Chanukah: joyous, but complicated

 

The challenge is to balance intellectual and spiritual sophistication with ritual meaning that’s tied to a more innocent and blissful experience


Rabbi Adam Cutler
Beth Tzedec Congregation, Toronto

Rabbi Adam Scheier
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Montreal


Rabbi Scheier: In my mind, Chanukah and Purim are the High Holidays for children – the days on the synagogue calendar many of our children most eagerly anticipate. However, the synagogue attendance habits of many Jewish families present a unique challenge: how does one present the joyous side of Judaism when families spend the most time in synagogue on the most serious and sombre days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?

How do we share the message of Chanukah with those members of our community whose primary Jewish engagement doesn’t include this youthful celebration?

Rabbi Cutler: I know a rabbi who stands at the pulpit on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and tells his congregants, “if you’re only going to come to shul three times this year, I don’t want to see you here tomorrow.” His message is that there are holidays, such as Chanukah and Purim, when family shul attendance may be more appropriate and meaningful than the High Holidays. I think it’s important to constantly re-imagine the tone that our services take. If there’s a community desire for happier, more uplifting services, then it is our duty as spiritual leaders to modify what we do. 

Chanukah is a great holiday to present the complexities of Jewish history. We celebrate the notion of bringing light to the world and boost national pride through the image of the strong Jews, the Maccabees. But Chanukah is much more complicated than that: it commemorates a civil war that pitted those who believed in the integration of outside ideas and knowledge into Jewish beliefs against those who theoretically rejected Hellenism. In that sense, it is a challenging holiday for religious pluralists and progressives. 

I want Chanukah to be a holiday of fun and family togetherness. I also want it to be opportunity to engage in serious learning and self-reflection. How do we balance the learning necessary to truly understand a holiday with its more performative aspects?

Rabbi Scheier: I’m mindful of the great teaching of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who in response to the Jewish community’s post-Holocaust declaration of “Never Again” added a crucial element: “Like never before!” In other words, we must celebrate Judaism with a joy that has never been seen.

I recall a childhood Chanukah party – with the requisite ventriloquist and carnival games – at the Monsey Jewish Center in New York. Later in my youth, I attended in-depth lectures that explored the laws of how and where and when to light the Chanukah candles, as well as lectures in Jewish philosophy that contrasted the thinking of Athens with that of Jerusalem. 

We can certainly balance the intellectual and spiritual sophistication with the opportunity to experience ritual meaning that is tied to a more innocent and blissful experience. The question remains whether to bring the joy associated with Chanukah to our observance of Rosh Hashanah – both as an authentic reflection of the latter, and as a response to the attendance patterns of our communities – or to make a renewed effort to emphasize the importance of balancing attendance on the Days of Awe with attendance on days of joy.

Rabbi Cutler: As a child, I was drawn to the Chanukah teaching of Hillel. We add one candle per night because we should always be increasing in our holiness. I wondered though about the ninth night. What happens then? In many ways, that is our challenge as rabbis.

As an adult, I am drawn to the teaching of Rabbi David Hartman. If Chanukah is about celebrating the miracle of the oil burning beyond its expected lifespan, Rabbi Hartman argued, then the holiday should only be seven days long. That the oil burned for the first day is, after all, no miracle really. And yet, we celebrate Chanukah for eight days. 

The miracle of the first day was the community’s willingness to embark on a project with no guarantee they would be able to complete it. When we celebrate Chanukah, we should all be inspired to see engagement in Jewish life as a project whose fulfilment and benefits may not be apparent from the outset. With community and faith, a brighter world may be just a day away.