Light unto the nations

Editorial

Chanukah is the celebration of the second-century CE victory of the Jews over the Hellenistic dominance that threatened to annihilate Jewish civilization. Having fought from the Judean hills, the Maccabees overcame their Syrian-Greek oppressors, eventually returning to the defiled Temple and reclaiming it for the Jewish people. There, as every Jewish child knows, was found a single canister of fuel that miraculously burned for eight days.

The lesson of Chanukah is one of triumph over oppression. Chanukah is also, in the northern hemisphere, a winter festival that offers a welcome opportunity to gather for festivities and light candles of brightness and hope in the midst of what, in Canada and elsewhere, can be a long, dark and dreary season.

As a holiday centred on food, Chanukah, it could be said, signifies the Jews' triumph over cholesterol. But while the historical antecedents of Chanukah are well known and the celebratory aspects much loved, perhaps it's time that non-Jews began to acknowledge and celebrate the lessons of Chanukah, too.

Of course, Judaism is not a proselytizing religion. But would it be so counter to Jewish tradition for the world of today to find a few examples of Chanukah's lessons?

Chanukah carries teachings of hope and perseverance. Where 18 centuries ago, it was the Jewish people facing existential threats, there are many peoples in the world today who figuratively or literally face similar dangers. There are also those who have triumphed over adversity.

In Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan and across east Africa, where that region's refugees have fled, all that remains of life, in many cases, is hope. In the places so devastated in the last year by natural disasters – across the Indian Ocean tidewaters, in Kashmir, in the southern United States – survivors are picking up the remnants of their lives and starting anew, as Jews have done so many times throughout history.

But there are stories of triumph befitting the Chanukah story in the world today, as well. Say what you will about the Iraq War, its motivation or execution, the election there last week was a tremendously hopeful step toward a self-governing society where citizens resolve their conflicts with words, in a parliament, rather than on the streets, through violence. Though they're not quite there yet, this nascent democracy – and the mere fact that the murderous dictator Saddam Hussein is no longer in power – is a powerful symbol of triumph.

Nearby, in Afghanistan, what had been arguably the cruellest, most perverted theocracy in the world was brought down, leaving Iran to hold that ignoble crown. (Perhaps somewhere in Iran there are brave fighters preparing, in the heroic model of the Maccabees, to reclaim their ancestral right and light a fire of hope in the midst of that fundamentalist darkness.)

In Northern Ireland, two peoples who have had turbulent histories are coming together with hopes for peace. This is a triumph.

And, appropriately, in the land where the Chanukah miracle happened, there is a modern lesson being illustrated. The entire political firmament has been reinvented by Ariel Sharon, a man once dubbed a warmonger, who has set a course for peaceful coexistence. May he recover fully from the minor stroke that felled him last weekend.

In the Palestinian territories, the world hopes that a partner for peace is truly embodied in the form of Mahmoud Abbas. And, if Abbas is that partner, he must prevail upon his people in their elections next month to follow his vision.

Chanukah is a celebration. But it carries, like all Jewish history, a lesson. In this way, the small candles we begin to light this weekend can be a light unto the nations.

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