By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — The other day as my father-in-law, children and grandchildren joined with Nancy and me for Shabbat dinner, we tried to think of some wonderful way to celebrate Thanksgivingukah–as the conflation of Thanksgiving and Chanukah is being called. Supposedly, these two holidays only arrive together every 70,000 years, so they just scream for us to do something special at the dinner table.
Having turkey and latkes served together was one option, but that seemed too obvious and easy.
Well, how about using the latkes as the stuffing of the turkey? asked one of my grandchildren.
Or, said someone else at the table, hope burning in his eyes, we could decorate a pumpkin pie with Chanukah gelt– and then have them both for desert! Hmm. Maybe shape the chocolate gelt into a chai covering the pie’s surface.
Or maybe we could spin a drumstick, instead of a dreidle. If the big end points towards you, you win. If not, you lose.
Too messy, came the verdict.
We could stick nine candles in the turkey and make it a Chanukah menorah.
No, said someone else, the wax from the candle might drip on the turkey.
Maybe what we could make a cutout of a turkey’s tail feathers and stand a menorah behind it, so it would look like the Chanukah menorah is rising from it. Now there’s a possibility.
Some one else suggested that everyone dress up in costumes. There could be Pilgrims, Maccabees, and Wampanoag Indians. In the spirit of forgiveness after thousands of years, some of us could even dress up as Syrian-Greeks.
Then the thought came to us. The holidays really aren’t just about eating. They actually have something more important in common.
In each instance, God allowed people to overcome terrible hardships to obtain religious freedom.
The Maccabees staged a revolt against their Greek overlords who demanded that instead of the One God, Jews worship the pantheon of Greek Gods — Zeus, Athena, Aphrodite, Poseidon, and all those others. Against overwhelming odds, they won that war, cleaned up their temple, and found only enough oil for one day for a lamp that was supposed to burn eternally. But the oil lasted eight days–miracle of miracles — enough for a re-supply.
In the case of the Pilgrims, they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to maintain their separation from the Church of England, while hoping to retain their English language and culture. Clearly an urban people, they knew little about fishing or farming. A Native American named Squanto took pity on them and taught them survival skills. As the Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Possibly the best way to conflate the two holidays, then, would be to utter a prayer that could be equally acceptable to both the Maccabees and to the Pilgrims.
The Shehekiyanu prayer which thanks God for allowing us to “arrive at this moment” seems well adapted to the circumstances of both the Macabees and to the Pilgrims.
It also would be good to say if we actually do get to eat latkes and turkey, or pumpkin pie and chocolate gelt!
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com