Chanukah Madness
On the First Night of Chanukah (my spelling), I took a walk down to the memorial at the corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street in New York (Yes, I am still here), where every year, Chanukah Chabad builds what they claim is the largest Menorah (or Chanukiah) in the world.
Jeremy Rosen
Though I gather there are several competitors.
I was interested to see how many people turned up. Usually, it is crowded. This time, not so much. Though the loudspeakers blaring “We want Moshiach now” were in fine form. So were the young boys asking me if I had lit my candles and offering me a freebie menorah. And the sufganiot, doughnuts, were welcome on an icy night. There were plenty of police cars around. Clearly, this was not Australia.
But then, to the edge of the event, I espied two white bearded Neturei Karta jokers, decked in their usual black uniform, holding up a protest placard decrying the evils of the Maccabees and the Zionist descendants. They were also objecting to Chabad’s arrogance in claiming that the late Rebbe was, or would be, or could be, the Messiah. And these were the same idiots who join the anti-Israel protestors who try to make their presence felt whenever there is an Israel Day parade (will be interesting to see if the new mayor will allow one this coming year). It is true that the Talmud was no fan of the Maccabee dynasty. But this is no reason to condemn all of them.
On Chanukah itself, how ironic, I thought, that a movement that went to war to defend the Jewish religion, and laid down so many lives in defense of Judaism two thousand or so years ago, should be objected to by a couple of Charedis of the sort who had assured the Jewish people that Hitler was no threat and it would be better to stay and die in Europe than to flee to the Zionists. There is a word in Hebrew, Mosser. In Yiddish it is Moisser. It refers to a Jew who betrays another person or the Jewish people. The lowest of the low, and these guys qualify.
The Maccabee dynasty soon deteriorated, as most revolutionary movements usually do, into corruption and division. There was almost constant tension between the Sadducees and Pharisees, not to mention the Boethusians, the Dead Sea Sects, the secular and the religious, the Greeks and the Judeans. As for the holy priesthood, it soon became the symbol of corrupt power and financial manipulation. Making our era rather tame in comparison.
Despite all of that, the rabbis of the Talmud chose to commemorate the triumph over the Syrian Greek Antiochus and the re-dedication of the Temple. They ordained celebratory prayers throughout the eight days of Chanukah. Not to mention the Talmud going into detail about how and when to light the lights and the debate as to whether we follow Hillel or Shamai, either adding or reducing one light a day. They must have seen some good in some of the Maccabees.
For a moment, a negative thought passed through my febrile brain. Why does Chabad insist on a different design of the candelabrum to almost everyone else? With straight branches instead of the curved ones? The menorah that stood in the Two Temples and the one of the miracles of the oil lasting eight days, had curved branches. The one we can still see, shown on Titus’s arch, was taken from Jerusalem by the Romans. The menorah in the Temple had seven branches, three on each side of the central one. Whereas what we sometimes call the Chanukiah has eight and an extra Shamash in the middle. There is some dispute as to whether Rambam, Maimonides, approved of the Chabad version. Even so it does rather reek of separatism. But then which Chassidic dynasty does not have its own particular customs and idiosyncrasies? And we can’t even agree if Chanukah is a Chag or a festivity!
O what a strange people we are. God must really love us! It’s not surprising we raise so many hackles!!
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen always has such a sharp and entertaining way of cutting through the noise, and this piece on “Chanukah Madness” in New York is no exception! It’s wild to picture him standing there on 5th Avenue, dodging the icy wind and eating a doughnut while observing the “largest Menorah” and the protestors all at once.
His reflection on the irony of the Neturei Karta protesting the Maccabees—the very people who fought to preserve the religion—is a classic Rosen take. He has this great ability to weave together ancient Talmudic debates (like the straight vs. curved branches of the Menorah) with modern-day communal tensions. It really highlights how, despite the thousands of years that have passed, the Jewish community is still just as diverse, argumentative, and “strange” as it’s always been.
Reading this from Auckland, it makes our own local celebrations feel a bit more serene by comparison! We might not have the massive Chabad menorah on the scale of NYC’s, but we definitely share that same spirit of lighting the candles and coming together, even if we don’t always agree on the “straight vs. curved” branch design or whether it’s a Chag or a festivity. It’s a great reminder that these quirks and debates are exactly what keep the culture so vibrant. Happy Chanukah!
So are we supposed to allow a tragedy to remove any sense of humor?
‘Clearly this was not Australia.’ ?? I don’t think the US has much to boast about insofar as terror and murder of Jews are concerned. And at this point, after the massacre of Jews at Bondi Beach on December 14, dispute on Chabad’s version of the Chanukiah as discussion seems frivolous.