Faith’s flame: Hanukkah sets hearts alight for Valley’s Jewish community

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A light in the dark times brings a message of hope, that good can persevere with steady resolve through the shadows of loss and despair.

That light, emanating from the menorah, brings a story of victory of the Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against their Syrian Greek enemies more than 2,000 years ago. It is also the story of a spiritual victory.

“Hanukkah celebrates the Jewish people’s victory over the Syrian Greeks in the year 165 BCE,” said Rabbi Frank Joseph, who serves at Temple Beth Israel Synagogue in Harlingen.

“As a result of their defeating the Syrian Greeks they were able to establish religious freedom for themselves,” he said.

Hanukkah is an eight-day religious observance which begins each year on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, said Rabbi Joseph. That day begins this year on Dec. 25 but has no connection to Christmas.

The two religious observances are separate from each other. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ in Christianity, and Hanukkah celebrates the Jewish victory over the Syrian Greeks.

Fernando Russek Jr., who attends Temple Beth Israel, spoke about how the Syrian Greeks under Antiochus IV had tried to impose Greek culture on Jews.

“The Greeks had taken control of Judea,” said Russek. “They tried different ways to make the Jews more Greek. Antiochus had been trying to make the Jews follow more the Greek gods, imposing different rules, prohibiting them from being Jewish basically. They had been forbidden to practice shabbat and circumcision and prohibited the studying of the Torah.”

The revolt was led by a family called the Maccabees. Rabbi Joseph said the Jewish rebels made up a much smaller force and made war against the much larger and professional army of the Syrian Greeks. The Jews had the advantage of knowing the terrain where they had lived for generations. They used guerrilla warfare to defeat the Greek forces, he said.

When the victorious Jews entered the Holy Temple of Jerusalem, they found it had been desecrated with images of Greek gods. Most of the oil to light the menorah had been defiled. They cleansed the Temple of Greek elements and found only a little oil to light the menorah for one day. When they returned eight days later with more oil, they found the menorah still burning.

This miracle is celebrated each year during Hanukkah, which means “dedication” in Hebrew, Russek said. In memory of the miracle of the oil, Jews eat oily foods such as latkes (basically potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (think donuts).

For generations after the defeat of the Syrian Greeks, Hanukkah celebrated the military victory. However, rabbis later determined that the celebration of Hanukkah should be about hope and spirituality.

At Temple Emanuel in McAllen, Rabbi Nathan Farb said that, although the message of Hanukkah happens in the context of a great battle, that isn’t really the true meaning of the observance.

“It’s about the light,” he said. “It’s the miracle of the light when peace came, when war ended, when the fighting ended and the Maccabees wanted to celebrate their faith as they had before. The miracle of Hanukkah is all about the light, and that’s the lesson we carry in our hearts.”

Rabbi Farb said that just as the Jewish ancestors took it upon themselves to bring light into the world, so do the Jews of today.

“We are very blessed here in the Valley that, unlike many other places in America where Jews face so much persecution from their own neighbors, we’ve been blessed that here we encounter very little of that,” Farb said. “I can’t say there’s none. Anywhere there are Jewish people in the world we have encountered anti-Semitism. But we live in a community where people appreciate their neighbors and we see each other as neighbors.”

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