What Chanukah Can Teach Us About Anti-Zionism

As the holiday of Chanukah approached this year, I couldn’t help but think of the parallels of the war that the Maccabees fought against the Greeks with our current battle as Jews fighting against the anti-Israel forces such as the BDS movement. 

There’s a famous joke that is told to sum up all Jewish holidays: “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!”

The truth however, is not so simple. 

Contrary to what many people assume, the Greeks didn’t actually seek to kill the Jews in the times leading up to the miracles of Chanukah. The Greeks had no problem with Jewish people remaining alive. 

Known for their reverence for philosophy and celebration of culture, the Greeks embraced the Jews as a cultural people and even our Torah as a book of great wisdom.

They wanted the Jews to give up their religion by outlawing various Torah laws, most notably, Observing the Shabbat, Sanctifying the New Moon (Rosh Chodesh), and ritual circumcision (Brit Milah). 

The selection of these three practices from amongst the myriad of our mitzvot appears random at first glance. Yet the common thread that runs through all three is that they all have to do with an assertion of Divinity and sanctifying us with this Divinity at every level of our lives – namely in Space, Time and Body. 

Sabbath observance is an assertion that G-d created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. 

Sanctifying the New Moon is an assertion that time is also under G-d’s dominion. We are taught that the ritual of sanctifying the new moon is what establishes the timing of the new month and not vice versa. 

And giving a Jewish boy a bris eight days after being born is a declaration that our very bodies are dedicated to the One G-d. 

These bold proclamations of the reality and dominion of the one (Jewish) G-d was too much for the Greeks. Sure, the Greeks had their own rendition of spirituality, as portrayed in the vast cornucopia of gods and their mythologies. But the Greek deities were deeply flawed and humanlike. Woven into their family drama, was the understanding that no single god holds full rulership over all others. Even Zeus, “the king of the gods” had many shortcomings and, by most accounts, was not considered to be completely immortal.  

“Cultural Jews” were embraced by the Greeks, who celebrated “pluralism”. G-d fearing Jews? Not so much. To be a Jew with a capital J – who declared through his or her practice that we are not “all the same at the end of the day” but rather that being a Jew meant that we have a unique connection with the One G-d who Created the Heavens and the Earth, made the Greeks deeply uncomfortable. 

We find a parallel situation in the world at large today. Many people are befuddled by the strange alliance that has emerged between many self proclaimed “liberals” and groups representing Islamic fundamentalism and by extension the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (which has been endorsed by Hamas and other terrorist organizations). 

Seen through the lens of the story of Chanukah however, this conglomeration makes perfect sense. The rise of identity politics amongst the far left “liberals” of today gives off the impression of being all about inclusion and equal representation of all peoples and cultures.  Black Lives Matter, LGBTQA+ advocacy and the MeToo movement all developed under the guise of fighting for the underdog and encouraging these groups to stand proud in their differences.

Yet somehow when it comes to Jews, things are different. Where were the women’s rights groups screaming on behalf of the rape victims of the October 7th massacre? And why has it become socially acceptable to proclaim that Israel, as a Jewish state does not have the right to exist and that Israeli products, academia and culture must be subject to boycott, sanctions and divestments? There are 195 countries in the world, each with its own unique culture and heritage. The Land of Israel has been considered to be the homeland of the Jewish people for thousands of years and while the population has varied throughout history, there has always been a substantial Jewish presence there. 

These groups who oppose us, similar to the Greeks of the day, will make it clear that they have no issue with Jewish people per se. Anti-zionism is NOT anti-seminitism, they ferociously declare.  Be Jewish, they say to us. Eat your bagels and lox or maybe your sufganiyot on Chanukah. But stay in your lane. Be a cultural Jew, alongside your Italian neighbor in Brooklyn or Montreal or Paris. But to declare that you have a unique and holy purpose in the world which involves a unique and holy Land called the Land of Israel in which you plan to assume your role as being a Light to all of the other Nations of the world? The chutzpah! This is too much. 

So what should our response to these claims be? 

