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Hanukah: By My Spirit, says the Breath of Life

by Rabbi Michael Graetz

The main mitzvah of Hanukkah, lighting lights, supplies the clue to this analysis of the emotional and spiritual reaction of Jews to the war. I wish to suggest that the real origin of the custom to light lights was the emotional and spiritual reaction of most of the Jews who actually lived through the war. It was a reaction of memory for those killed or tortured in the war. I suggest that the origin of Hanukah lights was as memorial lights for the dead.

No historical source about the Maccabean wars, or of the original celebration of Hanukah mentions "lamps", YET it is clear from Josephus (Antiquities 12:325), and even more so from the Mishnah (BK 6:6), that it was a universal, well-known and accepted custom of all Jews to light "Hanukah lamps", special oil lamps for Hanukah, and place them in front of their doors. The Mishnah preserves the custom and testifies to the fact that it was a very widespread custom, but does not fix it as halacha. Yet, the people, the Jews, kept on doing it, so that eventually the rabbis HAD TO grant "mitzvah status" to that popular custom. Why was lighting lamps such a popular and universally accepted way of commemorating Hanukah?

One talmudic answer is because of the "miracle" of the jar of oil. But, that is 1) unhistorical ( first appears in Talmudic period, Shabbat 21b) 2) not the "miracle" refered to in the "al ha-nissim" prayer which is meant to specifically commemorate the "miracles" of Hanukkah. Another talmudic answer is the story of the temporary Menorah which the Maccabees lit after conquering the Temple (RH 24b-25a, see also Pesikta Rabbati 2). The advantage of this explanation over that of the "jar of oil" is that it connects the lights with the victory and dedication of the Temple, which are the miracles mentioned in the "al ha-nissim" prayer.

However, if we study 3 and 4 Maccabees we learn of the terrible period of suffering and sacrifice which the people of Israel went through on the way to achieve the victory. The well known tales of the woman and her seven sons, the old priest Elazar are found here among many others. No family was untouched by tragedy. I suggest that the people lit lamps as Memorial lamps to remember the high price of victory. The miracle of the victory was a partnership of God and man. We can never be indifferent about Judaism, our way of life and its values. For it to continue to flourish we must be willing to fight for it. In some cases, that means being willing to die for it.

Antiochus posed a threat to the spiritual existence of Judaism. There was no threat to the Jewish people's physical existence, if they were willing to give up their spiritual ideals and values. The "miraculous" was that they were willing to place their physical safety in danger, IN ORDER NOT TO VIOLATE THE SPIRITUAL! The appropriate way to mark this was to light lamps: as a memorial tribute to the sacrifice of men, women and children and as a symbol of the spiritual, which makes life worth living.

In some ways this might have been a popular emotional and spiritual counter-response to the militaristic heroism of Maccabees 1 and the religious triumphalism of Maccabees 2. Maccabees 3 and 4 are philosophical and speak of the control of individual impulses for a higher and greater good. Memorial lights may have been the popular reaction to military heroics, proclaiming with their light "look at the price, only by the souls of men, the light of God (cf. Prov. 20:27) are these victories won". The rabbis seem to have picked up that message of spiritual power and the preciousness of each life vs. a message of military victory. God was not on our side, we were on God's side, even when that cost us our lives. We must remember the casualties, the deaths and martyrs, in order to preserve life. There is implied criticism of the military regime of the Hasmoneans in the lighting of the lights, and the irony is that the rabbis made that criticism the symbol of Hannukah. (In a paper I wrote on this some years ago, I traced the custom of lighting lamps for the dead, and the bottom line is that is was probably a pagan custom which was adopted by Jews)

I was reminded of this while reading the discussions about Hanukkah after the murder of Rabin. Anyone who listened to Yizhak Rabin in his later years, will realize that the emotional and spiritual reaction that motivated our rabbis in transforming Hanukkah is what motivated him. He spoke again and again of the "human price of war", and of the need to give young people a vision of their own personal future that did not include either killing or being killed. It is amazing that the overwhelming instinctive reaction of hundreds of thousands of Israelis was to light Memorial candles for Rabin. The same message of spirit overcoming force, as in the ritual for Hannukah was being expressed. The haftorah for Hanukkah ends with "lo be-hayil etc.", "not by force... but by My spirit", and the question, of course, is "lo" "NOT" what? Jewish people will NOT survive, a Jewish state will NOT be able to exist by relying on force, but only by the spiritual, by grasping onto God's spirit of life and responsibility and making it the main value in our own life.

The lamp is a means of seeing, of searching, but it is also a means of being seen. A light enables us to see, but it also enables others to see us. The Hanukkah lights are ONLY TO BE SEEN. They are lights from which we can receive no benefit, only the BENEFIT OF SEEING THEM. If a soul is God's lamp, than we look for each others soul. We strive to reach the truth that we all are in God's image. We can look for that light of God in others, to see their souls. . . . just as the Midrash tells us that spirituality is like "one who lights a lamp from another lamp, the lamp is lit and the other lamp does not lose its light" (Num. R. 13:20). The Hanukkah lights which we light should help us see that.