Not by Might |
“What Is Hanukkah? Light in an Age of Fear”
On this Shabbat, we stand at a rare and layered intersection of sacred time.
It is Shabbat Miketz, when Joseph moves from the darkness of the pit and the prison toward power and responsibility.
It is Rosh Chodesh, the renewal of the moon, when Jewish time insists that diminishment is never the final word.
And it is Hanukkah, the festival that asks not how power is seized, but how light is sustained.
The Babylonian Talmud asks a deceptively simple question in Shabbat 21B: “Mai Hanukkah?” — What is Hanukkah, and why are lights kindled on it?
The Gemara answers by recounting how the Greeks defiled the oils in the Temple, and the Maccabees found only one cruse of pure oil with the High Priest’s seal that was sufficient for one day; a miracle occurred and it lasted for eight days. So the Sages instituted these days as holidays of praise and thanksgiving, Hallel V’Hodaya.
By contrast, the First Book of Maccabees describes the day of rededication without the oil miracle narrative. It records how the altar was rebuilt and the Temple was joyfully dedicated for eight days with song and sacrifice:
“They celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days…and offered a sacrifice of well-being and thanksgiving.” (1 Maccabees 4:54–56).
Both texts root Hanukkah in the historical victory of Judah the Maccabee and his brothers. The Talmud transforms history into liturgical memory, that of lighting our nightly flames, connecting persistence with liturgical innovation.
Professor Jonathan Sarna, among others, has written that Hanukkah became, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a narrative through which Jews articulated resistance not only to ancient Hellenism, but to modern antisemitism. A holiday affirming Jewish continuity, dignity, and moral agency in societies that repeatedly questioned the Jewish right to belong. Hanukkah became a language through which Jews said: we are still here, and we will not disappear quietly.
In his article “The Americanization of Hanukkah”, historian Jonathan D. Sarna from Brandeis University observes how Hanukkah moved from a more marginal festival to a central holiday in many Jewish communities especially as Jews in the modern era sought to affirm identity, continuity, and resistance to assimilation and antisemitism.
For many Jews in recent generations, Hanukkah’s narrative became not only a celebration of ancient victory, but also a framework for asserting Jewish presence, dignity, and moral resistance in the face of modern hostility. The holiday’s light came to symbolize the enduring flame of Jewish life across the world — not just an isolated moment of ancient history.
This week, that affirmation feels painfully necessary.
Our hearts are shattered by the devastation of the past days. We mourn the victims of the horrific shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia, which took place during a Hanukkah celebration; a moment meant for light, joy, and communal safety. A moment recognized by any Jew, anywhere. Who has not gone out to the public square to light a candle, eat a donut, fry a latke?
On December 14, 2025, during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, a mass shooting claimed the........