Chanukah: not just for kids

Imeet adults all the time who ask “Rabbi, isn’t Chanukah a kid’s holiday? Everything about it seems to be for kids. Our grandchildren light the candles, we give them gifts and candy. We make them latkes. We play dreidel and it always seems that the holiday has its focus on children.” I usually say to them, "Sure, there are parts of the celebration of Chanukah that appeal to children but the holiday itself was never meant to be for kids.” I think it took on a charming appeal for children because we celebrate it around Christmas and do all we can to make it into a child-centered set of days.

There are similarities between the two celebrations. Chanukah and Christmas both emphasize lights, miracles, family time and food. But to characterize Chanukah as the “Jewish Christmas” is about as far from truth as one can get — it’s one of the many misconceptions that has been created because they occur at the same time of year, sometimes even concurrently.

On the most simplistic level, the whole point of Chanukah is to salute Jews’ unwillingness to convert or conform. Chanukah reminds us of the military victory of the Israelites, the Hasmonean family, over the Seleucid Greeks. The Seleucid Greeks attempted to force Jews to assimilate to Greek tradition and religion and forget Jewish traditions and teachings. The story relates to us that we fought back and, against all odds, we won. None of that is a children’s tale but we have created, for children, the fiction about the oil being needed for the lights in the Temple and finding one small jar of oil that lasted eight days. If you want to know some of the truth about Chanukah, you need to look at how it began in the first place.

After the revolt battles, led by the Maccabee family against the Seleucid Greeks for defiling the Temple in Jerusalem were won by the Maccabees and the Zealots who aided them, the Jewish community realized that they had never stopped to celebrate the harvest festival of Sukkot. It was decided that a late celebration of Sukkot was in order that year.

Traditionally, Sukkot is an eightday festival celebrated late for the eight appointed days and nights. Over time, this late celebration of Sukkot became a yearly Jewish community event and the tradition reoriented to be a celebration of the victory of the Maccabees. Since it began as an eight-day holiday that first year, the tradition of celebrating Chanukah for eight days stuck.

The story of the oil is just that, a story. It gave us a way to light candles each night. We have no idea whether they lit candles or not at that first Chanukah celebration. My guess is they didn’t and the tradition of lighting candles each night along with eating latkes and playing with dreidels and gelt were added later.

There are many other myths about the celebration of Chanukah. But one thing you can be certain of … Chanukah stands as a testament to the Jewish community that was unwilling to assimilate to the dominate Greek culture. There were Jews then who advocated for the reformation of their belief system, who welcomed aspects of the Greek culture. The Maccabees opposed their Hellenized counterparts, and the fight actually began as a bitter internal fight between fundamentalists and reformers.

So, Chanukah is very much for adults and for children and can be considered an equal celebratory eight days. In whatever way you celebrate, let me wish you a joyous, fun and very tasty Chanukah.

Rabbi Howard S. Herman DD serves at Naples Jewish Congregation.