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Last Day of Chanuka: Dimensions of 8

This last day's focus on Jewish dedication is centered on the number 8 itself.  Eight is a significant Jewish number.  A bris takes place on the eighth day of a boy's life.  Eight is associated with the ancient Temple in Jerusalem -- King Shlomo dedicated the first Temple on Sukkot, the eight-day fall festival.  In the Torah, the portable Mishkan began to operate at the end of an eight-day ritual.

Eight, in other words, is the number that represents covenant.  Seven is nature, and eight is something extra.  What God adds, what we bring -- eight is the partnership between human beings and God in this world.

There are, according to Rabbi Moses Maimonides, eight levels of tzedakah.  The highest level is a gift, loan, or partnership that helps a poor person become self-sufficient.  Leading in the Jewish community in this commitment is the Jewish Funds for Justice TZEDEC program, which I have written about before and can't ever resist boosting again.  TZEDEC pools capital from Jewish institutions and individuals, and invests in loan funds that support economic and community development in low-income areas.  Their newest intiative is called, aptly enough, 8thDegree.  It makes microloans to support small businesses in New Orleans, which is still rebuilding slowly after Hurricane Katrina.  TZEDEC and 8thDegree flow from Jewish teachings but support the wider community.

Shabbat Shalom, Chodesh Tov (it's the beginning of the new month of Tevet), and for a final time this year, Chag Urim Sameach!

Chanuka -- Seventh Candle

Dedication, take 7:  One of the great Jewish organizations in the U.S. working in support of Jews overseas has been the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.  "The Joint" was founded in 1914 by American Jewish philanthropists Henry Morgenthau Sr. and Jacob Schiff to aid the Jews of Ottoman Palestine, who had been cut off by the start of World War I from their usual sources of support.  Over the years, the JDC has supported vulnerable Jewish populations in Europe and Israell.  n addition to material help, the Joint has helped to rebuild Jewish life in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, working with communities on the ground and sending young Jewish adults from the West as fellows who teach and offer all kinds of programming.

Chanuka -- Sixth Candle

If you're looking for something to help people who are not Jewish understand Chanuka, here is a 13-minute TV interview I did this month for Londonderry's public access cable TV program "Londonderry Heart, Home, and Soul" with host Mark Oswald.

Jewish dedication for the sixth candle:  The Young Judaea Zionism movement's "Year Course" has been for a long time one of the very best programs in Jewish education.  Young people go for the gap year between high school and college.  The program combines study, volunteer work, travel, communal living, and leadership development.  In recent years the Year Course has developed special tracks in everything from arts to medicine to yeshiva study.  Year Course alums are leaders in Jewish life in all kinds of organizations (they turn up as U.S. Supreme Court clerks as well!).  Here's to quality Jewish programming worth supporting, or investigating if you are in high school or have a child who is.

Chanuka -- Fifth Candle

This afternoon a group of seven of us went to the Pheasant Lane Mall.  Last week one of the young Israelis working there called after me -- she saw my kippah -- and I found out she was from Modi'in, home of the Maccabees.  They come for the holiday season and work very late, no time to come out into the community to celebrate Chanuka.  So we went with sufganyot and songs, and surprised them!

Here's are pictures:

Today's profile in Jewish dedication:  MAZON:  A Jewish Response to Hunger.  This organization has, since 1985, given out over $50 million in the Jewish community's name to fight hunger particularly in the U.S., mostly through support of direct provision of food but also by standing behind local organizations that work on the causes of hunger in an abundant society.  In many places it has become the norm for Jews celebrating a simcha to donate 3% of the cost of the celebration to MAZON. 

Chanuka -- Fourth Candle

I'm catching up from Shabbat and the weekend...

For some adult-level thinking about Chanuka, I recommend David Brooks's op-ed last week in the New York Times, and also my podcast.

Another profile in Jewish dedication:  The American Jewish World Service is the major Jewish organization working on the ground in the developing world.  They are the lead Jewish organization in the coalition to "Save Darfur", they provide grants as well as expert assistance to on-the-ground organizations doing economic development, education, and women's empowerment in developing countries.  If you have relevant expertise, they arrange for long-term Peace Corps-style volunteering overseas.  They also take groups on shorter experiences working for a week and reflecting from a Jewish angle on what people see there.  Consider a year-end gift, or getting on their e-mail contact list -- when issues come up before the Congress or administration about justice or development they reach out and mobilize.

