popular, especially in the United States, though it does not have the theological significance of the High Holy Days, Passover or Sukkot. Religious celebrations almost always have a cultural as well as a theological context. Remember that Christmas had to be reclaimed in this country. Our Puritan religious ancestors forbade its celebration…entirely too much cheer for them. Look what we have now… 

Also remember that the Jewish community in the US is, like every other community save the Indigenous, an immigrant community. What Judaism, what practices would come to shape the Jewish identity in this new land? Some of the first Jews to promote Hanukkah in America were the Rabbis that led the Reform Jewish Movement, largely based in Cincinnati, Ohio, my hometown. 

I learned about Hanukkah, in high school, from the kids at Wise Temple. Hebrew Union College, the leading Reform seminary is there. My Unitarian youth group always had a student from Hebrew Union on staff at our camps. The kids from the youth groups at Wise Temple and First Unitarian often attended conferences for both faiths. 

Later I learned that Rabbi Isaac Wise, for whom Wise Temple was named, in 1860, wrote a 39 week serialized story about the Maccabees, encouraging family in-home celebration of Hannukah.  This was part of a shift in the broader American culture to celebrate domesticity. Birthday parties became popular in this period. It was also when  gender roles began to calcify. One of the messages of Rabbi Wise’s writing, which we might compare to a “blog” if he were writing today, was that Jews could be part of American culture. 

There is always a specific cultural context.  

But all of the festivals of lights share a similar impulse: the need to find hope in a season of long darkness, whether those nights are literal or the long night of occupation whose end Hanukkah celebrates. Belonging and the passing on of traditions is something else these celebrations share. 

This year, the yearning for an end to the Covid pandemic may make our winter celebrations particularly poignant.  We know that vaccines are almost literally “on the way,” but we also know that it will be many more months before we can begin to create whatever the new normal may be. 

Yet we will celebrate in this season, as humans have from time out of mind, remembering the richness in the dark as well as the yearning for the light. We follow the example of the earth and of our ancestors, having faith that the light will lengthen once again and gratitude for the chance to celebrate even on the longest nights. 

Happy Hanukkah! 

Bill