If we have any awareness of our history, we know that trying to appease our adversaries is futile at best and suicidal at worst. The reality is, the Jewish nation cannot survive were it to be “a nation like all other nations”, and on some level, the rest of the world knows this too. The more we try to assimilate, the more the world shows us that we cannot. Jews will always be too rich or too poor. Too liberal or too conservative. At the end of the day, there’s something about us Jews that doesn’t seem to quite fit. 

It is to the Maccabees that we can look to for guidance as to how best to respond. 

Few in number and devoid of the brutish physical strength of the mighty Greek army, the Maccabees somehow, against all odds, emerged victorious.

While the miracle of the small jug of pure olive oil lasting for eight days when it should have lasted for only one is the oft cited miracle of the story of Chanukah, in actuality, this incredulous victory in battle was actually the main miracle and necessary predecessor to the Jews reclaiming the Holy Temple and their subsequent discovery of the famed olive oil.

And while yes, their victory was a complete miracle, orchestrated by the Hand of G-d, Jewish spiritual teachings describe how the way that this came about was actually through enemies attacking us, which unleashed the innate supernatural strength of self sacrifice (Mesiras Nefesh) within the Maccabees, allowing them to win the war. 

This story teaches us that when we encounter obstacles in our lives, we have two choices: succumb to the pressure and collapse or “break ourselves” and go beyond our natural limitations – unlocking an inner strength and resolve we may not have known that we had and breaking through to our infinite potential – to emerge greater than before. 

There are many ways that this idea is illustrated in the teachings and rituals associated with the holiday of Hanukkah. 

For one, while we light the Chanukah menorah in commemoration of the miracle of the oil that lit the menorah in the Holy Temple, the menorah in the Temple had seven branches, while the Chanukah menorah has eight. Why? 

Hebrew letters and words contain layers of meaning and we can often learn deep lessons therein.

The Hebrew word for seven is “Sheva” (שבע). This word holds the same root as the word “to satiate” (לְהַשְׂבִיעַ). Seven represents the natural order of the world. The world in a complete or “satiated” form. There are seven days of the week, seven colors of the rainbow, seven notes on a musical scale etc.. 

The Hebrew word for eight, by contrast is “Shmonei” (שמונה) – etymologically related to the word for fat/oil ( שמן).

Kabbalistic teachings describe how while the number seven represents the natural order of creation, the number eight represents rising above nature, accessing the supernatural – just as oil rises to the surface in a liquid mixture and how fat symbolizes excess. 

Historically, when we confront obstacles, we Jews don’t just survive, we thrive. And when we light our menorah on Chanukah, we draw down this infinite energy (represented by the fire of the flame (another representation of infinity – think of how one flame can be transferred to an infinite number of candles without losing its light) as well as the oil – into the finite cups of the menorah.

Interestingly, one must crush olives in order to produce olive oil – a fitting illustration of our personal plights. Before the olives can become oil, they must pass through an intermediate stage, in which they are neither olives nor oil but merely unusable pulp. But this process brings forth the oil, which is the essence of the olive. 

The BDS movement and other anti-Israel groups may think they can destroy our spirit, but in fact, this was the first year (to my knowledge) that Jews at the Park Slope Co-op gathered to celebrate Chanukah together at a party where we lit our menorah with pride. 

Many people think of Chanukah as being a relatively minor holiday on the Jewish calendar. After all, its origin is post Biblical and thus, was instituted by the Jewish people, rather than by G-d Himself.

Yet we learn that it is specifically this reason that makes Chanukah so sacred and precious to Him. G-d’s ultimate plan is to have us partner with Him in the creative process of life. This is the ultimate purpose of our world. 

According to Kabbalistic teachings, every Jewish holiday is associated with a different spiritual energy force (Sephira). The spiritual energy force of Chanukah is Hod – befittingly the eighth of the ten Sephiros on the Tree of Life. The word Hod (הוד) in Hebrew is commonly translated to mean “glory”, “humility” or “thanks”, however it can more literally be translated to mean “acknowledgement”.  

The holiday of Chanukah is all about cultivating a deep sense of acknowledgement of the inner dimension of reality – the eighth level, if you will. When we live with an awareness of this higher consciousness and ground this mindset thorough our lighting of the Chanukah Menorah, we have the potential to infuse our entire lives – and by extension the entire world – with G-dliness and elevate ourselves and the world into a messianic and redemptive state.