As it does every year, Hanukkah begins on the 25thTh of the Hebrew month of Kislev. This year it happens on the 25thTh December, when many of our neighbors and loved ones will celebrate another winter holiday.
While there is certainly sweetness that comes with more people celebrating and being in the holiday spirit at the same time, I can’t help but feel a little wistful this year that Hanukkah is being lumped together and perhaps even equated more than usual with Christmas.
Because while Hanukkah is a beautiful holiday, it is considered a relatively minor Jewish holiday, one that is not even found in the Torah (Hebrew Bible). Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, celebrates the victory of a small group of Jewish warriors, who called themselves the Maccabees, over the mighty Greco-Assyrian army, around 165 BCE. The Greeks, led by King Antiochus IV, had attempted to suppress Jewish religious practices, forbidding the observance of Judaism and desecrating the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. In response, the Maccabees rebelled and fought for their ability to maintain their traditions and unique religious identity, as well as to reclaim their sacred spaces.
When the Maccabees regained control of the temple, they attempted to rededicate it by lighting the menorah, a seven-branched candelabra that symbolized the eternal light of God’s presence. But they found only a small amount of oil, enough to light the menorah for just one day. Since it took eight days to make oil, this created a bit of a problem. However, the oil miraculously burned for eight days, giving them enough time to prepare more oil before it ran out.
This miracle is the basis of Hanukkah, which is celebrated for eight nights, with an additional candle lit each night on the Hanukkiyah (a menorah with nine branches instead of seven – one for each night during the miracle plus an auxiliary candle, known as a shammash), which symbolizes that we should focus on the presence of ever-growing miracles in our world.
While the miracle of the oil lasting eight times longer than expected is not something to overlook, there is another miracle that may speak to each of us, regardless of our faith tradition (or lack thereof) – that the Maccabees decided to act empty when they had no reason to believe they would be successful.
This miracle happened twice – both when the Maccabees decided to go against the ever-powerful King Antiochus IV and held on to their uniqueness despite great pressure to assimilate as well as when they decided to light the Hanukkiyah despite having only enough oil for one day. How many people do we know who are brave enough to really stand up for their beliefs, especially when they are not the majority opinion and doing so has significant consequences? And how many miracles never happen because someone doesn’t have the faith to dare to dream about what might be possible?
This is where the holiday’s deeper message can resonate with all of us: sometimes we have to take action even when we don’t know if it will make a difference. The courage of the Maccabees was not based on certainty or assurance of victory but on their commitment to a cause greater than themselves.
So as the lights shine this Hanukkah, whatever holiday you celebrate – or don’t celebrate – on December 25th, we can think about how each of us can find our own inner courage to act when we don’t necessarily know whether we will succeed or not, because we are guided by each of our teachings to be true to our traditions and to be empowered to know that perhaps the courage to take one small action can have the power to bring about miracles that we never dreamed of were possible.
Rabbi Gail Swedroe is assistant rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin and an executive board member of Interfaith Action of Central Texas (iACT). Doing Good Together is compiled by IACT, interfaithtexas.org.
