In a new light

Hanukka's candles flicker only for those that see the fire of Torah, tradition and morality that lie beneath their small surfaces.

By BEREL WEIN
Hanukkia (photo credit: Yehoshua Halevi)
Hanukkia
(photo credit: Yehoshua Halevi)
Now there is not much new or brilliant things left to be said about Hanukka, right? I think many old, grizzled rabbis like yours truly would probably agree with that statement. Over 50 years of writing and speaking about Hanukka should pretty much exhaust the topic, shouldn’t it? But then again, that would be selling Hanukka short. There is always a different and newly seen insight that illuminates all of the holidays of the Jewish year, and Hanukka is certainly no exception.
I was reminiscing (something we old, grizzled rabbis do often) with myself about my own life and past. I was amazed to again realize that somehow a lawyer from Chicago ended up being a rabbi in Jerusalem. How did this happen? And how did the Jewish state itself happen – not in terms of history and facts and personages and dates and places and wars but in the amazement of the fact that such a state exists and flourishes and progresses in spite of all odds?
The rabbis of the Talmud have taught us that that people to whom wondrous things occur do not really recognize those events as being wondrous. It is part of the weakness of human nature to have such limited sight and understanding. There has to be a flash of insight, a commemorative act, a tradition of being able to look past the trees to the forest, a spirit of almost childlike wonder for the wondrous to truly be wondrous in the eye and mind of the beholder. And I think that this is essentially how we have to look at Hanukka – the historical event, the commemoration of that event and the traditions and customs that so endear this eight-day festival to all of Israel.
Jewish tradition and the rabbis of the Mishna took a wondrous event that many people would look at as being ordinary or natural and restored it to its true wondrous state. The story of Hanukka is that of a small and apparently weak nation overcoming a mighty army of a world empire. It records a triumph of monotheism and Jewish tradition over pagan culture and practices, of small lights in the Temple that were pure over flaming torches that were far from pure, of the vitality and resilience of Israel over those who would wish to snuff it out. It is all wondrous, but only if one views it all as being wondrous.
The rabbis elevated the mundane and seemingly ordinary to become miraculous and eternal. That is the main lesson that Hanukka teaches us – that we are a special people who live a miraculous existence with constant wonder surrounding us and yet encrusted in seemingly natural and ordinary occurrences.
To delegitimize the story of Hanukka and to treat it as just another ancient war is the same tactic that the world uses today to delegitimize the State of Israel and our rights in our ancient homeland. If the wonder of it all is lost and forfeited, so is our struggle for existence and independence. Hanukka is pure wonder, hence its importance and relevance to us.
Perhaps more than any other holiday, Hanukka is a children’s holiday. Tradition allows even the youngest to light the Hanukka candles, to play dreidel, to taste latkes and sufganiyot, to have time off from school and to observe the holiday through the eyes and sense of a child. Children still retain their sense of wonder and imagination. Their world is not usually bound by the practicalities, realism and the sometimes pessimism of their elders. Everything in life is still new and unexpected, worthy of curiosity and examination. Theirs is yet a magical world, even a spiritual world, viewed from a different plane of perception and thought.
Therefore, Hanukka is the perfect holiday for children, for it requires this perspective to be made wondrous, miraculous and thereby meaningful and beneficial. Hanukka is not for the jaded and empty spirited. Its candles flicker only for those that see the fire of Torah, tradition and morality that lie beneath their small surfaces. One who is privileged and able to see the wonder of the events that occurred to us “in those days” will also be able to discern the wonders that we encounter daily here in Israel “in our time.”