Hanukka at a hockey rink

How odd to celebrate Hanukka in a sports arena, given that the concept of sports is emblematic of Greek culture.

By ELIYAHU FEDERMAN
Chabad hockey florida panthers Hanukka 311 (photo credit: Courtesy of Eliyahu Federman)
Chabad hockey florida panthers Hanukka 311
(photo credit: Courtesy of Eliyahu Federman)
The Coyotes vs Panthers hockey game last Tuesday was no ordinary game.
Chabad of Florida performed a menorah-lighting ceremony on the ice during the first period intermission. The event looked nothing short of a huge Hanukka party.
But the event itself was really quite ironic.
How odd, I thought, to celebrate Hanukka in a sports arena, given that the concept of sports is emblematic of Greek culture.
Besides placing a great emphasis on rational thought with thinkers like Aristotle and Plato, the Greek and Hellenist culture glorified masculine physical strength and sports. The story of Hanukka is about opposing the Greek idea that we are just soulless material beings whose bodies are ends in themselves, devoid of the divine spark and human dignity which transcends our physical appearance.
The Book of Maccabees recounts how the Greek-culture Seleucid Empire provoked a revolt in part due to the Greek-style gymnasium built in Jerusalem. The gymnasium represented the glorification of the body.
On the other hand the Maccabees, too, are a symbol of physical strength, both as ancient warriors fighting for religious freedom and in the modern-day “Jewish Olympics” held in Israel every four years. Perhaps hosting a Hanukka party at a hockey rink is quite appropriate after all.
It not only symbolizes the physical prowess of the Maccabees but is also a message of sanctifying and harmonizing the mundane Greek culture for a Godly purpose. Infusing the spiritual with the physical. Focusing on physical strength and health is a very Jewish concept, so long as the human body is not seen as an end in itself but part of the eternal soul endowed to every person. Prohibitions against mutilating the body are based on the principle that we are required to maintain our health because a healthy body is a healthy soul. Our bodies are not ours to harm.
In deciding whether a public display of a menorah outside a government building violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, the US Supreme Court, in Allegheny vs ACLU, ruled that a holiday display with a menorah was constitutionally permissible because in the context of other holiday symbols such as the Christmas tree, the menorah served as a secular symbol with universal significance. Despite the fact that the menorah also has a deep spiritual and religious significance, the court’s ruling indicates there is a secular, universal dimension to the menorah as well.
The Supreme Court is right: the message and struggle of Hanukka are universally applicable to all people at all times. Although it has deeply religious origins, there is also a secular message to Hanukka. We must strive to combine the health of the physical body with the sanctity of the soul. By lighting a menorah in a sports arena, we combine these two aspects of life.
Ultimately, the story of Hanukka reflects on the struggle of the poor, oppressed and colonized over the long span of human history seeking to achieve freedom and liberty. The very fact that a menorah lighting would be accepted in a sports arena, the place that was once a symbol of Jewish oppression, is a sign of ultimate conquest of freedom over tyranny.
Also, what better way is there to fulfill the mandate of publicizing the story of Hanukka then to broadcast it to tens of thousands of people watching hockey? The Maccabees would be proud.
The writer is an executive at an e-commerce company. He graduated law school in New York, where he served as an executive editor of the law review. He received his rabbinical training at the Mayanot Institute and Rabbinical College of America.