12-11-2025 Chanukkah

On Sunday night, December 15 we begin our yearly  celebration of Chanukah. Chanukah is a special holiday  not only because of the joy it brings, but also because it is  a holiday surrounded by mystery.  

In reality there are two Chanukah stories. The first tale is  about our national fight for liberation and the ideals of religious freedom. In this tale we celebrate the  Maccabees’ military victory, and we remember that we  Jews were the first people in the world to fight for the  principle of religious freedom. The holiday marks the  liberation of Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel from the  Greek-speaking Seleucid empire.  

The “second” Chanukah story deals with the miracle of the  oil as expressed by the Chanukah candles. It is in this  story that the oil in the newly-rededicated Temple lasted  for eight days instead of one. No one quite knows how  these two stories merged. Most likely sometime in the  early middle ages the two tales became one and the  modern version of Chanukah was born.  

Many non-Jews have added a third dimension to  Chanukah. Because of the holiday’s proximity to  Christmas, many non-Jews falsely assume that Chanukah  is the Jewish Christmas and that it holds great religious  significance. The two holidays, however, could not be less  similar. Christmas is a major religious date on the 

Christian calendar. Chanukah is a minor holiday that has  none of the importance of Rosh Ha’Shanah, or Yom Kippur. 

Nevertheless, Chanukah’s multiple messages are very  appropriate for an age such as ours, an age of political  turmoil that pits citizen against citizen. Chanukah is about  cultural respect, about being proud of who you are without  tearing down the other person. Chanukah teaches us that  when we deprive another human being of his/her humanity  in the end we also diminish ourselves. 

Chanukah’s message is perhaps best summed up by its  most famous song “Maoz Tzur” (Rock of Ages) whose first  verse ends with the words: “Yours the message cheering,  that the time is nearing, which will see/all men free/tyrants  disappearing.”  

As the Jewish world celebrates Chanukah in a world filled  with prejudice and violence, antisemitism and racism, how  these words seem ever more necessary and relevant. How wonderful it might be to live in a world in  which each man and woman is free and in which tyranny  gives way to liberty and mutual respect. What could be a  more wonderful Chanukah present?