Musing on the Jewish holiday of Hannukah
Nov. 24th, 2002 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasThis may turn into a rant; I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I'm trying to noodle out on paper -- er, electrons -- some things that have been going through my head for the past couple weeks. I'd love to hear what y'all think about it, too. . .
So, next week, Jews are going to celebrate Hannukah. Lemme give the capsule summary-for-goyim-who-didn't-go-to-Brandeis of the holiday, just so's everyone can follow along with the ranty-bits.
Some time around 150 BCE or so, Antiochus (who, if I recall correctly, was a Hellenic Syrian), invaded Israel, conquered it, and decided to make the Greek religion the national religion. Cut to a village somewhere in Israel. A kohein (member of the priestly family named Mattathais is standing with some of his family, when a this message comes down -- people gotta sacrifice to the Greeks or be killed. A villager comes up to make a sacrifice. Mattathais draws a sword, kills the villager, the soldier standing nearby who's guarding the altar, and the official who's delivered the message, and he and his sons take to the hills, forming a guerilla organization dedicated to taking back their country.
Eventually, they do, recapture The Temple in Jerusalem, and rededicated it to OUR G-d, since it had been used for Greek sacrifice.
We have a holiday based on this.
Okay, that's the capsule summary of the reason for the holiday.
There's a lot about this holiday that bothers me.
The first is it's just basic futility. I mean, so, in 134 BCE, they got the Temple back. In 70 CE, it was destroyed again.
Two hundred years. For the past two thousand years, we've been celebrating a victory which only lasted two hundred years. That's kinda . . . lame.
The second reason is that, well, the Maccabees overthrew a repressive theocracy, and then instituted their own repressive theocracy. And it bothers me to have a holiday based on "OUR repressive theocracy supplanted THEIR repressive theocracy." It should be pointed out that I'm not the first person to feel this way: the Rabbis did not put the books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees into the Jewish Bible, although they did mandate celebration of the holiday. But in the prayers for the holiday, Mattithaias, the Hasmodeans, and the Maccabees are never mentioned by name -- basically because the Rabbis disapproved of the actions of the Hasmodean dynasty. The only reason I've got copies of those books is that I've got Christian Bibles, too.
So, it bothers me. We've got this holiday -- an unimportant holiday about a fleeting, transitory victory that instituted a repressive theocracy.
And it's one of the only two holidays that most Jews in the United States celebrate.
So, next week, Jews are going to celebrate Hannukah. Lemme give the capsule summary-for-goyim-who-didn't-go-to-Brandeis of the holiday, just so's everyone can follow along with the ranty-bits.
Some time around 150 BCE or so, Antiochus (who, if I recall correctly, was a Hellenic Syrian), invaded Israel, conquered it, and decided to make the Greek religion the national religion. Cut to a village somewhere in Israel. A kohein (member of the priestly family named Mattathais is standing with some of his family, when a this message comes down -- people gotta sacrifice to the Greeks or be killed. A villager comes up to make a sacrifice. Mattathais draws a sword, kills the villager, the soldier standing nearby who's guarding the altar, and the official who's delivered the message, and he and his sons take to the hills, forming a guerilla organization dedicated to taking back their country.
Eventually, they do, recapture The Temple in Jerusalem, and rededicated it to OUR G-d, since it had been used for Greek sacrifice.
We have a holiday based on this.
Okay, that's the capsule summary of the reason for the holiday.
There's a lot about this holiday that bothers me.
The first is it's just basic futility. I mean, so, in 134 BCE, they got the Temple back. In 70 CE, it was destroyed again.
Two hundred years. For the past two thousand years, we've been celebrating a victory which only lasted two hundred years. That's kinda . . . lame.
The second reason is that, well, the Maccabees overthrew a repressive theocracy, and then instituted their own repressive theocracy. And it bothers me to have a holiday based on "OUR repressive theocracy supplanted THEIR repressive theocracy." It should be pointed out that I'm not the first person to feel this way: the Rabbis did not put the books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees into the Jewish Bible, although they did mandate celebration of the holiday. But in the prayers for the holiday, Mattithaias, the Hasmodeans, and the Maccabees are never mentioned by name -- basically because the Rabbis disapproved of the actions of the Hasmodean dynasty. The only reason I've got copies of those books is that I've got Christian Bibles, too.
So, it bothers me. We've got this holiday -- an unimportant holiday about a fleeting, transitory victory that instituted a repressive theocracy.
And it's one of the only two holidays that most Jews in the United States celebrate.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 06:06 pm (UTC)Er ... anyway. Yeah. I actually have problems with a lot of holidays, and not just religious ones. (Insert standard rant here about separation of church and state.)
