Hanukkah's heritage of hope

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Last evening we lit the first candle. For it was the first night of Hanukkah, a minor Jewish holiday that has become a major one over the years. There are candles to be kindled and potato latkes to eat. But just what does this eight-day celebration celebrate?

Answer: A successful Jewish revolt against a Syrian empire ruled by the Seleucid dynasty of Greek kings some 2,200 years ago.

Well, not exactly. The revolt was not so much against the Syrian emperor, Antiochus Epiphanes, as against an attempt to impose Hellenistic culture on ancient Judaea.

Well, not exactly. It's not noised about, but this now celebrated revolt against the Syrians was something of a civil war between those Jews who proposed to adopt more of the fashionable Greek culture and those who viewed its games and gods as a desecration, and fought for the old ways, the hallowed practices and beliefs. This festival really commemorates a military victory -- of tradition over assimilation, of fundamentalists over modernists.

Well, not exactly. The military aspects of the struggle are scarcely mentioned in today's celebration of Hanukkah. The focus has shifted over the centuries. The very name Hanukkah, or Dedication, refers to the cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem after it was defiled by pagan rites.

After all, the holiday isn't named after any particular battle or campaign or hero. It isn't the Feast of the Maccabees, who led the revolt. Therefore the real theme of Hanukkah is the rededication of the Temple.

Well, not exactly. The essential ritual of the holiday has become the blessing over the Hanukkah lights, one for each night of the eight-day festival. The festivities now center about a Talmudic tale relating how the liberators of the Temple found only enough pure oil to burn for one day, but it lasted for eight -- enough time to prepare a new supply. We're really celebrating the miracle of the lights.

But what is all this about light and candles? What about the heroes who are remembered during Hanukkah -- Judah Maccabee and his father Mattathias? Are not their deeds what Hanukkah really celebrates?

Well, yes, but not exactly. Their exploits are referred to in prayers and rituals only by indirection. Heroic feats are transmuted in the glow of the candles; they become acts of divine intervention.