As many of you know, I hate Hannukah

[xiphias]

So I've been looking for things I could like about Hannukah -- ways to redefine it, make it something OTHER than a simple "yay our repressive theocracy killed their repressive theocracy."

As usual, I discovered that the Rabbis got there first.

When Adam [the first human] noticed that the days were getting shorter, he said: "Is the world becoming darker because of my sins? Will it soon return to chaos? And this is what God meant when He punished me with mortality?" He prayed and fasted for eight days. When the period prior to the winter solstice arrived, he saw that the days were now growing longer. He realized: This is the way of the world. Adam then made eight days of celebration. (Talmud Avodah Zarah 8a)

That's something I can get behind much more easily.

Comments

[deerdancer22.livejournal.com]

It is so much about our need to find a way through the dark to the light. I love filling my house with lights and a tree. Having been Jewish and now Buddhist it just not occur to me to think of it as anything but what the tree and lights are really about - the solstice!

I also like the story because this is a good time to be inward and contemplative about self and the world.

Thanks!