Since you are much more knowledgeable than I about Judaism (big honking understatement, that ... I'm frighteningly ignorant about religion), why do you think it is that this particular event got picked out of the many, to be so widely celebrated? I'm curious. Are there other events that were equally influential (or more so) in the history of Judaism that make more sense to you for holidays?
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 06:58 pm (UTC)It only became a significant holiday in the New World. The general theory, and I've got no reason to disbelieve it, is that Hannukah became a more major holiday because of its proximity to Christmas. Elements of gift-giving were grafted into it, which allowed commercialism a hook in, and it got commercialized the way Christmas did.
Are there other events that were equally influential (or more so) in the history of Judaism that make more sense to you for holidays?
Yeah, lots of 'em, and lots of those events did become holidays. Purim, for instance, celebrating the survival of a community of Persian Jews (if you've got a Bible around the house, you may have the story as The Book of Esther.) Passover (which is the other holiday most American Jews celebrate), celebrating the proto-Jews leaving Egypt.
See, you've got a bunch of different periods of Jewish history, with different forms of "documentation", as it were, about them.
Like, stuff that appears in the Five Books of Moses (the Torah), those form "Biblical holidays" -- celebrating the creation of the world, the giving of the Torah, the exodus from Egypt, the time wandering in the desert, stuff like that. Technically, those are the most important holidays, and, frankly, they're my favorites -- but how many non-Jews who don't have a lot of Jewish friends know what happens on Sukkot, for instance?
Then, you've got a couple holidays celebrating things that happened later on in Jewish history: Purim and Hannukah, for instance. The events of both were written down as Apocryphal books, but only the Purim story made it into the Jewishly-accepted list of "Real Books". I suppose that Purim and Hannukah are sorta on the same level of holiday, maybe -- but Hannukah is a more recent holiday by like three centuries. And has all those weird icky political overtones.
And of course there are holidays added in the past century, as well, for things like the founding of the modern state of Israel, and mourning for the Jews in the Holocaust.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 07:26 pm (UTC)Nice save.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 08:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 07:17 pm (UTC)Because Chanukkah is falls nearest to Christmas in the year and because the United States is a predominantly Christian culture.
Are there other events that were equally influential (or more so) in the history of Judaism that make more sense to you for holidays?
There are already holidays for those events, but they just don't get as much attention. The one other widely celebrated holiday associated with a historical event is Pesach (Passover). Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah are important holidays, but (to the best of my knowledge) are not associated with specific historical events. Rather, Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement.
But there are other minor holidays that commemorate historical events. Purim celebrates the Jewish people's narrow escape from a pogrom in Persia. Sukkot commemorates the Israelites' journey out of Egypt to the promised land. And Tisha B'Av is remembered as the day that lots and lots of really bad things happened on (centuries apart).
On a complete tangent, I have a science fiction setting where Earth was destroyed on Tisha B'Av (as near as anyone in the colonies can tell; if you hold to relativity, simultaneity over distance is a null concept.)
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 09:49 pm (UTC)... even when they didn't actually happen on Tisha B'Av, but rather near Tisha B'Av... e.g. destruction of the second temple was (I learned recently) the day before. Close enough, though, after 1900 years, right?
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-27 07:39 am (UTC)For example, why do we not have holidays to commemorate the building/dedication of the original temple, or the return from exile and the building of the second temple? These would seem to be more significant than the Macabees' temporary reconquest/rededication of the temple that was already there, yes?
Chanukah is a big deal in the US because of That Other December Holiday, of course. I've been told by Israeli friends that it's not a big deal there. And it's not supposed to be a big deal. It, like Purim, is a minor holiday -- not anywhere near on par with Shavuot or Sh'mini Atzeret, to pick a couple holidays most Jews don't celebrate.
An analogy between religious and national holidays
Date: 2002-11-24 06:51 pm (UTC)You and I live in a country that has only existed for two hundred years. Yet we celebrate its independence every year.
The second reason is that, well, the Maccabees overthrew a repressive theocracy, and then instituted their own repressive theocracy. And it bothers me to have a holiday based on "OUR repressive theocracy supplanted THEIR repressive theocracy."
And I find the current regime in America to be both oppressive and doing its damnedest to institute a theocracy.
But a holiday is not just a commemoration of a historic event, nor does it constitue an endorsement of the politics associated with that event. A holiday is a gathering of people who share membership in a common group to rejoice in each others' company and to reflect on what membership in that group means.
