chanukkah
Pure Zealotry, Pure Commercialism & Acts of Pure Intentions The celebration of the Maccabees’ victory teaches us about the parameters of rebellion.
by Yael Unterman
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ndulge me for a moment while I rant about Sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts). No, not about the calories (which are scandalous), but about their infuriating appearance in the Israeli shops two months early. Why must this be so? The Shulhan Aruch recommends that we start preparing a month before each holiday. These days, however, by the time Chanukkah rolls around, Sufganiyot are passé and everyone’s ready for the Hamantaschen. This is just one symptom of the commercialization of Chanukkah. Israel, as part of a Western capitalistic system, is just as prone as other countries to the habit of commercializing almost everything one can lay one’s hands on. Yet Chanukkah is a festival of light that contains crucial spiritual issues beyond the candles, songs and unhealthy foods forced upon us earlier and earlier each year by vendors. One of these issues is that of rebellion. The Maccabees are the rebels of ancient Jewish
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history, in a way that neither the Israelites in Egypt nor the Jews of Persia were. No resistance movement grew up amongst the downtrodden Hebrews in Egypt; indeed, the midrash informs us that a group of Ephraimites who escaped early ended up as bleached bones in the desert. In other words, rebellion was not desirable, for God was to take them out in God’s own good time. Biblical individuals who rebel are frowned upon for the most part. Jonah disobeys his destiny, and subsequently nothing goes right for him. King Saul deviates from Samuel’s instructions regarding Amalek and loses his kingdom for it, and there are many other examples. So what differentiates the Maccabees? They made some radical moves, like deciding to defend themselves on Shabbat and killing a Jew who sacrificed to pagans (I Maccabees 2:24, 40-41). They also founded a ruling dynasty, the Hasmoneans, who as cohanim (priests) did not descend from the house of Judah, as Jewish kings ought
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Today, when God does not intervene in quite a revealed a fashion, only the test of time will prove how any particular person or movement will go down in Jewish history.”
to. Yet ultimately they go down in Jewish history as heroes. Why? This issue is a complex one, with no simple answer. But we can gain some insight if we compare two more Biblical rebels: Korah and Pinchas. Korah, who ostensibly struggles for the good of the collective against Moses’ tyranny, ends up swallowed into the ground, proving his struggle to be a selfish one. Pinchas on the other hand, who commits what is normally considered a heinous crime (running a spear through two people), is granted a “covenant of continued on page 57 | December 2008