People keep asking me about that New York Times article where a person is shocked to discover the fact that the war Hanukah commemorates is, a war, full of pain and trauma and atrocity, that it’s not like a child’s picture-book…The war through which we celebrate Hanukah was, in part, intra-Jewish, in which zealous traditionalists attacked and killed more assimilationist Hellenized Jews–WHILE FIGHTING THE SELUCID ARMY TO GAIN THEIR FREEDOM.

The catalyst for the violent revolution was the reigning Syrian Greek king, Antiochus IV, who demanded that Jews worship false gods and violate the Sabbath, or die.

Historically speaking, the miracle of Hanukah is that this small, bandit guerrilla army (the zealots) triumphed over Antiochus’ large army and formidable weapons, against all odds, not only taking back the desecrated Temple, but re-dedicating it as well.

The “Hanukah miracle” with which most kids are raised was apparently invented by rabbinic sages living 300-600 years after the Maccabean events took place—the first time we hear the story of oil that was meant to last for one day but instead burned for eight is in the Talmud.

It’s not clear when the story originated, but some scholars posit that rabbis under Roman rule figured it wouldn’t be clever to publicly celebrate a holiday marking the violent overthrow of a foreign government, particularly in light of the failed Bar Kochba rebellion.

So, instead, they came up with the much more kid-friendly version about the oil which, conveniently, lends itself much more to spiritualized interpretations of Hanukah.

Why was it 8 days originally? There are a few theories. One suggests that the Maccabees were too busy waging war to celebrate Sukkot on time, so they did so later—but that doesn’t explain why Hanukah would become a whole separate holiday in subsequent years.

Two others offer a little more irony: one suggests that an eight-day winter festival of lights was widespread in Greek, Roman and Babylonian Antiquity, and another notes that that’s how long the Greeks celebrated their military victories.

After the Hasmoneans/Maccabees/Zelots/heroes of our story won, once Israel was reclaimed and the Temple restored, Judah, the Hasmonean leader, and his brothers set to making a mighty Hebrew nation, by force. I’ll be blunt: atrocities were committed…One year, though, I started sitting meditation in front of my Hanukiya every night, breathing with the candles, thinking about renewal, rededication. I began to wonder how I might be able to clean up the despoiled Temple of our history, to once again sanctify my faith—in Hanukah, and in celebrating Judaism as it exists today.

…A mature adult faith demands that we take in difficult, painful facts and allow them to become part of our understandings of God, our language of faith and connection. Hanukah is not a holiday about innocence. Neither is Purim, actually–Jews did some slaughtering there, too. Part of adult faith is being able to look truth in the eye, to take responsibility for it, and to not get stuck by the fact that it’s not an easy story.

It certainly requires us not to take our frustrations to God…An adult relationship to our tradition has to include the facts of bad human behavior and culpability, and yet also maintain the awe and reverence that God Godself deserves.

Is there any reason that I can’t be grateful for the survival of the Jewish religion while condemning the actions of those who were involved in its (miraculous) survival?

Perhaps our question is not, “How can we possibly celebrate God and miracles if God didn’t save our pure souls from the evil hands of others?” but, rather, How might we celebrate God and miracles while acknowledging the many complex ways in which our own hands have impacted history? How might we celebrate renewal, rededication, re-sanctification with understanding not only of what it means to receive light, but also to give it out?

We have to be honest about the history that’s happened, to take responsibility for what has been done & to use what’s past to spark discussion and action about how to behave in our world today.

We can and should embrace the rededication of our souls, hearts and minds on a spiritual level, and we should also use these tropes of rededication to look at the world at large, to see what has been defiled and how we can make it holy again.

Shabbat Shalom & Happy Hanukkah