Religious Freedom

For Barbie and Bill Greer, family is the most important part of Hanukkah.

"We make time for the four of us to be together," said Barbie Greer. In this busy family, the gathering might be just around a menorah, which they light each night.

"It's kind of nice to just watch (the candles) burn," Greer said. "Other nights, we'll play games as they burn or eat a late dinner."

How many Menorahs they light depends on Greer's mood, this mom said. Some nights, it's just one; other nights, it's two ... or three or four. "We each have one, and some nights we pull them all out," Greer said.

Her son, Jake, 12, has one representing sports. Her daughter, Maddie, 9, has one with purple cats. Greer has one a friend gave her with the Tree of Life theme, and others came as wedding presents, baby presents, bat mitzvah gifts.

"Each one has a meaning behind it," Greer said.

Dedication

Hanukkah might be the best-known Jewish holiday, but it holds little religious significance, said Rabbi Rob Lennick of Congregation Etz Chaim in Bentonville.

"The holiday is important, but it's not the most important," he said. "What's most important about Hanukkah, I think, is the Jewish community celebrating their solidarity."

In fact, Hanukkah celebrates religious freedom, he said.

The story is told in the first and second books of Maccabees. Although these books are not included in the Torah or the Christian Bible, they include the earliest references to the story of Hanukkah and the rededication of the Temple, as well as the most detailed accounts of the battles of Judah Maccabee and his brothers for the liberation of Judea from foreign domination.

In 165 B.C., the Greeks were expanding their empire, Lennick began the story. Alexander the Great conquered Syria, Egypt and Palestine, but allowed the lands under his control to continue observing their own religions and retain a certain degree of autonomy, according to the website Judaism 101, recommended by Lennick.

"He intended to take over and Hellenize the people," Lennick said. Instead of forcing change on the people, Alexander made the decision to try to convince people by inviting them into the Greek culture.

"Jews were interested in education and art (just like the Greeks), and there was some sense of freedom," Lennick continued. "They had all the attractions of American life."

"Many Jews assimilated much of Hellenistic culture, adopting the language, the customs and the dress of the Greeks, in much the same way that Jews in America today blend into the secular American society," reads Judaism 101.

"More than a century later, a successor of Alexander, Antiochus IV was in control of the region. He began to oppress the Jews severely," the website continues.

"A governor from outside ruled and imposed," Lennick said. The Greeks ransacked and defiled the temple. The Jews were not allowed to follow their practices in worship, and the Greeks put up statues of their gods in the temple and forced the Jews to worship them. The Greeks also required the sacrifice of pigs (non-kosher animals) on the altar.

"But there was this tiny family of Maccabees," he continued. "The leader of the family, Mattathias, decided Jews in Israel need the freedom to be Jews. He began a rebellion. It was the Maccabees against the Greek soldiers (and Hellenized Jews).

"The little band of the family, led by Mattathais' son Judah Maccabee, beat back the Greeks.

"It was a true revolt, a guerrilla war," Lennick said. "But it was also a civil war for independence."

The first actions of the Maccabees after their victory took them to restore and rededicate the temple. Here the legend was born, with the message of Hanukkah, Lennick said.

Oil was needed to light the menorah in the temple -- which was supposed to burn throughout the night, every night -- but the oil needed to be certified by a Jewish priest and sealed, Lennick explained. "They could find only one small chalice of oil -- only enough to burn for one day.

"But it stayed lit perpetually," he continued. "We're taught that, miraculously, it burned eight days" -- the time required to purify the temple.

The eight-day festival of Hanukkah commemorates this miracle.

"Lighting a Hanukkah candle is an act of dedication," Lennick said. "The word 'Hanukkah' means dedication. They rededicated the temple to Jewish worship. It's a miracle it burned for eight days.

"The holiday is about religious freedom," he continued "-- independence of mind, respect for the diverse, not forcing others to not be what they choose to be."

From that time, Hanukkah has been considered an independence day -- and Israel many times has needed independence, Lennick said.

"It's not just freedom from the Greeks. It's freedom for Jews to live the way they want to."

Celebrate

"One of the best ways to celebrate religious freedom is to study, to learn," Lennick said.

The custom evolved into giving kids coins or "gelt" to be encouraged to study the Torah. Today, these coins are made of chocolate.

"We reward kids for study in a strange kind of way," Lennick said. "We're not paying kids to study. We are building a relationship with the Torah in real life in a way.

"That was the extent of the gift-giving," he said.

But Jews, too, have gotten caught up in the commercialization of the season, and the gifts have grown, Lennick said.

In the Greer family, eight nightly gifts remain minimal -- "socks and underwear," Greer said. Their Jewish grandmother gives one big gift for Hanukkah.

The Greer's extended family gathers Sunday of Hanukkah for a special meal, and their temple gathers for a Shabbot (Sabbath) service and congregational meal on Friday.

These meals include latkes (potato pancakes) and doughnuts, Greer reported.

Jews eat fried foods over all of the eight days of Hanukkah, Lennick said. "Foods that are fried in oil, to remember the miracle of the oil."

"It's just family time," Greer concluded. "It's not a big, major Jewish holiday. We just make time for each other."