How Hanukkah and Christmas Are Linked

Friends, the rare confluence of Christmas and the first candle of Hanukkah falling on the same day, as it does this year, should give all of us pause regarding the linkage of the two holidays with their shared historical development. Join me as we take a look.

2190 years ago, in the year 165 before the common era, the Greeks came close to their goal of eradicating the Jewish community then living in biblical Judea. Not the first time a conquering nation tried that of course and, as we know, it was not the last time either.

A band of zealots from a dysfunctional Hasmonean family refused to bow to the will of the Hellenist overlords and revolted.  Miracle of miracles they prevailed against a mighty foe and were able then to rededicate the Temple in Jerusalem.  As the story goes, a small cask of pure olive oil was found sufficient to burn for one day but, unexpectedly, the oil lasted for eight days.  This is why, today, Hanukkah is celebrated as an eight-day festival with the lighting of one candle on the first night and an additional candle each night thereafter.  Effectively, therefore, Hanukkah is really the Festival of Jewish Survival.

And the connection to Christmas?  Well, had the family of Mattathias the Hasmonean not prevailed, that would have been the end of Judaism as we know it.  Had the Hasmoneans suffered defeat, there would have been no Christmas “miracle” 165 years later, no myrrh and frankincense. no holiday cheer at the end of December, no ritual celebrations, no decorations, no Christmas carols and the list goes on and on.

Thus, the victory of the Hasmoneans made possible the events which presaged Christmas with all it entails, inexorably linking the two holidays for eternity.

As a matter of fact, Catholic bibles have traditionally inserted Maccabees I between the “old” and “new” testaments because it was understood that without Hanukkah there would be no Christmas.

But that’s not all.  On the issue of Christmas carols, during the years that Winston Churchill was prime minister of England, he had the urge to meet Sir Isaiah Berlin, a Russian-British social and political theorist, historian, and philosopher of ideas.  Churchill was impressed with Berlin’s war related dispatches coming from the British embassy in Washington and very much wanted to meet the author.

Churchill at one point heard that the US musical composer, I. Berlin, was in England entertaining the troops. Mistaking Irving Berlin the composer for Isaiah Berlin the philosopher, Churchill’s staff invited Irving Berlin to join Churchill for lunch.

Berlin, of course, readily accepted. After all, it was Churchill who, with his allies, saved the world for democracy. The lunch took place at the appointed time and Churchill, thinking he was speaking to Isaiah Berlin, asked his guest “what was the most important thing you have ever written?” To which Berlin replied, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” At that point, Churchill probably figured out he was speaking with the wrong I. Berlin.

Nevertheless, the melody in question, remains one of the most popular of all Christmas carols, written by Irving Berlin, the Jewish son of a synagogue cantor.

Thankfully the Hasmoneans were victorious and made it possible centuries later for all of us to benefit from he likes not only of Irving Berlin, but also other Jewish composers such as Mel Torme (“Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”), Sammy Cahn and Julie Styne (“Let it Snow”), Joan Javits and Phil Springer (“Santa Baby”), George Wyle and Eddie Pola (“It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”), Ray Evans and Jay Livingstone (“Silver Bells”), Johnny Marks (“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” among others), as well as Felix Bernard and Richard Smith (“Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland”).  Yet a further musical linkage of the holidays.

More seriously, as we enter this particular holiday season at the end of a year of challenges none of us expected, we should all take a moment and remember that while everyone today talks about an interconnected world, that interconnection goes back a long, long time.

Hopefully the interconnection of humanity will continue, and the democracies of the world will prevail against the rising influence of the autocracies, so that, yet again, good will win out over evil. May it be so.

Hopefully all of us will have a joyous and meaningful holiday season and will be blessed with a happy and healthy new year as well.