Our Religious School students will be very well prepared for Chanukah. They will know all about the greasy food we eat, and why; relearn the rules of the dreidel game; build their chanukiah (menorah) and even discuss the Chanukah story. But what their teachers will probably leave out, is the fact that the first person the Maccabees killed at the start of their revolt was a fellow Jew (for this discussion they have to wait for Shalom Chai).
There is no criticism here of our devout Religious School faculty. Omitting the element of a civil war from the Chanukah story goes back more than 2,000 years, when the Jewish leaders of that time decided not to include the Book(s) of Maccabees in the Bible. The Talmud, the center of the Jewish lore, hardly talks about Chanukah, and when it briefly does, it completely shifts the focus of the story. The important part became the miracle of the oil, a story that is not even mentioned in the Book of Maccabees.
When I was a kid, we all watched the age inappropriate British series Upstairs Downstairs, about the life of a wealthy family (upstairs) and their servants (downstairs) in the beginning of the 20th century. A few years ago, when the BBC created a continuation of the original program from the 70’s, I read an interview with one of the producers where he made a very important point. He said that most viewers tend to think of themselves as part of the Upstairs, while in fact, had they lived during the Edwardian period, almost all of them would have had a life much closer to the Downstairs folks.
As American Jews, when we think today about the Chanukah story, we automatically identify ourselves with the Maccabees, who fought for religious freedom. But the truth is, considering our contemporary lifestyle, that had we lived in the Land of Israel in 167 BCE, most of us would have ended up being on the opposite side of the Maccabees. Mattathias and his sons did not limit their attacks to the Syrian-Greeks, who prohibited the Jews from practicing the core elements of their religion. They extended it to their co-religionist who adopted Hellenistic practices. They used excessive violence to impose their form of Judaism on the rest of the community.
We are fortunate to live today in a society where no one uses physical force to impose their beliefs on others. But the time of Chanukah, especially because of its proximity to Christmas, brings out the tendency of some to tell their fellow Jews what is the appropriate way of celebrating the festival. Titles like “Actually, you can’t celebrate Chanukah and Christmas” can be easily found on the web, and there is no shortage of friends and family members who would lecture about the wrongness of having a Christmas tree or decorating your house with lights (even if they are white and blue).
I am the last person to advocate raising a family with two religions. It is not good for the family nor is it good for any of the religions. I do not believe that a person can be half Jewish and half Christian. But when it comes to the way people practice, we should stick to the full meaning of religious freedom and stop telling Jews that they are not Jewish enough!
I have another clear memory from the time I used to watch Upstairs Downstairs. As we were having dinner, two bearded men knocked on our door. We invited them in and they introduced themselves as inspectors who came to check the level of our family’s Shabbat observance. I was sent to my room, but in the small apartment the conversation was audible. They told my parents that they were disappointed not to find a Shabbat timer (that automatically turns on and off the lights on Shabbat) near the electricity meter, and they hoped that it wasn’t an indication of our religious observance. They proceeded with many more questions, as I was hiding in my room fearing an imminent expulsion from my Orthodox School, which I loved. We passed the test. I stayed in school and continued to a Yeshiva, but I was never able to shake off the notion that I was not Jewish enough. It was not for the Maccabees, nor is it for our fellow Jews today to grade the level of our Jewishness.