Shabbat Chanuka (1) -- Tzedakah and Music

Chag Urim Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!

There is a modern tradition that for each candle of Chanuka, the Holiday of Dedication, we might think about or direct a gift of tzedakah to people who exemplify dedication to justice, freedom, or hope.  Today I learned that my friend and colleague Rabbi David Rosenn will be moving on from the organization he founded some fifteen years ago called AVODAH:  The Jewish Service Corps.

Avodah began in New York and now operates as well in Chicago, New Orleans, and Washington.  In each place, a group of post-college Jewish young adults live in a "bayit" together and are placed in anti-poverty organizations.  They learn about organizing and advocacy, as well as Jewish teachings about social justice.  They create their home and their Jewish community.  Here's to David, and to Avodah!

Here are some miscellaneous musical resources for Chanuka:

• Hear NPR's Fresh Air interview last year with Erran Baron Cohen (brother of Sacha), who put out a terrific modern hip-hop-ish Chanuka album.  Lots of clips from the music.
  
  
• Here's an all-purpose site with links to songsheets and music to listen to
  

• A great song sheet with Hebrew, English, and transliteration

• A place to custom generate your own songsheet with Hebrew, transliteration, and English

Is Chanuka a Minor Holiday?

People wonder whether Chanuka is important, and whether the only reason Jews make a big deal out of Chanuka is because of Christmas.

It's true that Chanuka is not like Shabbat, or the biblical festivals like Pesach or Rosh Hashanah. After all, on Chanuka Jews are permitted to work and are not expected to attend long services. But the historic themes of Chanuka are not in any way "minor." In its very origin, the holiday gets us to think about issues that continue to face Jews who live in a world dominated by other cultures and powers.

We can easily see Chanuka as a story of the fight for religious freedom -- against persecution by Antiochus, but also for acceptance in the wider world governed by Hellenistic ideas and culture.

It's also true that the Chanuka story begins with debate and disagreement among the Jews about just how much to open up to Greek and Hellenistic culture. In the early years after Alexander the Great conquered the Land of Israel, Jews were allowed to live according to Torah norms, and they suddenly came into contact with new people from around the empire created by Alexander. There were Jews who were eager to assimilate completely, even to the point of masking their circumcision so they could participate in athletic competitions (back then in the nude). Jews took on Greek names, Greek styles, and Greek words. From the Greeks we learned how to turn discussion and debate into the exquisite art form that seems today so Jewish! (To learn more about this, listen to my recorded talk.)

But there were also those like the Hasmonean family -- Judah Maccabee's clan -- who initially resisted taking on Hellenistic ways. So before Antiochus lifted a finger against us, there was also tension and infighting among the Jews.

How American, Western, modern can we be -- how integrated can we be -- without losing what makes us distinctive? That sounds like an American Jewish "December dilemma", but it's actually what the whole story is about.

The other way Chanuka is major is in the spiritual symbolism of the candles. The spread of light, from a single flame to a wide array of fire, is about hope in all its forms. At the darkest times, when we can hardly find any light in our lives or our hearts, if we kindle the smallest "cruise of oil" we might find that there is enough to keep us going. There is much more to say about that, which I will from the bimah, but it's something to think about as a meditation as you light candles this year.

Chag Urim Sameach -- a joyous festival of lights!

Chanuka and Gift Giving

My first Chanuka-related posting of the season. I hope I am reaching some of you before you are in the thick of Chanuka and holiday gift giving. This year in particular is a time when we might reassess the whole matter of Chanuka presents. Originally, of course, Chanuka had no association with giving gifts -- it was Purim that is the holiday of "sending of portions to our neighbors and gifts to poor people", according to the Megillah. Apparently from a historical point of view, Christmas giving was also originally about "giving to the poor" and only since the mid-1800s came to be about exchanging gifts within a family.

Giving is rooted in our urge to be generous, and I don't want to dismiss that. But sometimes the gifts are too much.

Here is one of the more interesting things I've read about how we might reshape our approach, from a recent New York Times article. I invite people to post their own ideas.