What Is Flig?

Not only is Channukah a minor holiday, but it's entire purpose and meaning is pretty much antithetical to the way it's celebrated today, and in particular to the whole Chrismukkah meme. Here's the (basic) story:

The near-east was in the midst of a wave of Hellenization. Greek culture was The Hot New Thing, and leading to all the philosophical, cultural, and scientific advances we associate with Classical culture. The Jews (who at the time were probably Hebrews, not Jews yet) were having their typical, eternal debate over to what degree it was proper to engage with the surrounding culture - do we ignore it, read the books and debate it a bit, see how it fits in with the Torah, or strip off the Yarmulka and Tzitzit, and go play with the pretty boys down at the Gymnasium?

Into the midst of this, comes King Antiochus of Syria, who invades Judea, forbids Torah study and circumcision, and puts up statues of either Zeus or Apollo in the Holy Temple. Some of the Jews say, "Ok, that pretty much settles the question, then." and make peace with their new robot overlords. Others, (The Maccabees) grab their swords and head for the hills for a few years of guerilla conflict. They eventually drive out the Syrians and retake the Temple in Jerusalem. They clean it out, ritually purify it, get rid of the statues, and are all set for the dedication, when they figure out that they only have enough consecrated oil to like the Eternal Flame for one day. They light it anyway, yadda yadda yadda, it lasts for the eight days it takes to get new consecrated oil, and we have the (admittedly underwhelming) Miracle of Chanukah.

Anyway, the point of all of that is that the very foundation of the holiday is about maintaining a unique Jewish culture in the face of pressure to assimilate into a dominant surrounding culture. So taking the holiday, and making it as similar as possible to Christmas, to make the message "we all have something to celebrate at this time of year," to conflate it with the birth of a false Messiah (not to offend, but from a Jewish perspective, that's what Christmas is,) is foolish, ignorant, and cultural suicide.

A few addenda:

• The whole Dreidel thing came from the prohibition of Torah study. The Rabbis needed a reason to get together to surreptiously study Torah, so they pretended to be gambling, using a four-sided top. (I suppose it was a popular game at the time, but seems significantly less exciting to me than Craps or Texas Hold-Em.)

• The dreidel tradition led to kids being given gelt (money) to play with. This then became an excuse (starting pretty much in the twentieth century) to give the kids presents at Chanukah, so they didn't feel badly about their Christian friends getting all the loot they got.

• The latkes are traditional because they are fried in oil, which is symbolic of the oil used to light the Menorah in the miracle. Sephardic Jews eat jelly-donut-like things called sufganiot.

• There's more to the story, involving rival clans of priests, and who got to control the Temple. A couple of generations later, the assimilationists were ascendant, leading to an influx of Hellenistic thought and practice.

• Keeping Mitchell and Miriam shielded as much as possible from Christmas and Santa, and figuring out what to tell them, essentially how to teach them that they are Jews and most of their friends are not is one of the most difficult things Julie and I are facing as parents right now.

• I will never, never, never have a Hannukah Bush in my house. (The concept doesn't deserve to be spelled with a "CH")

This post began as a comment on Hit and Run, but the basic idea has been bouncing around my head for a few weeks now.

Cross-posted to Xmas is Full of Crap.

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