Happy Chanukah!
[NOTE: This is a slightly edited version of a previous post.]
This is the seventh night of Chanukah, and I wish everyone a happy one. Chanukah is about a successful revolt and a miracle of light:
The miracle of the one-day supply of oil miraculously lasting eight days is first described in the Talmud, committed to writing about 600 years after the events described in the books of Maccabees. The Talmud says that after the forces of Antiochus IV had been driven from the Temple, the Maccabees discovered that almost all of the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found only a single container that was still sealed by the High Priest, with enough oil to keep the menorah in the Temple lit for a single day. They used this, yet it burned for eight days (the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready).
The words of this Chanukah song are in Yiddish—written in 1924 before the Holocaust and before the establishment of Israel—and they are not happy. But I didn’t know that when I first heard it, and I post it anyway because I think it’s very beautiful:
Here are the lyrics, loosely translated by Theodore Bikel:
O little lights of mystery
You recall our history
And all that went before
The battles and the bravery
And our release from slavery
Miracles galore.As my eyes behold your flames
I recall our heroes’ names
And our ancient dream:
“Jews were learning how to fight
To defeat an awesome might
They could reign supreme”“They would rule their own domain
When the enemy was slain,
The Temple cleansed and whole.
Once there was a Jewish land
And a mighty Jewish hand.”
Oh, how it moves my soul!O little lights of mystery
You retell our history
Your tales are tales of pain.
My heart is filled with fears
My eyes are filled with tears
“What now?” says the haunting refrain.
Written in 1924, and it seems prescient.
Bikel translated the song that way in order to make the rhymes come out in the English version. But a more literal translation of that last verse might be this [NOTE: that link isn’t working anymore, but here’s the translation I had found there]:
Oh little candles,
your old stories
awaken my anguish;
deep in my heart there
stirs
a tearful question:
What will be next?
Indeed.
It is beautiful. And beautifully snug and sparingly accompanied.
Last night, as blizzard news reigned online, I escaped to summertime and an hour long unnarrated walking tour of sights and streets mid-day, in 95F degree Budapest, last August.
The crowds were quite thin then (Europe’s cities empty out then); the voices much fewer and more discernible.
And when it came to the Jewish quarter and The Great Synagogue, soon we were on the bank of the Danube and the visual drama and eloquent voiceless shoes.
Mute remembrance of the 1944-5 Holocaust in Hungary.
But so few people to see it — the camera, our view, made it utterly personal.
The rend of paradox: the obscene crime of mass murder made to feel private, and yet completely exposed to harshest sunlight of the year.
It’s also a unique testimonial moment, where the seasonal extremes mirror the inhumane extremes, viewed during a Christmas blizzard.
Jean shares a premium complement with us, here. I think I will review the Budapest Tourist Board video segment via YT (a fresh hour long one a month ago), along with this 1924 song on “play”, for Christmas Day, tomorrow, for reflection.
These belong together, methinks. Not merely to be recalled — but experienced together.
No disrespect intended, but I’ve always wondered how major is Chanukah as a Jewish celebration?
For Christians, Christmas and Easter are obviously the Big Days. But there are other days, at least for Catholics, like the Ascension or All Saints Day, which are Holy Days of Obligation, i.e. one must attend Mass, though those days aren’t regarded at the same level.
A Jewish friend once told me that her family always went out for Chinese on Christmas Day because those were the only restaurants open (at least back then).
Which made sense to me. I remember being alone in Boston one Christmas and going out for Chinese on that account.
I see wiki has a web page devoted to the practice:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish-American_patronage_of_Chinese_restaurants
It’s always interesting to listen to songs in a “foreign” (to me) language. The voice becomes just another type of instrument, and it’s kind of interesting, because it’s not like a true instrumental — there are words recognizable as such and yet, not recognizable.
Nothing to do with the holidays, but some examples:
Many are “young enough” to be familiar with is the 80s “99 Luft Balloons”:
https://vimeo.com/276140286
(translated kinda-sorta into 99 Red Balloons, if you want to hunt it down. “Kinda Sorta because Luft=Air, not “Red”). It’s very much a Cold War song.
A nice ballad, whatever it means 😀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4hdlI8wsns
More of a rocker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od1aNSuHKE8
Note that most of the ones I’ve encountered are in German.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7UAhOe_0b8
I suppose you could find stuff in Jpop or Kpop, but those aren’t really my style.
huxley– My understanding is that Chanukah is a minor holiday in strictly religious terms for observant Jews but acquired increased importance in the United States since the early twentieth century because of its closeness in time to Christmas. Chanukah celebrations became a way for Jewish families to maintain their religious identity while feeling that they were a part of the wider American winter holiday tradition alongside their Christian neighbors.