Reflecting on the historical event can include thinking about the bad parts of it, and how we can strive to avoid them in future. In recent years, some people have expanded Thanksgiving celebrations to reflect on the treatment of the Native Americans. This does not invalidate Thanksgiving as a holiday, but rather magnifies it.
And it's one of the only two holidays that most Jews in the United States celebrate.
Okay, that one I have no answer for. It's not like it's even a particularly fun Jewish holiday either. Yeah, lighting candles is a (very controlled) way of playing with fire, but how can it possibly compare with getting drunk and playing with noisemakers or with building a shack in your backyard and picnicking in it?
(Warning: I am not Jewish and this comment is based upon my limited understanding of the Jewish holidays.)
Or I may just be full of hot air in an attempt to rationalize my recent purchase of a Judah Maccabee plushie as a present for the future nephew-in-law. :)
Re: An analogy between religious and national holidays
Date: 2002-11-24 07:00 pm (UTC)That hardly needs to be rationalized. First, it's really cute.
Second, it was the inspiration for the brilliant idea to make plushie weapons for babies.
Re: An analogy between religious and national holidays
Date: 2002-11-24 07:10 pm (UTC)The question, though, is -- let's say that it's July 5, 4007 or so. Zee3bok56 is reading its Ancient History textbook, about how The United States of America was destroyed in 2013, in the Religious Wars sparked by Admiral Poindexter's Purges.
And then it goes outside and lights fireworks and plays Sousa marches, because it's Independence Day.
Wouldn't that be a little lame?
Re: An analogy between religious and national holidays
Date: 2002-11-24 07:25 pm (UTC)And then it goes outside and lights fireworks and plays Sousa marches, because it's Independence Day.
But Jews survive to this day, even if the Hasmodean dynasty didn't. And they're the ones who celebrate the holiday. Your analogy only holds if Zee3bok56 can trace its heritage back to American roots, in which case it might well light fireworks.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 07:02 pm (UTC)My sense is that the holiday is so widely observed here because it's been made to compete with Christmas. That's a whole separate rant.
Generally I ignore the political implications of the holiday and observe it because it's a Festival of Light--which I suspect is how this holiday had its beginnings anyway. I bet the other stuff grew up around it later. Given the time of year and the nature of the miracle, I tend to file it mentally with Winter Solstice festivals in general. But then, I'm doing the Big No-No of practicing paganism and mooshing in stuff my family always does from my Jewish upbringing, so everyone else's mileage will probably vary widely.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 07:12 pm (UTC)Even if it didn't begin that way, I'd bet you a nickel that's why it survived as a holiday.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 08:07 pm (UTC)A.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 08:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-25 06:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-24 09:34 pm (UTC)The first is it's just basic futility. I mean, so, in 134 BCE, they got the Temple back. In 70 CE, it was destroyed again.
Two hundred years. For the past two thousand years, we've been celebrating a victory which only lasted two hundred years. That's kinda . . . lame.
You think that's lame?
What if I told you that the Maccabee victory was much less than 200 years?
Yes, that's right. They didn't have control over the temple for very long. (Although once they rededicated the temple, it stayed rededicated, even after the Maccabees lost control over it.) They had a big military victory (Yom Nikanor, which is "on the books" as a holiday on the 13th of Adar, but the rabbis - oh, so coincidentally - squelched by making it the fast of esther), but this victory pissed off the selucid king, who sent a real army, which crushed Judah and his band, the remnant of whom became brigands.
The Hasmoneans got a bit of power in about 142, when they supported one side in the Selucid civil war; as a reward they got a release from tribute (which is not the same as independance). The Selucids, distracted by their civil war (which lasts about 100 years), mostly ignored the area; however, the general policy of the Selucids was to let local rulers rule their areas, as long as they sent tribute to the king. Antichous VII actually beseiged Jerusalem until he was paid off.
And Antichous didn't invade Israel; it was never really independant after the destruction of the first temple. The jews were allowed back by, um, the Persian empire. The Persians were fairly hands-off; they let regions have their own rulers, who governed according to the region's local code of law, and gave tribute to the persian capital. Alexander the Great conquered the persians, and then after his death his kingdom broke up into bits, all of whom were "hellanized" (heck, Alexander the Great wasn't really greek; he was macedonian, but he had delusions of greekness.) The greek rulers were similar to the Persians, except they didn't deign to speak the local languages, and thought that greek culture was the bee's knees... but it was probably some jew who wanted to hellanize Judea who requested the decree...
I could write more fun facts, but I'm too tired to think straight much longer.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-25 12:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-11-25 01:59 am (UTC)A few Hanukah notes:
Date: 2002-11-25 10:39 am (UTC)Secundus: There's a history there and it ain't all pretty. This happens. But it *is* about victory. Remembering victory may hold on to long fleeting glory but sometimes even fleeting glory is better than none at all.
