Chanukah: renew, rebuild, rejoice!

Rabbi Fishel Zaklos

Chanukah season is upon us. It is a trendy Jewish holiday. Donuts. Menorahs in the window. Public lightings. Gifts. Money gifts. Oil in everything. Cool songs. It has it all. We all love Chanukah.

How about the story itself? What message does Chanukah have to tell us now, as we wind down the year 2021? It’s been over 2,000 years after the Chanukah miracle took place in the second century BCE. Is there still relevance?

The answer is a resounding “yes!” It is a story for our time. It is the story of our time. It is a story about rebuilding, a tale of courage.

Our story took place when the Land of Israel was under the control of the Seleucid Greek empire. The Greeks were determined to destroy Judaism and its heritage, and they went about it with fierce determination. ‘Hellenism for all’ was the battle cry.

The Jewish leader, Matisyahu, the High Priest of the Holy Temple, and his five sons were not having any of it. Indeed, they would be the fi rst group to fi ght for religious freedom -- their right to practice as you wish.

After revolting against their tormentors, the brave Maccabees miraculously won many battles against the mightier Greeks. It all reached a crescendo when the Jews were finally able to reconquer the capital city of Jerusalem and enter the Holy Temple.

Their hearts dropped to the floor. This was not the beautiful building they remembered. The disappointment was profound. The home of G-d was in shambles. There were idols all over the place, and the spirit of the site was barely flickering.

They had two options before them:

1. They could feel sorry for themselves and lose their spirit, saying, “Is this what we fought for? Will the Holy City ever be beautiful again? What is the point of getting up if we might fall again? The world will never be the same, so let us go back to bed and binge watch on Netflix (or whatever they did to ‘kill time’ in those days).”

2. Get up, brush off the dust, straighten their tired backs and get to work on rebuilding and renewal.

They chose the latter and got to work. They sourced a menorah, searched high and low for the pure kosher oil needed to light the menorah, finally finding a small flask. At the same time, others were cleaning up the mess, discarding from it their enemies’ deities with other leftovers from the tyrannical Greeks.

In short: They rededicated the temple. Temple 2.0

Indeed, that is what the translation of ‘Chanukah’ is: rededication. Chanukah teaches us never to give up and never give in.

Is this not the necessary message for our times? Is this not the same courage that we seek to find within ourselves at this moment?

After close to two years of chaos and the once unimaginable becoming our reality, we learn that failure is never the end of the journey. Instead, it is the classroom of life. It builds the muscle of courage and the heart of grit. It builds character for the next step of the journey. Down always leads to an up.

We are strong. We are courageous. We have infinity within us. Nothing is more robust than our resolve. We can climb mountains, fall, and rise again.

“The righteous fall seven times, and they get up,” says the book of Proverbs.

‏.שבע יפול צדיק וקם

Rebuilding what was lost is more complicated than starting something new. The freshness and idealism are a bit tainted. The Maccabees, however, teach us how to do the courageous act of getting up, again and again. That is character.

Maccabees of the world: Let’s get to work!

Rabbi Zaklos Fishel serves at Chabad Jewish Center of Naples.