By Rabbi Ben Kamin
SAN DIEGO–A benevolent calendar coincidence, occurring every few years, brings us on Dec. 24 to the shared lighting of solstice calendars by both Christians and Jews. The solar and lunar calendar cycles have intertwined, and so this Christmas Eve will share the fifth night of Hanukkah, 5772. The circumstances should work to everyone’s advantage on Earth and must be pleasing to the heavens.
Because the December holiday season, formally entwined this year, is too often undermined by commercial anxiety and social stresses, we might find serenity in the gentle purposes undertaken today in the name of Scripture. Didn’t Judah and his Maccabees fight for the very right that Christians enjoy to feel the birth of a messianic dream? Didn’t Jesus preach to the very benevolence that Christians must feel as they look out their windows and see their neighbor’s candelabra glowing?
Although they derive from different stories, their outcomes are really the same: give children some hope, shared values among all the valuables exchanged, and the Torah is revealed while the Gospel is made true. God looks down and sees that little ones are making light.
Jews should light our fifth candle tonight in gratitude for the peace and security that we enjoy at this special solstice. The 20th century was uncommonly harsh for us, and we too often could not collect enough wax for even one Hanukkah candle. The United States at the close of 2011, politically-fatigued and economically stricken, nonetheless still represents the ideals of religious liberty and joyous family gatherings.
We Jews should note: In the past generation, more Christians have done more soul-searching about who Jesus the Jew actually was than in many centuries. Christian interest in the Jewish calendar and in the welfare of the state of Israel is unprecedented.
Christians should look upon their wreaths not only as winter decor but as the true crown of Christ. In doing this, they will learn more about the meaning and history of Hanukkah: It was, after all, the original rebellion against religious tyranny, occurring in 168 B.C.E. It paved the way for the notion of theological freedom — from the Maccabees to Paul to Mohammed to the founding parents of U.S. democracy.
The fact that December’s days are particularly short gives this year’s shared lights added luminance. We Jews think of the power of ideas that overcame the brutality back then at the original Hanukkah, and our children get special insight into the yearning for freedom that still grips the globe, from Libya to Syria to Russia.
Christians, hopefully inspired by the incandescence of the messianic idea and innocence of a baby-child who changed the world, should think of what Christmas means to the soul, and not to the budget. Hanukkah has also become a hostage to the issue of credit, when all the Maccabees wanted credit for what was the very right Jesus had—185 years later—to save a light from going out.
Let both houses remember that what the Maccabees died for and what Jesus was born for was to build a world safe enough for a child to see through the darkness. The day is short, but together, we make hope long.
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Rabbi Kamin is a freelance writer based in San Diego. He may be contacted at ben.kamin@sdjewishworld.com