Samhain Thanksgiving Moon
It is the first night of Hanukkah. I recommend this op-ed piece in the NYT to clarify the roots of this most well known of Jewish holidays and perhaps its most misunderstood. We celebrate Hanukkah here and by mail with the grandkids. Dreidels and menorahs and the evening lighting of the candle. Kate recites the prayers in Hebrew. Sometimes I join in.
Judaism has always felt right to me. I love the sonority of Hebrew, the unflinching demands for social justice, the beauty of the torah scrolls and the long unwinding of Jewish history that they represent. Judaism has an authenticity rooted in its long, well-documented history and in its adherents who, whether observant or not, often not, still retain its cultural stamp.
You can do much worse than basing your life on the Exodus story, the patriarchs of Genesis and their powerful wives, the story of Deborah, driving tent spikes into the head of an enemy commander. These are powerful stories, people shaping and people making.
The holocaust, of course, burns with the most intense heat in near time history. Its memory, which could have been paralyzing or demoralizing, found Jews and their allies worldwide declaring, Never again. Out of that awful moment came, after a difficult birth, the nation of Israel.
While I may have differences with Israeli policy and strategy concerning Palestine, and I do, I fully understand and celebrate the homeland for this wandering people; fated, it seemed to live only in diaspora.
Jewish or not, lift a cup of cheer and good will each time you see a menorah over the next few days. Celebrate this people and their often surprising stories of survival against long odds. Hanukkah is one such story.
