Hanukkah, Simon Schama and the Myths (Mysteries) of Faith

Monday, December 15, 2014

Tomorrow is the beginning of Hanukkah, the eight day Jewish festival of lights that normally occurs during the month of December.  You can read about Hanukkah at

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/102911/jewish/What-Is-Hanukkah.htm

and at 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah

Central to the celebration of Hanukkah, at least in my understanding, is its association with a miracle.  As the chabad.org article notes,  

"More than twenty-one centuries ago, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who sought to forcefully Hellenize the people of Israel. Against all odds, a small band of faithful Jews defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G-d.

When they sought to light the Temple's menorah (the seven branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks; miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.

To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Chanukah. At the heart of the festival is the nightly menorah (candelabrum) lighting: a single flame on the first night, two on the second evening, and so on till the eighth night of Chanukah, when all eight lights are kindled."

Now for the the past forty years, for my entire adult life, I have always accepted this as being true.   Indeed, I have always looked forward to the Hanukkah celebration not so much because of the Jews triumph against the Seleucids but because of the celebration's association with the miracle of the lights -- the divine conquest of darkness by the light.  But then on Friday, I listened to NPR and I heard the highly esteemed Simon Schama say what he says in the following:

http://www.npr.org/2014/12/12/370394985/hanukkahs-real-and-imagined-history

Now, in one of the "coincidences" that seem to happen in this life, I happened to have watched part of The Story of the Jews when it was shown on PBS a few months ago.  The program seemed to me to be the best portrayal of Jewish history since Abba Eban's Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, a book (which I read) and a PBS series (which I watched) from the mid-1980s.  Since it was pledge afternoon, I called my local PBS station to make my pledge in the amount requested to receive both a DVD of the series and a copy of the book.  So this past weekend, I looked up Hanukkah in Simon Schama's book and, lo and behold, I found this

"Though they are radically dissimilar, the Maccabees 1 and 2 together constitute the liberty-epic of the Jews, in their way every bit as stupendous, fantasy-filled and thrilling as the foundation story of the Mosaic exodus.  The miracle of the oil for the rededicated Temple lamp, sufficient for one day yet burning for eight, is not among those wonders recorded by either book.  That legend, understood by all modern Jews to be the central meaning of Hanukkah, is a purely rabbinic invention, added at least three centuries later." The Story of the Jews, page 115.

I suppose it is part of my Amherst education, but in my scholarly exploration over the years, I have read many such disputations of miracles.

At this point, I am quite intellectually persuaded that just as with the miracle associated with Hanukkah, Moses did not part the Red Sea, Jesus was not born on December 25, Jesus did not walk on water, Muhammad was not teleported from Mecca to Jerusalem on the Night Journey, Joseph Smith did not find the Golden Plates, and L. Ron Hubbard's Xenu did not ever exist.

And yet having said this, over the next few days, I fully expect to watch a Hanukkah lighting ceremony with reverence and joy.  I am quite likely to go and see the movie Exodus: Gods and Kings that dominated the movie theaters this past weekend.  I am also likely to celebrate Christmas by watching Jesus of Nazareth, the Franco Zeffirelli mini-series masterpiece from 1977, for the thirtieth time, and I most definitely will continue to write about the historical personalities and events that make Islam such a remarkable religion.  As for Joseph Smith,  well, I did visit his birthplace in Sharon, Vermont, after the Amherst Black Alumni Reunion in 2011 and found the story of Mormonism to be amazing.  Finally, as for L. Ron Hubbard, well it may be that I simply have not reached the "level" of understanding to comprehend.

Ultimately, my point is that perhaps we should not expect our faiths to be filled with historical accuracy or to match scientific reality.  Perhaps it is best just to appreciate the positives of what our religious experiences provide us -- the belief in something greater than ourselves that calls us to be better than what we are. 

Peace.