Happy Chanukah
Wishing those who celebrate a very happy Chanukah, and thinking about the holiday and its relevance today. Chag Sameach!
I like to think of myself as fairly knowledgeable about Judaism. I have known and been close to Jewish people nearly all my life, having grown up in Montreal, a much more Jewish environment than Hamilton. But a Montreal friend surprised me recently with a new piece of knowledge.
A North American dreidel (the word comes from the Yiddish word spin) has the letters nun gimel hey shin as an acronym for נֵס גָּדוֹל הָיָה שָׁם meaning a great miracle happened there. Nes Gadol Haya Sham.
But in Israel, where the miracle happened, the letters stand for נֵס גָּדוֹל הָיָה פֹּה Nes Gadol Haya Po. A great miracle happened here.
Of course it makes total sense.
As a young person, I learned this dreidel song from my boyfriend who of course had learned it as a small child:
A sevivon or s’vivon is another word for dreidel.
But what was the great miracle?
Why is it that out of all the victories of the Jewish people over their oppressors, it is the one that occurred in 164 BCE that is commemorated?
The Talmud asks the following question: “What exactly is Chanukah?” This is an odd question, because you would think that if anyone knows what Chanukah is about, it would be the Sages of the Talmud. What’s more, they never ask “What’s Passover?” or “What’s Purim?” How come they had such a problem with Chanukah?
Rashi, the Biblical and Talmudic commentator par excellence, comes to the rescue and explains the Talmud’s question as follows: “Exactly what was the miracle that led to Chanukah being instituted as a holiday?” The implication of this question is that there was more than one event that one might consider to be miraculous, but only one has satisfied the Sages’ criteria for a miracle worthy of a holiday.
To that query the Talmud answers: “Our rabbis taught that the 25th of Kislev begins the eight days of Chanukah. On those days eulogies are forbidden. Why? Because when the Greeks entered into the Holy Temple, they made impure all of the pure oils that were on reserve to be used in the Menorah.” The Talmud then goes on to report that when the Hasmonean family triumphed over the Greeks, they only found one jar of oil that was still sealed with a seal of the High Priest, that was entirely free of impurity, and could therefore be used in the Menorah.
We are also told that this one jar of oil was only enough to burn for one night. And then comes the grand conclusion. “That night there was a miracle and they were able to light a small vial of oil, and a miracle happened and the candles burned for eight days.”
The article linked and excerpted from above also explains that a nes is a Class One miracle as opposed to the more ordinary or natural Class Two miracles.
The military victory, then was a Class Two, something natural that happened because the people did not give up and kept resisting agains all odds. But the oil burning eight days was Class one.
So you could say it is a natural characteristic of Jewish people never to give up. And also that this holiday is a way of commemorating the great thing God did for them once when they were resisting.
The Rise of Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial
Anti-semitism has once again become a huge worldwide problem, especially in the past two years since the terrorist attack October 7 and the ensuing weaponisation of of anti-Israel conflated with anti-Jewish sentiment from the terrorist organisation Hamas and its supporters.
Here in Canada, one of 7 nations outside of Israel with the most significant number of Jewish people, Scarily the two provinces with the greatest rise in antisemitic incidents, according to data from this audit, are Quebec and Alberta.
I have been following Willie Handler, whose parents were survivors, on Twitter and now also here on Substack. He writes about many points of confusion like the contention that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.
What has happened is that anti-Israel factions have manipulated the term to mean something that it was never meant to be. This has even crept into the Jewish community. Opponents of Israel now try to tie Zionism to Israeli government policy. This is done intentionally to get more people to declare they are anti-Zionists. That would be analogous of calling someone who disagrees with American government policy regarding trade as anti-American. I have many personal disagreements with the policies of the current Israeli government but I am still a Zionist and support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.
His book about what he experienced as a child of Holocaust survivors as well as what he learned from extensive research, since his parents wouldn’t talk about the Holocaust is,Out From the Shadows. It is a must-read for anyone who is doubtful at all about the impact of the Holocaust on our world today, as well as for those who understand its significance but don’t know a lot about the lived experience of going through the Holocaust. And it is also essential reading for people of other opinions.
Holocaust denial and/or ignorance has become normalised as we move into the second quarter of the 21st century, close to 100 years after the rise of Hitler. Amnesia is encouraged in too many quarters around the world, with horrifying results such are commonly seen today in the US and other countries where extreme right-wing forces control the governments.
One of the many things that has impressed me while reading the book is the over-the-top nature of persecution people experienced in Russia and Poland before the Second World War even started. Willie also writes about those Jewish who collaborated in the hopes they would be spared, but were also sent to the gas chambers. It is impossible not to see a parallel today with Hispanic and Black people supporting a US government that has embraced white supremacy, and their shock when they or their family members are deported or disappeared by ICE.
What does all of this have to do with Chanukah?
The world is in a very dark period right now, and it is understandable that many are tempted to despair.
How can we resist against the powerful forces all around that desire evil for innocent people around the world, including Jewish people who are so weirdly and wrongly hated for being themselves?
But we can, and must resist.
Darkness does not have the last word.
Light will come.