CNY Inspirations: Chanukah: The Festival of Freedom - syracuse.com

This feature is coordinated by The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com and InterFaith Works of CNY. Follow this theme and author posted Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

On the fourth Sunday of December, the Jewish community celebrates the beginning of Chanukah, the Festival of Light. This holiday has themes that sometimes get lost in the crush of the greater American holiday season. This is our holiday of freedom, miracles and light. We celebrate the fact that our ancestors were not willing to give up their religious identity and become just like everyone else around them.

The quick version of the Chanukah story goes like this:

Leading up to the year 167 BCE, the Syrian Greeks, led by King Antiochus Epiphanes, ruled over the Jews of ancient Judea. Laws were in place that insisted Jews adopt their Hellenistic ways, including worshipping their pagan gods. Judah Maccabee led a revolt, and after three years of hard guerrilla fighting against a much larger force was victorious. Jews were finally able to get into the Great Temple in Jerusalem, which was defiled by the Syrian Greeks and their pagan offerings, to purify it and rededicate it to the God of Israel.

These events are how the holiday gets its name, Chanukah, meaning “dedication.” The rededication was an eight-day celebration, created to belatedly observe the festival of Sukkot, an important pilgrimage festival that was missed during the war. Later, as the commemoration grew, the focus shifted to the miracle of a small cruse filled with a one-day supply of purified oil that remain lit for eight days.

The themes of this holiday are especially resonant in today’s world. As a tiny minority in most of the places we live in America, we keenly feel the pressure to assimilate. But Chanukah’s main message is that our religious autonomy is important. We have the gift of being free to pray to God Jewishly, protected by this country’s dedication to freedom of religion. This is not only a gift to us Jews, but to every single faith tradition represented in America. Now that’s a Festival of Freedom!

Kari Siegel Eglash joined Temple Concord in July 2014 and serves as cantor and director of education. Originally from Milwaukee, Wis., Eglash was ordained in 2001 from the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.

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CNY Inspirations: Chanukah: The Festival of Freedom - syracuse.com
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