Chanukah And The Puppets Of Power

Watching Chankah celebrations at the White House and rabbis talking about the holiday on talk shows is an uncomfortable annual ritual. On one hand, I appreciate the elected leader of the country and mass media recognizing a Jewish holiday so publicly with good intentions. On the other, I cringe as invited guests try to cozy up to people in power and influence, often contorting the truth of the holiday.

For one, the desire to make Chanukah appear universal is patently false. Comments from some rabbis-with-microphones that it is a holiday that we pray for “light to defeat darkness” and a time for “all of us to rededicate ourselves to our partners and communities,” is such airy fare to be rendered a blank Hallmark card. This holiday marks when Jews defeated the Selucid Greeks (from Syria) and expunged their pagan ways from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and throughout the Jewish holy land.

As another matter, the rush of Jewish “leaders” to these scenes in order to score girl scout badges to burnish their bona fides is most troubling. I would be most appreciative had these rabbis taken the opportunity to stand as proud Jews and plainly declare the actual reason for the holiday. But to watch them minimize the particularism of the holiday so they can selfishly obtain influence from parties in power is part of how the Selucid Greeks defiled the Jewish holy land.

Rabbi Talve speaking at a Chanukah lighting discussing a range of liberal values she shared with President Obama such as immigrant rights, nuclear waste, transphobia and a host of other issues, which have nothing to do with Chanukah, December 9, 2015

The Selucid Greeks and Egyptians were the major powers in the Middle East 2,200 years ago. Israel acted as a buffer region between the two powers, and often fell under the authority of one or the other.

The Selucid King Antiochus III (241BCE-187BCE) expanded his kingdom into Asia and took control of Israel from the Egyptians. Generally, he treated the Jews well and they continued their autonomy and Temple worship in Jerusalem. When he died, his son Antiochus IV became king, who sought to unify the various parts of the expanded Selucid kingdom via a common religion and culture. He removed the Jewish High Priest Yochanan from the Temple in Jerusalem and installed Yochanan’s brother Jason who was willing to permit more Hellenistic and pagan worship, including building a gymnasium in Jerusalem.

“The craze for Hellenism and the adoption of foreign customs reached such a pitch, through the outrageous wickedness of Jason, the renegade and would-be high priest, that the priests no longer cared about the service of the altar. Disdaining the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened, at the signal for the games, to take part in the unlawful exercises at the arena. What their ancestors had regarded as honors they despised; what the Greeks esteemed as glory they prized highly. For this reason they found themselves in serious trouble: the very people whose manner of life they emulated, and whom they desired to imitate in everything, became their enemies and oppressors.” (2 Maccabees 4:13-16)

Jason was later replaced by Menelaus who promised even more pagan rituals, while Antiochus IV came to the holy land and began to ban important parts of Judaism such as circumcision and observing the Sabbath. “Menelaus, thanks to the greed of those in power, remained in office, where he grew in wickedness, scheming greatly against his fellow citizens…. the king dared to enter the holiest temple in the world; Menelaus, that traitor both to the laws and to his country, served as guide. He laid his impure hands on the sacred vessels and swept up with profane hands the votive offerings made by other kings for the advancement, the glory, and the honor of the place.” (2 Maccabees 4:50; 5:15-16)

The defilement of Jewish laws and ransacking of Israel was aided and abetted by Jewish leaders who sought to gain positions of power from leaders 2,200 years ago. To celebrate Chanukah today, we should not only light candles to mark the rededication of the Jewish Temple those many years ago, but vocally demand Jewish leaders who refuse to sell out Judaism and the Jewish State for self-aggrandizement.