Please Stop Calling Chanukah A Minor Holiday

 

Too often, Chanukah is described as a “minor” holiday.  As a Rabbi and a student of Jewish texts, history, and tradition, I understand what is meant by that.  Yet by the standard definition of the word minor, Chanukah most definitely does not fit that category.  According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, minor is defined as not very important or valuable.  That’s a funny way to describe a holiday with wide appeal both in Jewish and secular culture, and that rivals Passover as the most observed Jewish holiday.  That’s a strange way to describe a holiday that Jews know more about than most other holidays in our calendar.   So what do we actually mean when we, or others, refer to Chanukah as a minor holiday? 

We have two types of holidays.  The first type are the Biblically ordained holidays.  Most of our holidays fall into this category.  They include the great fall festivals of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, and the spring festivals of Passover and Shavuot. For each of these holidays, the Torah provides a date as well as a specific list of Mitzvot (commandments) and observances associated with them.  Additionally, there are commandments to refrain from work and other specific activities in observance of these days.  Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot celebrate not only a specific historical event, but also a specific agricultural season in the land of Israel.  When we celebrate these holidays, both our observance and the liturgy give expression to both these values. 

After the close of the Biblical era, several additional holidays were added to the calendar to mark specific events experienced by later generations.  These include

·        Chanukah, the celebration of the great victory over the Syrian Greeks that liberated Jews from the restrictions that had been imposed upon them to prevent them from observing Judaism and eventually led to the liberation of Israel from foreign dominion and the rededication of the Second Temple.

·        Purim, the celebration of the great victory of the Jews of ancient Persia against Haman and his cohorts who sought to destroy the Jewish community there.

·        Tisha B’Av (the 9^th of the Hebrew month of Av), which commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples, as well as other calamitous events that have befallen the Jewish people.

These three holidays are often referred to as minor holidays.  But they are not less important than the Biblical ones.  They simply lack many of the observances and restrictions that the Biblically ordained holidays demand.  So when we refer to these as minor holidays, (I should not say we as I never refer to these as minor holidays) we are simply recognizing that they were added to our calendar at a different and later stage in Jewish history. 

Now that we have liberated Chanukah from its rhetorical straight jacket, we see that its message is as relevant today as it was 2200 years ago when the events that led to Chanukah actually took place.  You know a lot about the story.  Jews who had been living peacefully in their land, were conquered by new rulers, as the Seleucid Empire defeated the Ptolemy’s and enacted different, more restrictive policies regarding their new Jewish subjects.  The freedom to practice Judaism was taken from them and for the first time in history, a community under occupation rebelled seeking not political independence – though thankfully that would soon come – but rather what we in our time would call freedom of religion. We take this as a given, a right guaranteed to us by the constitution of our great nation.  But Chanukah reminds us that in the ancient world, and in too many places in the modern world, people had to fight and must continue to fight for this great freedom.  Each year when we gather to light the Chanukiyah and celebrate this happy holiday, amidst the candles, the gifts, and the festivities, we acknowledge the yearning for freedom that is so much a part of the human experience.  This is why such a holiday was added to the calendar in the first place.  So that future generations would not only learn, but renew our commitment to freedom and its religious significance each year.  Not bad for a “minor holiday”. 

This year we will hear all kinds of well intentioned people talk about Chanukah.  They will often attribute its popularity to its proximity on the secular calendar to Christmas.  And there is certainly some truth to that.  And they will draw distinctions between Chanukah and other important holidays.  But as you gather with family and friends to celebrate the Festival of Lights this year, I want you to meditate on its real message. As you do, I hope you will remember that Chanukah is as real and significant and worthy a Jewish holiday as any other.