What is the holiday of Chanukah really about? You ask someone who knows, and you get a different answer every time. It seems like a simple question, but the truth is, there is no easy answer.
The truth is – “What is Chanukah?” is one of the Talmud’s most famous questions. You have to know that if the rabbis are asking the question, there is no easy answer.
What is YOUR answer? I am sure that you have been asked the question many times, even been invited countless times to come into your child’s class and answer that question to an entire classroom of kids – most of whom are not Jewish – and their only reference point is Christmas.
“It’s the Jewish Christmas,” some will say. The truth is, both holidays do light lights during the darkest time of year. The truth is, that gesture is worthy of a holiday, not only at this physically darkest time of the year, but at this corona virus darkest time of the year. How do we respond to deep darkness? We create light.
But truth be told, when the rabbis of the Talmud asked: “Mei Chanukah” in their native Aramaic, when they asked “what is Chanukah?” that was not their answer.
“What is Chanukah?” the rabbis ask in tractate Shabbat 21b. And they answer their own question by explaining: “On the 25th of Kislev - when the Greeks entered the Temple, they polluted all the oils in the Temple, and when the Hasmonean dynasty overcame and defeated them, they checked and they found but one cruse of oil that was set in place with the seal of the High Priest, but there was in it only [enough] to light a single day. A miracle was done with it, and it stayed lit for eight days.”
Oil that was only enough for one day lasted for eight days. So Chanukah, it seems, is a holiday celebrating resilience. How much ‘oil’ do you have left in you? How do you sustain yourself, keep going, stretch the oil, the fuel that keeps you going, especially during a pandemic?
Chanukah teaches us how to live. And miraculously, Chanukah is a holiday we can celebrate in the safety of our own homes. Everyone can take a moment on each of the eight nights of Chanukah to kindle light, to remember that those who came before us gained strength and sustenance from this simple, accessible tradition.
Chanukah begins this year on Thursday, December 10th at sunset when we kindle the 1st candle. The 2nd night is Erev Shabbat and we will come together (virtually), as a congregation, and we will each kindle our own chanukiot, as Zoom gives us – yes – another miracle: the miracle of being inside everyone’s home at the same time and together we witness the faith and courage of our people as we kindle a light against the darkness and pray for another miracle of deliverance this year.
To a Chanukah filled with light and sustenance and miracles,
Rabbi Offner