January 3, 2025
Shabbat Shalom! As I write these words on this last day of Hanukkah, I want to share with you one more spark of light that I hope might carry all of us forward through the weeks and months ahead. I spent seven nights of Hanukkah traveling in Los Angeles with my family. Our children had not returned to the city in which they were born since we moved to Columbus in 2011. As we drove through the neighborhoods and surrounding areas, one could easily notice the many Jewish organizations, restaurants, and synagogues. There were public displays of Hanukkah menorahs everywhere, including several large plastic Hanukkah menorahs attached to car rooftops. The publication of the miracle of Hanukkah was tangible. We know that Los Angeles has been home to many protests and other antisemitic incidents in the last 15 months, but that did not seem to deter anyone from publicly demonstrating their Judaism.
You might immediately point out that the Jewish population in Los Angeles is more than 16 times greater than the Jewish population here in Columbus and, from a percentage standpoint, it is about double what it is here (5% compared to 2.5%). However, should numbers simply dictate our behavior? Los Angeles was well ahead of other communities when it came to security, as the North Valley JCC shooting in Northridge, CA rocked the Jewish world in 1999. Throughout my time living in Los Angeles from 2002-2011, security was everywhere, and yet we never hid. Fear can have a chilling effect on how we choose to live our lives. It can certainly change our behavior, and the question Jewish history often asks of us is, how do we respond to our fears?
The story of Hanukkah is one that helps us answer that question. How we tell or hear the story may offer us an understanding of the lessons we learn. Listening to the December 25th episode of the “For Heaven’s Sake” podcast from Rabbi Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi gave me an interesting perspective on how the world’s two major Jewish communities – Israel and the United States – have celebrated and viewed Hanukkah. In the U.S., we often talk about the miracle of Hanukkah and how we must add light to the world. Such a response focuses on our behavior, acts of kindness, and efforts to make the communities in which we live that much better. In Israel, however, the tale has focused more on the might of the Maccabees, who overcame an oppressive foe. That focus may have reflected the Zionism that helped birth the State of Israel and a recognition that the powerlessness we faced over two millennia would not be an issue any longer.
Rabbi Hartman and Klein Halevi wonder if the two communities need a bit of a reversal of focus. Israel, they suggest, might need a bit of light and hope as they face the darkness of an ongoing war with 101 hostages in captivity for 455 days. As a people, we continue to wonder how we can rejoice when families are displaced, when many have been called to fight in the reserves for months at a time, challenging family life and businesses, and, of course, with so many still advocating for the return of the hostages. Perhaps, they say, Israel needs a little light. Rabbi Hartman had just returned from three weeks of teaching in the U.S., and he wondered if perhaps we need a little focus on the strength and might of the Maccabees. He saw in us the fear and concerns over rising antisemitism and the home we knew as a place of welcome and safety changing before our eyes. I wonder now, how can we display that strength and not be afraid to hide?
This is a question I will carry with me in the weeks and months ahead. Hanukkah is a holiday about Jewish pride and literally fighting for the right to sovereignty in our land and the freedom to be who we are. Let’s carry these aspects of the story with us as we continue through 5785.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rick Kellner