A few years ago, Noam Zion published “A Different Night,” a wonderful Passover Haggadah chock full of interesting ideas for a meaningful seder. Now, together with Barbara Spectre, he has edited two more books, this time about Chanukah, with a similar goal: to make the celebration more understandable and enjoyable.
This was probably a more difficult endeavor, because Passover has a clear message and a basic text, while Chanukah has many messages — some of them contradictory. And it does not have a text like the Haggadah, which everyone knows and recites.
Yet, “A Different Light, the Hanukkah Book of Celebration” (which is also available in an expanded version) does a creative and impressive job.
The first thing you need to know in approaching the book is that through the centuries Chanukah has had many meanings.
Whatever it meant originally is something that scholars can and do argue about. It was probably not so much a war against the external enemy as it was a civil war between the Jews. And if that is what it originally was, that’s a scary thing to think about in the age of polarization and divisiveness in which we now live.
But whatever it originally was, Chanukah took on different shapes and meanings through the ages. The sages of the Talmud transformed it from a holiday that celebrated a military victory into a holiday that focused on the oil that lasted eight days. Judah Maccabee doesn’t even get a mention in the Al Hanissim prayer, in which all the credit for the victory goes to God. And the sages chose as the Haftarah for Chanukah a chapter of the Bible that contains the words “not by might and not by valor but by God’s spirit” do human beings triumph, which is probably a slap at the Maccabees.
In the Middle Ages, Chanukah was a minor holiday, a day for playing dreidel and eating latkes, and not much else. And as the great Chanukah song “Maoz Tsur” makes clear to anyone who actually reads the lyrics, it was a time for praying that, just as God restored the Temple once, in the time of the Maccabees, so may He do so soon again by bringing the Messiah.
In America, in the 19th and 20th centuries, Chanukah was transformed again — this time into a celebration of the rights of religious minorities. Read “Rock of Ages,” which most people think is the translation of “Maoz Tsur,” and you will see that there is almost no resemblance between the Hebrew hymn and the English one that is sung to the same melody. This one talks, not about the restoration of the Temple and the renewal of sacrifices, but about the coming of the day that will see “all men free, tyrants disappearing.”
And in America, because of a coincidence of the calendar, Chanukah replaced Purim as the season for gift giving.
Then came Zionism and Israel, and a new and still different Chanukah was born. Now the Maccabees were understood as fighters, not so much for religious freedom as for an independent Jewish state, as the role models for the chalutzim, Israeli pioneers.
And the evolution of Chanukah is still not done. For the New Agers, Chanukah is becoming the holiday of the winter solstice, a season for grappling with darkness.
No one can predict what Chanukah will mean in the years to come.
Given all this, Zion and Spectre begin their anthology with a wonderful phrase that comes from their teacher, David Hartman. He said that Judaism is “a community of interpretations, not a community of shared dogmas.”
And Chanukah surely demonstrates the truth of this statement. Here is one holiday — and yet see how many different understandings of what it means co-exist side by side within the Jewish tradition.
Zion and Spectre teach us how to respect and learn from each of these Chanukahs. They bring together understandings of Chanukah that come from many diverse places. Where else do Arthur Waskow and the Lubavitcher rebbe, for example, appear in the same book?
For me, the highlight of these two books is the incredible photographs by and of children. There is a black-and- white photo at the beginning, of Jewish children in a Nazi transit camp in l943. Gathered around a menorah, they bore grim and somber expressions.
And then, all through the books, there are color photos of Jewish children in America and in Israel celebrating Chanukah with such grins and smiles on their faces.
These two books are packed with ideas and insights, including those of such major modern and contemporary Jewish thinkers as Rabbis Milton Steinberg, Harold Schulweis, Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, David Hartman, as well as Herman Wouk and many others. But make no mistake: This is not just a philosophical or intellectual anthology, not at all. There are wonderful cartoons, information on food and fun, on gambling and gift-giving, on songs and games of skill, on arts and crafts, drama, and even on scientific experiments with light.
These two editors are first-rate educators; they provide a grab bag full of program ideas for the family and the community.
Whatever Chanukah means, one thing is for sure — it is not for-children-only. These two books are treasure-troves of material that will not only help children celebrate the holiday but will enable their parents to understand and appreciate it too.