blogs/rabbi-huberman

A reporter for one of the local newspapers recently posed a question to a number of Jewish children: “What do you like best about Chanukah?”

The answer, of course was no surprise. Most answered “it's the presents!!”

As comedian Adam Sandler put it in his classic 1994 Chanukah Song, “Chanukah is the festival of lights. Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights.”

Do you see any problem here? Perhaps not.

While the world around us is focused on sleigh bells ringing �" and snow glistening, why can't we have a holiday too?

So, remind me. What is this festival about??

As it is told, more than twenty two hundred years ago, a band of Jewish purists confronted and defeated supporters of the Greek influenced Seleucid Empire �" both Jewish and non-Jewish �" who had taken over and desecrated our holy Temple, and returned it to its proper religious use.

The Maccabees, their name linked to the Hebrew word for “hammer,” crushed the Seleucids, and extinguished Greek culture from the holy land.

According to tradition, as a new supply of oil was being prepared to light the Temple menorah, a small container was discovered �" and that tiny vessel produced enough oil to last eight days.

Therefore, within our tradition, Chanukah is not only defined as Judaism's Festival of Light, but also its affirmation of “anti-assimilation.”

So, what do we do today? Within our current culture, too often we have relegated Chanukah to the status of “Jewish Christmas.”

While it is praiseworthy that American culture embraces our Festival of Light alongside Christian, African American and other solstice celebrations, perhaps it's time that we reclaim a major part of what makes Chanukah unique.

So, before