There’s another American tradition that brings the two faiths together, namely our national pastime. For me, Chanukah is an annual occasion to celebrate the interfaith dimension of baseball– Neo likes baseball, so I think she’ll know that I’m not trying to trivialize matters of faith. Every year for the past 12 years or so, I’ve given my landlady a Mets baseball calendar for the upcoming season on the first night of Chanukah. She’s an Orthodox Jew and a Mets fan of Maccabean intensity, while I’m a practicing Christian who roots for the Phillies. In spite of the longstanding NL East rivalry between the two teams, we both look forward to Spring Training in February and the return of the Boys of Summer on Opening Day. I’m grateful for the opportunity that Chanukah offers each year to renew our neighborly tradition during the coldest and darkest part of the New England winter.
PA+Cat, Chanukah is mentioned in the New Testament, but under a different name in the English translations. As the KJV puts it ” the feast of the dedication”.Jesus may have observed it , because he was at the Temple during it. See John 10:22-23.
I wonder if among religious Jews , since the destruction of the Jewish Temple by the Romans, if the Mosaic festivals have traditionally carried greater significance than a festival remembering a rededication of a Temple that no longer fully exist?
A Temple that no longer exist, not ” no longer fully exist”. I was thinking about the stories I have heard that there are Jews in Israel that are gathering items that would be used in the next Temple. Supposedly Texas A&M helped to breed a red bovine that would be needed.
huxley:
This is a good one about jewish folks and chinese food.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPSLWauwwZM
Here’s an interesting mixed one, with some English lyrics… and some lyrics in Na’vi.
Yes, the constructed language for Avatar…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4bZRIwI-QA
It is true that Hanukkah, not one of the major festivals, has been seen in some sense as a substitute for Christmas for Jewish children. However I believe that in light of the Holocaust and the subsequent rebirth of Israel it has also acquired significance as a celebration of Jewish survival.
Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to all!
I think the short version goes something like:
“No Chanukah, No Christmas.”
(No Islam either, for that matter—but don’t tell THEM that…since Islam, or at least a considerable part of it, considers that Islam PRE-DATED Judaism; IOW, Judaism’s time-line along with a significant portion of its historical claims are elaborate fakery.)
The longer version:
A. Chanukah is NOT a Biblical (i.e., Hebrew Bible/OT) holiday—those would be
1) Passover
2) Shavu’ot (Shavu’os/Weeks/Pentecost)
3) Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year)
4) Yom Kippur
5) Sukkot (Sukkos/Festival of Booths)
6) Shemini Atzeret (Shemini Atzeres/Eighth Crowning day—i.e., the day immediately following Sukkot and considered a separate holiday in spite of the juxtaposition).
B. The two Books of the Maccabees (i.e., 1 & 2) describe the events leading up to the holiday, the reasons for it, the events and military capaigns that took place and the aftermath (resulting in the emergence of the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled, if ultimately, or relatively quickly, beset by rivalry and no little corruption, until Pompey’s invasion in 63 BCE); but these two books were categorized by the Rabbis as “Apocrypha” and therefore NOT included as part of the canon of the Hebrew Bible (OT) though they were included in the Christian Bible (i.e., NT), at least by the Catholics AFAIK…and perhaps other denominations as well.
C. The main themes of the event were/are 1) resistance by the faithful against all “reasonable” odds; 2) the weak against the strong; 3) the few vs. the many; 4) the holy vs. the unholy…all under the aegis of God’s strength and succor (of course) until the Maccabees were able to prevail against the Hellenic-Syrians and restore and ritually cleanse the Temple after it had been almost entirely defiled by the enemy.
In short, spiritual as well as physical survival.
N.B. As with most things, there are those who deny the historicity of the event (especially the “miracle” that involved discovering the small cruse of undefiled olive oil and using it to light the ritually-cleansed Menorah for an expectedly short time, that stayed lit—miraculously!—for eight days) and instead claim that it is an opportunity to celebrate the eight-day Sukkot + Shemini Atzeret holidays for those who were unable to do so (for whatever reason)…demonstrating that if one thinks long and hard enough about something (and is reasonably intelligent—or perhaps “too intelligent”), one can come up with all kinds of “clever” theories. About anything…. OTOH, who REALLY knows what happened there?…)
Epilogue: There are those who desperately DESPISE Chanukah—wishing it had never “occurred”(?)—because they hold it responsible Judaism’s survival, and hence for the formation of both Christianity and Islam, etc. One such individual was Christopher Hitchens, at least in an earlier, more “contrarian” (more venomous? more contemptuous?) incarnation. (He may have changed his mind on this issue, though, as he did about quite a few things post-9/11; but maybe not.)
P.S. Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate—and for whatever reason(!)….
I would add that Hanukkah celebrates adherence to Judaism in the face of the Syrian Greeks, who outlawed the most important Jewish practices and forcibly introduced idolatry into the Temple, as well as against the Hellenized (i.e., assimilated) Jews, who went along with the wider culture.
Also, “Hanukkah” means dedication. The holiday got its name because they were rededicating the Temple after it had been defiled. So “Feast of the Dedication” is a reasonable translated name for Hanukkah.
It is a minor holiday, in that there are fewer of the commandments and prohibitions that characterize the Torah holidays. But it has a powerful meaning. If only more Jews understood and internalized that meaning.
Just heard on TV that KFC’s busiest day of the year in Japan is on XMAS day.
Who would have thunk it !!