January 2025
Steve Lotter
When you receive this bulletin, we and the World Jewish community will be in the middle of Hanukah. Well, maybe the end of Hanukah. During Hanukah three ritual events converge. The first, of course, is the holiday itself. We light the menorah every one of the eight nights of Hanukah. And Hanukah always falls during the Torah portions about Joseph and his brothers. Finally Rosh Hodesh, the new month of Tevet, always falls during Hanukkah. This year Rosh Hodesh is observed on January 1 for a cross cultural day to signify new beginnings. In some years all three come together on Shabbat, necessitating readings from three different Torah scrolls.
Besides the three events occurring at the same time each year, these three events also are linked thematically. There are many key themes in Judaism – what scholars call foundation myths or master stories. For Jews THE master story is the Exodus. But there is another element to that salvation story which presages it. It is the theme of family discord and reconciliation.
Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, Bible Commentator, 11th C, points out in his commentary that the story of the Exodus truly begins in the story of Joseph. It is the selling of Joseph to traveling slavers by his brothers that sets the wheels in motion. Eventually the brothers come down to Egypt to join him and it is their descendants of course who end up as slaves to Pharaoh. So while the Joseph saga begins with family hatred and dissension, it ends with the family reconciled and united. The key element of the story is the act of redemption amongst family members who commit themselves to undoing the wrongs of the past, atoning for past sins, forgiving wrongs done to them and accepting sincere repentance. This is the human work of redemption. Although God is mentioned repeatedly in the Joseph story, God never appears as a character in this story as God does with the patriarchs.
Hanukah is an appropriate complement to the story of Joseph and his brothers. Here too we have a story of redemption in which God never directly appears. The miracle story of the cruse of oil, which is not found in any of the historical sources from the period, is intended to be a confirmation of God’s role behind the scenes. Hanukkah begins as a story of civil war, Jews turning against Jews for political control in the shadow of the Seleucid empire but eventually the revolt led by Mattathias and his sons leads to a national reconciliation and eventual liberation from tyrannical imperialists. The theme of family cohesiveness is to be found as well since not only Judah Maccabee will become leader but over the 20 years of war for liberation, each of the brothers take the mantle of leadership in turn.
Family reconciliation is a theme found in the Rosh Hodesh liturgy as well. To welcome the new month we recite a liturgical prayer the week before. “May the One who did miracles for our ancestors and redeemed them from slavery to freedom, redeem us speedily and gather our dispersed from the four corners of the earth into the fellowship of Israel.” Again, we see the themes of miracles, redemption and fellowship connected to one another. But it is this final reference – “haverim kol Yisrael”, that all of Israel be bound together, or friends, that emphasizes the human dimension of our hopes.
It is this element of our master story – family reconciliation and interdependence in order to save the community - that is so compelling to all of us who love Hanukkah. This time of year, when the days are so dark, the lights of Hanukkah and the light of this new moon remind us that there is hope and strength in community and kindred, in reconciliation and atonement. May we appreciate the power of Jewish community and use that strength to bring redemption to ourselves and the world.