Tertius: the gift giving used to be on Purim. It was moved to Hanukah due to proximity to Krismus. O Joy, O Rapture. Wanna exchange gifts on Purim instead?
Quartius: it *is* unimportant in the long scheme of things. Tisha B'Av is far more important but gets far less shrift. Hanukah is joyous, the other isn't. Wonder why it's more widely observed? Wonder no more.
Pentius (Pentium?): Dude, who really cares? We're told to go out and celebrate the oil lasting so long by eating yummy fried foods! What other religion has that?
Re: A few Hanukah notes:
Date: 2002-11-26 05:16 am (UTC)Well, when you get right down to it, every Jewish holiday seems to have some characteristic food tradition, ranging from fasting to honey-and-sweet-things to dairy to no-flour-or-leavening to hamentaschen...
Re: A few Hanukah notes:
Date: 2002-11-26 05:49 am (UTC)"They [tried to/nearly managed to] kill us, let's [fast/eat]."
Re: A few Hanukah notes:
Date: 2002-11-26 08:15 am (UTC)A.
yay religious eating!
Re: A few Hanukah notes:
Date: 2002-11-26 11:59 am (UTC)You can eat in a Sukkah (temporary booth), if you like. But you don't have to.
You can eat food with or without leavening. There's no particular tradition about dairy or oil or sweet...
Shmini Atzeret, however, unlike some of these "johnny come lately" holidays like hannukah or purim is actually in the torah. It still doesn't mean that we have a clue as to what it's about.
(To be fair, Shmini Atzeret is the only jewish holiday I can think of that doesn't have a food tradition associated with it. Well, maybe "Yom Yerushalim" doesn't yet, but it's still pretty new, and isn't on the same level yet.)
Re: A few Hanukah notes:
Date: 2002-11-26 06:47 pm (UTC)The reason for this is that Sukkot is a holiday of just plain unbridled joy, so you should have a tradition of eating everything that you love.
A tradition has it that, in the World to Come, the only holiday that will still be celebrated is Sukkot, because it is the most joyous holiday.
Re: A few Hanukah notes:
Date: 2002-11-26 07:06 pm (UTC)I've heard another variant which says that Purim and Sukkot will be the holidays celebrated. And, I think, the only book of the Tanakh that anyone will read will be the Song of Songs. (Not sure if I'm conflating two things there).
Re: food traditions and Jewish holidays -- I think it's cool that Arthur Waskow, in his book Seasons of our Joy: A Modern guide to the Jewish Holidays has recipes for the holidays in addition to sections about ancient and modern practices.
Re: A few Hanukah notes:
Date: 2002-11-27 07:33 am (UTC)And Tisha b'Av, which will be a festival instead of a day of mourning. (I think, but am not sure, that 10 Tevet and the Fast of Gedaliah also become festive days, but I'm not sure. These are the other fasts connected to the destruction of the temple.)
Re: A few Hanukah notes:
Date: 2002-11-26 12:01 pm (UTC)Mmm... Doughnuts...
Re: A few Hanukah notes:
Date: 2002-11-27 08:19 am (UTC)This the charge of the Colonel be, thirteen herbs and spices ye need!
Goy boy toy seeks joy....
Date: 2002-11-27 06:00 am (UTC)Pagan, but one parent lived in Brookline MA.. nuff said....
This rant (directed to by way of
Landscape design class.... we were entasked with redesigning the somewhat decreipt, sere, concrete pit that was the Hillel House courtyard. I had all these agendas back then, about universal access (being one considered to have a disability, it's a pet peeve of mine) religious space for everyone, and so on...
The grad student chickie (very blonde, straight, and Christian) had NO idea what to do with me when I turned in a design that included both ramps as well as steps AND an area designed specifically to accomodate a sukkah.(sp?) Talk about the hairy eyeball.
I went to some elementary and high school in Brookline and thus had a lot of exposure to Judaism, but we seem to have been taught the fluffy-bunny version, as all I knew about it was that some candle oil lasted 8 days instead of the one it was expected to. Never heard any of what you said above. Thanks for the edu.
Re: Goy boy toy seeks joy....
Date: 2002-11-27 06:14 am (UTC)I actually taught my first-grade Sunday school class that. . . I may be turning out the most messed up group of six-year-old Jews around. . . :)
Re: Goy boy toy seeks joy....
Date: 2002-11-27 07:35 am (UTC)I am surprised by the number of Jewish adults who don't know that. Good for you for teaching it to the kids!