Chanuka -- A Holiday Made for Political Junkies

Untangling politics and religion has been well nigh impossible throughout history. But the Jewish holiday that starts at sundown Friday has more political threads than most.

Take the narrative that explains the holiday: On one level, it's a political battle for freedom of religious expression. These days, the main characters might be featured on a TV talk show as a nod to religious diversity in a "War on Christmas" segment.


No kidding: The heroes of Chanuka were the most religiously conservative Jews in Israel. Conservative enough to die for their faith. And to kill to defend it. At least that's what the stories say.

Even "Encyclopedia Judaica" admits that "legends seem to be inextricably woven with the historical traditions" when it comes to Chanuka. Anything we can find in the historical record was written years -- even centuries -- after the events purportedly happened.

But the traditional tale starts with a famous Greek ruler, Alexander the Great, who conquered a vast swath of Europe, Asia and Africa. After Alexander died in 323 B.C., the empire split up and a former general named Antiochus took control of the part that included what is now Israel.

Now the history gets a bit fuzzy, some scholars say. Maybe it was Antiochus, but maybe it was "Hellenized," or Greek-influenced Jews, who decided to ban several important Jewish rituals and practices.

A Jewish priest named Mattathias rebelled, violently. According to the account in the First Book of Maccabees:


He and his sons waged a civil war against the Hellenist Jews, a war that eventually caught the attention of Antiochus -- and his powerful army. Mattathias' son, Judah the Maccabee (the nickname may mean "hammer"), and his brothers waged the first successful guerrilla war in recorded history. And in 165 B.C., the Maccabees managed to win the part of Jerusalem that included the Jewish temple.

So far, the story is about as short on obvious divine intervention as Caesar's description of his battles in Gaul. The Book of Maccabees goes on and on and on about alliances and betrayals among competing kings and the occasional disagreements and reconciliations among the Jewish rebel leaders.

Politics.

The closest thing to religion you'll find is the prayer or two mentioned before each of the many, many bloody battles.

So where did the miracle story come from? You know, the oil that lasted eight days. Jump to the Talmud, which is the written version of a sacred oral tradition, along with a record of intricate scholarly debates about the meaning of many verses of the Torah. That's where we find the first mention of the famous story: When the Maccabees cleaned the Temple, they needed to re-light the ritual Eternal Flame. They found one day's worth of oil. But it lasted until they could consecrate another supply -- which took eight days.

Why is that story there? Some experts say the answer is: politics. Chanuka has always been a popular holiday with the masses. But the clerics were less comfortable, since it was basically a celebration of military might. A miracle story gets the Almighty more visibly involved, which keeps everybody happy.

Jewish tradition teaches, therefore, that Chanuka celebrates two miracles: the unlikely military victory and the day's worth of oil that burned for eight days.

(Oh, and this is a good place for me to explore the mystery of how we spell the name of the holiday in English. The Hebrew uses three voiced consonants and three vowels. The first consonant is that fishbone-in-throat sound that is generally rendered as a "ch' in English. The second consonant is basically an "n". And the third is a "k." The first vowel rhymes with the "ah ' in "blah." The second almost rhymes with the "o' in "who" but is also pretty close to the "u" in "blue." And the last vowel is a repeat of the first.

I prefer "Chanuka" as an effective transliteration. How did the Associated Press style come up with "Hanukkah?" I have no idea. The first "h" is flat wrong. And as far as I can tell, the second "k" and final "h" are useless.)

Here's another political thread: The Book of Maccabees, where most of this story is found, is not a part of the Jewish Bible. Why not? Maybe politics.

I've found two plausible answers: The first is the aforementioned clerical squeamishness with the story. The second relates to when the Jewish biblical canon was set. That happened around 90 A.D. when the Romans were in charge of that part of the world, and the Jews were suffering under one of their many historical periods of oppression. So the folks lining up the official sacred books figured that it might not be such a good idea to exalt a story about the Jews whupping a major military occupying power.

Politics is, as they say, the art of the possible. And sometimes, about how to succeed in the face of official disapproval. Which leads to my final, and maybe my favorite, Chanuka story.

Why is the dreidel associated with the holiday? The dreidel is a four-sided top with a different letter on each side. And it's the center of a gambling game. When you spin, depending in which letter comes up, you either win or lose. Like dice.

What does that have to do with Chanuka? The story goes that among the persecutions imposed by the Greeks -- before Mattathias went off on them -- was a prohibition against the study of Torah. But there was no law against gambling. So the teachers and students would keep the dreidels with them and, if they heard soldiers, quickly transform an illegal hall of study into a legal gambling den.

The holiday has one other political lesson for modern times: Do not be too impressed by the righteousness implied by victory. The Maccabees? They became the Hasmoneans, whose rule lasted less than a century and was marked by various treacheries, civil wars, and assassinations. Many scholarly accounts chalk up the Hasmonean dynasty as among the most corrupt in history. (Which may be another reason the Book of Maccabees didn't make it into the Jewish bible.)

But as any good politician will tell you, every silver lining has a cloud. And any holiday that turns a jelly doughnut into a ritually approved experience has a lot going for it.

It even has the power to pull together people from very different sides of the modern political spectrum. As the New York Times reported, Utah's conservative Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch got together with a liberal Democratic songwriter to pen a new ditty about the holiday.

Happy Chanuka.