An Open Letter to My Jewish Friends

25 Kislev, sunset

Dear Friends,

This evening, I see the first candle of eight to be progressively lit with the shamash over the next several days glowing in your front window. If I understand correctly, these are holy candles not to be confused with light that illumines space for reading or family celebrations. They symbolize the spirit of liberation and trust in G-d.

Each successive evening, there will be blessings voiced –

First, you will pray - Praised are You, Our G-d, Ruler of the universe, Who made us holy through Your commandments and commanded us to kindle the Hanukah lights.

Then the second blessing will be said. Praised are You, Our G-d, Ruler of the universe, Who performed wondrous deeds for our ancestors in those ancient days at this season.

There is a third recited only on this first night. Praised are You, Our G-d, Ruler of the universe, Who has given us life and sustained us and enabled us to reach this season.

There will be a very short Talmudic lesson and then there will be singing. Most likely the traditional hymn Maoz Tzur, grounded in Psalm 31 as it remembers different redemptions in Jewish history

Rock of ages, let our song
Praise Your saving power;
You, amid the raging foes,
Were our sheltering tower.
Furious they assailed us,
But Your arm availed us,
And Your word,
Broke their sword,
When our own strength failed us.

As a Christian, I am aware that there is an additional verse that later emerged praying that G-d would once again intervene as G-d had intervened in Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, and in the Maccabean revolt with the Greeks, to “vanquish Christianity in the very shadow of the cross." Post-holocaust, we as Christians are only beginning to understand and repent for centuries of anti-Judaism. There is much still to be done. We pray for your patience with us, even though we do not deserve it.

In today’s, post-holocaust world, Hanukkah, with its remembrance of the vision of liberation and the celebration of G-d’s miraculous sustaining power, is not just about the past but about memory that enlivens the present as well.. So in our present, Jews celebrate that memory and affirm the Jewish determination never again to let universal rhetoric cripple the Jews' right to defend themselves. Hanukkah is appropriately a profoundly Zionist holiday.

At the same time, I pray for just solutions that move quickly toward peace in what is holy land for the three great Abrahamic faiths. The celebration of Hanukkah can be ‘light’ in that present darkness as well, for it asserts the right of politically self-determined existence for all peoples.

There will be fried potato pancakes and jelly donuts. There will also be gifts, although some now advocate that gift giving be celebrated as part of Purim. The gifts will include gestures of friendship as well as gifts given in solidarity with the poor.

As I observe your celebrations, I understand that this holiday has many meanings. But perhaps in our time, we can receive with joy the wonderful gift of this holiday’s insights about authentic universalism. Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg explains in his article found on My Jewish Learning. I quote him at some length.

One theme is the clash of the universal with the particular. Hellenism saw itself as the universal human culture, open to all. But Mattathias, Judah Maccabee, and the brave people who saved Judaism were not fighting for a pluralist Judea. They were fighting against the state's enforcement of Hellenist worship because they believed it was a betrayal of Israel's covenant with G-d. When, after decades of fighting, they liberated Jerusalem and purified the Temple, they established a state in which Jews could worship G-d in the right way- not in just any way. Hanukkah is not a model for total separation of church and state.

On the other hand, the Maccabee victory saved particularist Judaism. It preserved the stubborn Jewish insistence on "doing their own thing" religiously; never mind the claims of universalism that only if all are citizens of one world and one faith will there truly be one humanity. By not disappearing, Jews have continued to force the world --down to this day--to accept the limits of centralization. Jewish existence has been a continued stumbling block to whatever political philosophy, religion, or economic system has claimed the right to abolish all distinctions for "the higher good of humanity." Since the centralizing forces often turned oppressive or obliterated local cultures and dignity, this Jewish resistance to homogenization has been a blessing to humanity and a continuing source of religious pluralism for everybody, not just the Jews.

The Maccabee revolution made clear that a universalism that denies the rights of the particular to exist is inherently totalitarian and will end up oppressing people in the name of one humanity.

Universalism must surrender its overweening demands and accept the universalism of pluralism. Only when the world admits that oneness comes out of particular existences, linked through over-arching unities, will it escape the inner dynamics of conformity that add to repression and cruelty. [my emphasis]

Those stubborn Chasidim raised a subtle issue of political existence and religious truth that is only coming into its own in the 20th [sic] century. Ultimately, the touchstone of human survival will be the ability of people with passionately held beliefs and absolute commitments to allow for pluralism. National peace will turn on the capacity of groups organized around values to allow the inherent dignity of the other into their own structures. How to achieve this respect without surrendering to indifference or group selfishness is the great challenge.

And so, in celebration of this important blessing given to us all, I wish you and yours a Happy Hanukkah.

Shalom,

John Montgomery

Photo Credits: I-stock photo, Jack Hazut, JHM Photography