D'var Torah

Hanukkah 5766

Ever the Twain Shall Meet

In the all too familiar story of the Maccabees, we learn of the small cruse of oil with only enough oil to last for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, hence Hanukkah. Every year about this time, especially when Christmas and Hanukkah collide (coincide?), we are introduced and reintroduced to the “lachrymose theory of Jewish history.” In every generation, we are told, are those who would have sought to destroy us. Our attention is focused on the gloom and doom of Jewish survival. The reason to remain Jews is so as not to give a posthumous victory to those who would have us cease to exist. Permit me to share two texts with you this month, both written within a decade the one of the other. The first, famously concludes an article by Mark Twain, in Harper’s Magazine (March, 1898):

If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent. of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star-dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.

He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality? [Mark Twain: Concerning The Jews, Harper's Magazine, March, 1898].

The reality of Jewish survival emerged from the Jews’ historic ability to assimilate and acculturate while simultaneously remaining vitally and organically connected to the sources of tradition: Torah, avodah, gemilut hasadim, to text and tradition. The opening chapter of I Maccabees relates the story of the Jewish upper social classes, the kohanim and the aristocracy longing to build a Hellenistic health and fitness club in Jerusalem, giving up a perceived tribalism for the greater good so as to part of the real world. But, we learn, there were those who chose not to become like everyone else for the sake of political correctness. A diverse amalgam united in the Maccabean victory: traditional, acculturating and assimilationist Jews longing for authenticity and distinctiveness, affirming communal obligations and responsibilities.

In the section of the Talmud where the discussion takes place about the miracle of the cruse of oil [Talmud Bavli, Shabbat] can also be found a discussion about which wicks and oils can be used for lighting Hanukkah lights. Even those wicks and oils that are not to be used in the lighting of Shabbat candles can be used for lights of Hanukkah, including those that do not hold a flame well. In the 1870’s, a discussion took place between the assimilated Jews of Warsaw and those Jews who would be identified as part of an observant Hasidic community; between Jews who did Hanukkah and Jew who did Purim as well as Jews who did Shabbat. What emerged from the conversation was recognition that Judaism is enriched and enhanced by all Jews and all Jews have a stake in the transmission of Judaism to succeeding generations.

Pessimists looking at Jewish history and the Jewish future, see the cruse as being insufficient and inadequate; there simply is not enough oil. And then there are those of us more optimistic about Judaism and the Jewish future, who see multiple wicks united in drawing from the perennial sources of text and tradition, custom, ceremony, ritual, Jewish education and rededication keeping the flame fed. We are those who are the heirs to Israel Friedlaender, Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, fountainhead of the Conservative Movement in the early years of the 20th century who urged us to become latter day heroes:

…We perceive a community, great in numbers, mighty in power, enjoying life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: true life, not mere breathing space; full liberty, not mere elbow room; real happiness, not that of pasture beasts; actively participating in the civic, social and economic progress of the country, fully sharing and increasing its spiritual possessions and acquisitions, doubling its joys, halving its sorrows; yet deeply rooted in the soil of Judaism, clinging to its past, working for its future, true to its traditions, faithful to its aspirations, one in sentiment with their brethren wherever they are, attached to the land of their fathers as the cradle and resting place of the Jewish spirit; men with straight backs and raised heads, with big hearts and strong minds, with no conviction crippled, with no emotion stifled, with souls harmoniously developed, self-centered and self-reliant; receiving and resisting, not yielding like wax to every impress from the outside, but blending the best they possess with the best they encounter; not a horde of individuals, but asset of individualities, adding a new note to the richness of American life, leading a new current into the stream of American civilization; not a formless crowd of taxpayers and voters, but a sharply marked community, distinct and distinguished, trusted for its loyalty, respected for its dignity, esteemed for its traditions, valued for its aspirations, a community such as the Prophet of the Exile saw it in his vision: “And marked will be their seed among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. Everyone that will see them will point to them as a community blessed by the Lord.” Source: “The Problem of Judaism in America,” lecture to the Mickve Israel Association, December 8, 1907 [eighth day of Hanukkah] Philadelphia.

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