Hannukah This Time Around

Photo by Ben Ostrower on Unsplash

We were learning the night before Hannukah from Rabbi Kook about Israel’s relationship with the nations. The point of concern was this: it is inevitable that there will be a cultural give-and-take between Israel and the nations. This is especially true if you are a minority surrounded by a dominant culture, as Israel—the Jewish People—was for two thousand years of exile. The problem Rabbi Kook discussed was how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? There are undeniable benefits to be had from exposure to other cultures, and by adopting certain aspects of foreign cultures Judaism itself changes, but at the same time there are dangers. The foreign culture may have aspects that undermine the basic tenets of Judaism. This may manifest itself as a slow, insidious process, say, by tracking in some chaff to one’s home as you would sand after a walk on the beach. Or it may arrive as a blizzard of chaff, inundating and overwhelming the senses until one cannot think straight. The chaff-blowers are out early the next morning to clear the streets, only to uncover a statue of Jupiter in the central square of Jerusalem.

Hannukah commemorates the perfect storm of chaff. The culture of ancient Greece left its mark on Judaism to the extent that some Jews, the Hasmonaeans, felt that Judaism was in danger of being overwhelmed, and initiated a civil war. Rabbi Kook raised the question of whether Judaism can ever be overrun completely. In answering in the negative, he referenced the miracle container of pure olive oil, containing enough oil for lighting the menorah for one day but which sufficed for eight days, long enough for new olive oil to be processed. For Rabbi Kook, the Jew, pressed time after time to the brink of extermination, has stored, deep within, a little container of pure olive oil, that provides light in the darkest of times when hope is all but lost, and that has within it the power to rekindle the individual Jewish spirit and to spread and carry with it the rekindled spirits of the world’s Jews, creating a perfect storm of light.

While we were studying this I remembered what we had learned in another study group earlier that day. It was our daily Talmud class. The on-going discussion was over how many judges are needed for different types of cases. On that day’s learning, the question was about arbitration, if it was desirable and if so, when it should be applied. A verse from Psalms was quoted to support one position. Later that verse was said to pertain to another event: the sin of the golden calf. And that is the crazy beauty of learning Talmud. Right dab in the middle of a dry discussion of legal particulars, the Big Sin of the Jews is plopped on your lap. Though it seems clear-cut that Aaron facilitated the idol worship of the Israelites, in the discussion in the Talmud one of the commentaries says that the opposite is true. To simplify, by allowing the Israelites to worship the golden calf, Aaron prevented them from a far more severe transgression (murdering him) from which he knew there would be no chance for them to repent and be forgiven. Aaron realized that the People of Israel were standing on the precipice of total annihilation, and did what he had to do to prevent that.

The total annihilation of the Jewish people. That is what is on the table. From the moment that the Islamists took power in Iran they have declared that they are on a holy jihad to wipe Israel off the map. Today, the Jews of Israel and of the Diaspora know one thing well. The Jews are vulnerable. The Jews of the West stand aghast at the unrestrained attacks of Antisemitism emanating from the supposedly enlightened halls of learning. The Jews of Israel, believers and non-believers alike, realize that but for the frenzied drug-induced impatience of Hamas that fueled a hideous slaughter of Jewish families at ease in their homes, Oct. 7 could have been much, much worse, and though the Israeli military has rebounded admirably, air-raid sirens are still—after more than a year of fighting—sounding all over Israel. The Jews are vulnerable.

I think of Rabbi Kook’s description of the tiny flask of pure olive oil sitting, unnoticed for so long deep in the soul of every living Jew, starting to burn as a single flicker when the surrounding darkness seems irrepressible. I think of Aaron, waiting for Moshe to descend from the mountain of God, trying to cope with a raucous crowd, willing to throw his own reputation out the window if only he can hold the gates of repentance open for a stiff-necked people.

Then I think of the numerous Jews of the Diaspora who have been shocked into recognition of their vulnerability by their traitorous former colleagues. Jews who were (and in my opinion still are) leading lights in most things liberal and progressive, always the first to stand in solidarity when called to the flag for the cause of some downtrodden group. And, on October 8th, just when they were awakened to the fact that they as Jews will always be the most and truly downtrodden, abandoned to the furies of Jew hatred, they were awakened also to the fact that none of their adopted ideological cousins were standing with them. “Hey, where are you guys?” they said, hearing the echo of their cry bouncing from empty corner to empty corner, the entire public square vacated of allies.

The subtext of vulnerability for Jews is the threat of extermination. From the far reaches of assimilated Jewry in the Diaspora, through the various flavors of Yids in their courtyards wherever they may be found, to the nationalistic Jews of Judea and Samaria, all of those Jewish hearts skipped a beat on October 8. There, once again, in front of each individual Jew and in front of the Jewish people as a whole, the dark maw of the final solution rose up, unavoidable, impossible to side-step, demanding of the Jew to take a stand. If the general awakening of the Jews can be likened to the kindling of Rabbi Kook’s miracle oil in the soul of every Jew, then the Jewish answer to that black hole of death they faced after October 7 was of the stuff of Aaron, Moses’ brother, showing no concern for his own reputation when the existence of the Jewish people was at stake. When a Jew takes a stand in this world against those who rise up against them, a price has to be paid. In the Diaspora, so far, that price is usually one of reputation, or social acceptance, whereas in Israel, it is the price paid by the young men and women fighting Israel’s enemies, and it is paid in blood.

The Maccabeans of the Diaspora, such as Eve Barlow, and Peter Himmelman, two who seemed to have much to lose, but who have rejected their rejection and are writing powerfully with total devotion to the Jewish People. Gavriella Zahtz has made the big move to Israel and is inspiring others with her story. Howard Lovy has taken note of prejudice against Jewish authors in publishing and is working to correct that. Joshua Hoffman over at Future of Jewish in Tel Aviv is orchestrating a strong Jewish symphony of writers, while Righteous Gentile David Swindle 🟦 may own the crown of King of Zionist Writers with his series on Antisemitism. And if not him, then the prize should go to Pat Johnson. Include in those non-Jews the many Christians who have stepped up to be counted.

These writers have taken a powerful unapologetic stance against the Jew-haters, and they are worthy of their Hasmonaean forebears.