This evening welcomes the first day of the Hebrew Month of Kislev! Happy Rosh Chodesh, happy new moon! As the evenings arrive earlier and earlier throughout this month, as the chill creeps into the air, the miracle of resilience is often on my mind. What do we do with darkness in our lives? What do we do when we feel that chill in our relationships?
On the 25th of Kislev, we celebrate Hanukkah. Hanukkah is a revolutionary holiday (pun intended!) In First and Second Macabees, we record that in the second century BCE, Judea was ruled by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV. Some Jews in Jerusalem had already embraced Greek customs, and there was a struggle over who would control the high priesthood. Then the king outlawed Jewish practices, including keeping Shabbat and celebrating the festivals, and he desecrated the Temple. In the town of Modi’in, a priest named Mattathias refused to make the sacrifice the king demanded. He killed both the royal officer enforcing the order and a fellow Jew who came forward to comply. Then he and his sons fled into the hills. After Mattathias died, his son Judah Maccabee took up the fight.
After a series of victories, Judah and his followers returned to the Temple. They found its gates burned and weeds growing in its courtyards. Before they rebuilt anything, they tore their clothes and mourned. Then they set to work. They took down the desecrated altar, built a new one, and lit the lamps. On the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the anniversary of the desecration, they re-dedicated the altar with singing, harps, lyres, and cymbals.
They celebrated for eight days. Second Maccabees tells us what was on their minds. Just a little while earlier, they had spent Sukkot hiding in mountains and caves. Now they carried leafy branches and palm fronds and sang songs of thanksgiving, celebrating in the way they had been unable to, earlier that fall. They decided to return to that joy every year, beginning on the twenty-fifth of Kislev.
To me, the resilience that the Maccabees showed is one of the true miracles of this holiday. To choose joy, even after enduring oppression and war, and to choose repair and rededication, despite the grief that lead to this moment, is one of the many reasons that the value of ometz lev, the strengthening of the heart and often translated as courage is one of the gifts of this season.
Celebrate Hanukkah Around the Lake with us this year. Mark your calendars for:
Friday, December 4: Shabbat Hanukkah in Carson, on the first night of Hanukkah
Saturday, December 5: Havdalah, Hot Chocolate and Hot Latkes at North Tahoe Hebrew Congregation
Tuesday, December 8: Downtown Truckee Hanukkah Celebration
Wednesday, December 9: Jewish Cultural Concert & Hanukkah Celebration at Temple Bat Yam
Thursday, December 10: Religious School Hanukkah Celebration at Temple Bat Yam
Friday, December 11: Shabbat Hanukkah at Temple Bat Yam, on the eighth night
Sunday, December 13: End-of-Hanukkah Tahoe Knight Monsters Hockey Fundraiser, one more chance to get together after the holiday
