Hannukas Menorahs/Courtesy photo
BY RABBI JACK SHLACHTER
Los Alamos Jewish Center
The familiar song from Fiddler on the Roof, “Tradition”, is lodged in my brain following a wonderful performance by Tri-M Productions in Santa Fe a few weeks ago. That song describes a prescriptive world in a small Jewish settlement or shtetl in Eastern Europe in the early 1900s. From the perspective of the main character, Tevye, the old ways seemed to work so well for so long, yet now everything was changing, and finding the appropriate balance between tradition and progress was not easy.
The upcoming eight-day long Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (to be celebrated publicly in Los Alamos as described at the bottom of this article) is a great example of that tension between the old and the new. While many people–both within and outside Judaism–would place Hanukkah at the top of the list of important Jewish holidays (as I certainly did when I was a kid awaiting gifts from my parents), Hanukkah is actually a minor Jewish holiday. Its proximity on the calendar to Christmas, and the tremendous emphasis placed on the American celebration of that holiday, have drastically increased the importance of Hanukkah relative to other Jewish holidays, at least for many Jews.
It turns out that the very origin of Hanukkah involves the abandonment of a tradition.
The commandment at the heart of the observance of Hanukkah is the lighting of candles after dark, one for the first night and an additional one each night through the end of the holiday. This is said to be reminiscent of the miracle of oil burning in the ritual candelabra in the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 before the common era. The Temple had been reconsecrated following its desecration by the Seleucids, an empire which succeeded Alexander the Great and extended from present-day Iran to north Africa.
The Jewish Bible knows nothing of Hanukkah. Instead, we can only find early descriptions of the history of the holiday in extra-canonical sources including the Apocryphal Books of the Maccabees and the writings of Josephus. Those books describe a scrappy, guerilla band led by Judah Maccabee, which successfully ousted their more powerful opponents. Previous attempts by Jews at overcoming their adversaries were unsuccessful, in part because Jewish tradition prohibited fighting on the Sabbath. Knowing this, the Seleucids were able to capitalize on the passivity of the Jews every seventh day and routinely defeat them.
Judah decided that tradition had to be abandoned, and a new policy of fighting on every day of the week was implemented. Perhaps the message of Hanukkah is in fact that although traditions are important for the survival of the Jewish people, sometimes those traditions need to be adapted for the survival of the Jewish people. Knowing which traditions to jettison and when to do so constitutes the delicate balance that Tevye in Fiddler faces.
The Los Alamos Jewish Center (LAJC), the sole synagogue in Los Alamos, works hard to address the needs of all Jews in Los Alamos, regardless of their level of adherence to tradition; the LAJC is intent on meeting Jews and Jewish-adjacent people wherever they are in their observances of Jewish practices. All are welcome at several upcoming Hanukkah events: two community Hanukkah candle-lighting gatherings at Ashley Pond and a Hanukkah party at the Jewish Center. If you have a Hanukkah menorah, you’re more than welcome to bring it with you; extra menorahs and Hanukkah candles will be available. We’ll come together at Ashley Pond on the third night and again on the final night of the holiday (Tuesday, December 16 and Sunday, December 21) at 5:30 PM to light candles, sing some Hanukkah songs, and distribute a few Hanukkah trinkets. On Saturday, December 20, join us at the Los Alamos Jewish Center, starting at 5:30 PM, for a party including candle lighting, songs, and some traditional oil-fried Hanukkah treats like latkes and sufganiot (potato pancakes and jelly donuts). Please RSVP on the website, www.lajc.org.
It won’t be either “Sunrise or Sunset”, but we look forward to seeing you after dark regardless of your connection to Jewish tradition.
The Los Alamos Jewish Center is our community’s synagogue and a gathering place for Jewish worship, Jewish adult and children’s education, and Jewish life cycle events. LAJC is located at 2400 Canyon Road, just down the street from PEEC Nature Center. For more information about the Los Alamos Jewish Center, go to www.lajc.org, call 505.662.2140 or email losalamosjewishcenter@lajc.org.