Hannukah & A Light to the Nations

5 Thus says God, the Lord,
    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
    I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
    a light to the nations,
7     to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.

Isaiah 42: 5-7 NRSVue

 It's not often that Hannukah begins on Christmas Day but that happened last evening. While Christmas is a fixed date, Hannukah can begin as early as November 28th, nearly a month before December 25th. It is a miracle of light celebration in Judaism, in some respects a lesser holiday, but symbolically meaningful. For some reason Christians are more inclined to notice Hannukah than other Jewish holidays and may even have a menorah 

Hannukah celebrates the rededication of the temple after the Jewish people recaptured Jerussalem in 167 BCE. According to the story, when they entered the temple and went to light the Menorah (the seven-branched candelabra) there wasn't sufficient oil. although they found enough for one day. This was enough to last for eight days until new oil could be pressed -- a miracle.

Today I think of Jews around the world who have been dealing with growing anti-Semitism, including vandalism and attacks directed toward schools and synagogues. In Canada some Jewish men, often on college and university campuses, have been reluctant to wear the kippah or yarmulke because of experiences of aggression. The war in Gaza has emboldened those who want to equate the actions of the state of Israel with the practice and identity of Judaism in all places. This is wrong and it's important for people of good will, including Christians, to speak against it. 

At the same time I am pondering the menorah in front of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem. It was a gift from Britain to the young nation of Israel, whose desire was to be "a light to the nations." We can emphatically decry anti-Semitism while also calling for justice for the Palestinian people of Gaza as the war grinds on there. While we must recognize that Hamas, a terrorist entity, began this conflict, the deaths of so many civilians, including children, is at odds with the message of scripture. 

Happy Hannukah to Jews around the world. May you experience peace and security, and loive the miracle of light in our midst. 

                                                Unveiling ceremony of the Knesset Menorah in 1956