This Hanukkah, Choose Light Over Heat

Opinion|This Hanukkah, Choose Light Over Heat

Many of us grew up with a straightforward Hanukkah story. It is a parable of resilience, told and retold throughout the ages, and a powerful metaphor for the Jewish people: We endure despite repeated, often brutal efforts to snuff us out.

This retelling represents a choice ancient rabbis made about what to emphasize about our identity and values.

The narrative is this: In the second century B.C.E., the practice of Judaism was outlawed and punished by a cruel Syrian Greek king, Antiochus IV. Under his rule, Jews were put to death if they studied Torah, kept kosher or observed the Sabbath. The king and his army desecrated Jerusalem’s holy temple — then the locus of Jewish life — building an altar to the Greek god Zeus and sacrificing a pig on it.

In response, an intrepid Jewish family, the Maccabees, formed a small rebel army, rose up against the king and, using scrappy guerrilla tactics, managed to vanquish the enemy.

To this history, the ancient rabbis added the miracle of the oil. When the temple was reclaimed and rededicated by the Maccabees — “Hanukkah” means “dedication” — they could find only a single container of oil to light the menorah that was supposed to burn with an “eternal light.” Miraculously, the flames lasted eight days, long enough to find more oil to keep the candelabra glowing.

The Talmud teaches us to place the menorah in the window to “publicize the miracle.” Those burning candles have come to represent fearlessness in the face of anti-Jewish hatred.