Beth Shalom
Oceanside Jewish Center

It's amazing what you can learn on the Long Island Railroad. Although I don't get to ride the rails nearly as often as I'd like, people tell me that on any given day you can catch a review of the latest sermon delivered in any number of Long Island synagogues, you can listen to a debate on Israeli politics, or you can even learn a page or two of Talmud if you happen to be sitting in the right car.

So I can only imagine that there was a good deal of discussion about Chanukah this past week on the LIRR. After comparing presents and discussing family get-togethers, a few passengers might have talked about the significance and meaning of this holiday.

I'd like you to join me in imagining a fictitious discussion which might have taken place some time this past week between two travelers who sit next to one another each day on their way to and from work. Josh and Aaron are proud Jews, although Aaron is little more traditional and synagogue oriented in his practice than Josh. Josh, on the other hand, is an out-spoken Zionist who has been to Israel ten times and regularly contributes to Israeli right wing political causes. Both men love Chanukah but they have very different ideas about what this holiday means.

Josh goes first: "You know, Aaron, I think Chanukah is great. I love telling my children how the Maccabees valiantly fought for and defended the Jewish people and the land of Judea. It took two thousand years but we finally have Maccabees again in the modern state of Israel. No one is ever going to tell us we can't live in our own country or practice our religion. For me, Chanukah is about courage and a willingness to stand up and fight for who you are.

Aaron responds: I don't know, Josh. For me the Maccabees are only a small part of this story. Actually the Talmud has very little to say about them. Chanukah is about the miracle of the cruse of oil that burned for eight days and the willingness of the Maccabees to rededicate the Temple. It took more than just some able bodied warriors for the Jewish people to triumph. It took faith. But most of all it took God's presence in their lives. In fact that is what say in the daily service this week: "God delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, and the many into the hands of the few." Chanukah is really about the miracle of our survival, isn't it? Without God, we wouldn't be here.

Josh: Give me a break, Aaron. We Jews can't count on miracles any more. We need Maccabees. We need fighters who aren't afraid to knock a few heads off, if that's what it takes to defend the Jewish people. Where were the miracles during the Holocaust, or during the last two thousand years when Jews were a persecuted minority. Chanukah teaches me that unless you're willing to organize, fight and build your own life you will have no future. Chanukah is all about taking control of your destiny.

Aaron: I don't know about that. I've been doing a little bit of reading about the history of Chanukah, and I'm not so sure that all that power was a good thing. The Maccabees killed not only the Syrians but lots of Jews who didn't agree with them. They were the ancient equivalent of the Taliban, imposing Judaism on their fellow countrymen. They were fanatics. And in the end they were corrupted by their own power. Did you know that the Maccabees were responsible for the presence of the Roman Empire in ancient Israel? And that they were the only group of Jews in history to forcibly convert non-Jews to Judaism? That's why the Rabbis tended to play down their role in history. The sages recognized that power by itself is not necessarily a good thing.

Josh: "That may be true, Aaron, but a powerless people also can't survive in today's world. That's reality. Sometimes you have to be willing to use force to protect yourself. I heard the Rabbi say that the Maccabees were also the first group of Jews to argue that self-defense takes precedence over the observance of the Sabbath." The fact that the Maccabees were willing to take charge of their life is what made it possible for the Jewish people to survive. Did they go to extremes? Maybe. But sometimes extreme actions are necessary in dealing with an extreme crisis. If more Jews had been willing to fight and raise their voices before World War Two maybe more Jews would have survived...

Aaron: I don't disagree with you, Josh. But in the end what were they really fighting for? What was it they wanted? The Maccabees fought for the right of the Jewish people to maintain their own unique identity but in the end they were more concerned with their own power than they were with their faith or their ideals. They fought with one another and actually killed one another in order to hold on to the high priesthood and the throne. I have to tell you they were not a very impressive group of people.

Josh: I don't know. I guess I really can't think about Chanukah without considering it in light of the modern state of Israel. We Jews are always expected to be better than everyone else; we're suppose to live by a higher standard. The United Nations condemns Israel for acts that it ignores in other parts of the world. But, you know, in the end no one is going to take of the Jewish people but the Jewish people. I read somewhere that Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, a prominent Orthodox Rabbi, said that when the Israeli Army is five percent more moral than other nation's armies, it is a "Light unto the nations." But you know what Israel is when Israel's army is ten percent more moral than other armies? It's dead. Israel has to be pragmatic and realistic. We have to survive. And sometimes the struggle for survival is not very pretty or humane...

At this point Aaron became very quiet. I don't think he was conceding the argument. I think he simply realized that there was no answer to these questions.

It seems to me that there are two visions of Chanukah in our tradition: One in which Jews valiantly fight in self defense, and the other in which they come to recognize that we are more than just a nation -- we are a people with a unique destiny and set of values. To survive we need both a pragmatic view of the world as a sense of idealism and faith. Chanukah is both about fight and light. It must be about power and piety. We need both in order to survive.

In the end, all we can say is that we have a great deal of which we can be proud as Jews. Israel is a miracle not because it was founded with a miraculous cruse of oil or because God somehow interceded in our history, (though that may be true) but because we as Jews have managed to rise up from the ashes and build a new life for ourselves. I don't believe we did it on our own. I believe that the staunchest atheists in Israel are often more religious than they realize.

Yet with all the problems that Israel faces these days, it remains an extraordinary place, filled with miracles and light. If all you know about Israel is what you read in the newspaper then you would never know this. Take it from me -- if you want to find out what Israel is really all about, go there and don't wait until the present crisis passes. Israel needs us and we need Israel now more than ever. All it takes is a week in Israel to discover that David Ben Gurion was correct. He once said, anyone in Israel who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist.

It's often pointed out that we light the Chanukah candles for eight days even though the miracle of Chanukah only lasted seven days. After all, since there was enough oil for one day, there was nothing miraculous about the oil burning the first day. So why, then, do we recite the blessing, "Who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days," on the first day of Chanukah? The miracle of the first day was not that the oil burned but that the Maccabees were willing to light the candles at all. To rise above dispair, to believe in the future, to act in the face of darkness is the greatest of all miracles.

Chanukah teaches us what we need to know, today. Miracles don't come from above. Sometimes they come from within us as well! They take both Maccabees and a cruse of oil.

As we come to the end of Chanukah I hope that we will pragmatic enough to perserve ourselves and idealistic enough to believe in our future.

Shabbat shalom and happy end of Chanukah!!