Soon we will be celebrating both Thanksgiving and Hanukkah in close proximity. It gives us pause as to this intersection, our Jewish heritage and National pride. Both holidays center around gratitude for having survived in harsh times and thrived as we look at history’s long tale.
It reminds me of our family’s Passover Haggadah that concludes the service with the song “America The Beautiful”. We Jews in America can take pride that we arrived on these shores and not stayed behind to face hardship or worse. It’s true that we were not always so welcomed by all, but over time we were seen for the good moral people we are and for the intellect we collectively brought to this land. Like the Hanukkah victory itself our people also served this country; myself having both a grandfather who served in WW-I and father who served in WW-II. Even Dan Handler, my wife’s son, enlisted in the Navy and served onboard an aircraft carrier during combat activities in the middle east.
As a holiday we may bake turkey instead of ham and choose to fry our potatoes ground and flat this season instead of mashed. But whatever you may eat, the reflection of our bounty can be nourishing. Gratitude can also be local, as we should consider what we have here – a Temple facility (without a mortgage), a full-time active Rabbi, wonderful Temple staff (Carolyn and Tony) and the list continues if one only takes the view of gratitude.
In many regards there are similarities of the two holidays. As in the divergence of historical events themselves and the stories we tell ourselves. For instance, the Hanukkah of the miracle of a small amount of oil for the “ner tamid” our eternal light that is kept in front of the Holy Ark was not documented in early writings and most likely not part of the, then, collective memory. And the Thanksgiving of early English pioneers celebrating a hearty meal with Native Americans is well known to be incorrect. In fact, this ”feast” was not; the puritans actually fasted during this celebration and the three members from the Wampanoag Tribe “in attendance” were there due to firearms being discharged in celebration and the tribe scouts rushed to the scene, in effect, to protect their tribe.
The similarities do not stop here. Some first accounts of Hannukah were due to a delayed observation of the eight-day feast of Sukkot. Therefore, a holiday we think of as a war victory may have its basis in a harvest festival much as we today think of Thanksgiving. Also, both holidays find “the other” at the losing end. The Native Americans for their loss of life and their invaded land and the army of Antiochus decimated by our Maccabees. History is not so nice and pretty as we often educate our youth. And if we tell one version of a story for long enough the symbolic meaning can become sure of its truth.
Where does this messy account of history leave us today? Do we fully digest the hard-won battle for truth as we watch football after the pie? I suggest that we can celebrate one sure fact, we are here today! We as Americans and Jews. Find goodness in our world through gratitude to those things we often overlook in day-to-day living. Know that each day is a miracle of light when you look up at our sun that has glowed for over four billion years.
Happy holidays,
Robert Becker
President