From: ring@inf.fu-berlin.de (Rod J. Ring)
Subject: Re: Christmas and Khanukah
Organization: Free University of Berlin, Germany, Computer Science
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 12:37:43 GMT


Hi, Ralf:

I'm very happy about your interest in Jewish culture.

Unfortunately, some of the information you gave in your article was
wrong, so please let me put some of the things right.  Some of what
I'm going to explain, has already been said by Mr. Weisberger
(right?), too, but, I'm sorry, I deleted his article by mistake, so
I can't really refer to or quote his remarks.

1)

Calling Chanukah "the Jewish version of Xmas" is not only very rude,
but definitely wrong and, I'm sorry, rather stupid.  I wonder who
told you this.  If at all, it's exactly the other way round:  If you
look at it closely enough, Xmas is a funny mixture of some aspects of
Chanukah and of all kinds of heathen rituals that have been given a
christian religious meaning.

2)

The fact that Chanukah started on the eve of December 19 this year
was purely coincidential.  Jewish holidays have their specific dates
in the *Jewish* calendar.  The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar
like the Muslim one, but - unlike the latter - is adjusted to the
solar year by a certain algorithm.  This is why Chanukah is
celebrated at approximately the same time of the year as Xmas, but
can still vary between the end of November and the end of December.
Don't forget that the European calendar is not a law of nature, but
was made by man, and is not "the one and only".

3)

The Chanuka-candelabrum is not called menorah, but Chanukiah.  But
anyhow, the Hebrew word menorah in itself does not mean anything
special, but is plainly the word for lamp, any lamp.  And *the*
Menorah as a symbol has only seven arms, the Chanukiah however, has
nine (the nineth candle does not have any meaning at all, it's only
used to light the others, because they should not be lighted by a
match or anything like that).

The interpretations given in your newspapers for the eight candles
of the Chanukiah derive from superstition or a mixture of ignorance
and sentimentality.  The *only* meaning of the candles lies in the
historical background of the festival:

Antiochus' soldiers had desecrated the Jewish temple.  After
reconquering it, the Maccabees found only a very little amount of
religiously pure oil for the eternal lamp in the temple, which
normally could never have lasted for more than one day, but by the
help of God's miracle lasted for eight days until the Maccabees had
managed to make new oil and thus were able to reconsecrate the
temple.

By the way, a lot of Chanukiot don't hold candles, but little oil
lamps.

4)

Chanukah is not a biblical holiday and does have *very* little
religious meaning.  It is like most Jewish holidays a "family
holiday".  Mainly the children like it very much, because of the
special atmosphere created by the lights and the songs.  There are
some other traditions connected to this holiday, but none of them
have any religious meaning.  The reason why Chanukah is given so
much importance in the western diaspora is some kind of need to
compensate for the immensely exaggerated and annoying fuss about
Xmas in these cultural surroundings.  In Israel, Chanukah *is* a
nice holiday, but is *much* less important.


I hope this makes the whole story clearer.  Anyhow, thanks for your
interest.

Happy holidays!

Rod.

-- 
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Rod J. Ring				If you can take it to water,
Institut fuer Informatik		and force it to drink,
Freie Universitaet Berlin, FRG		it isn't a horse.
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