Shabbat Shalom. This story is told several years ago on a particular Hanukkah. A Jewish mom gives to her adult son 2 beautiful sweaters for Hanukkah. Sure enough, next year, Hanukkah rolls around again and the sun is invited back over for another Hanukkah celebration. And he proudly walks in the door of his mother’s house wearing one of those beautiful sweaters that his mom had gotten in the year before. His mom takes one look at him and says, nu, you didn’t like the other one.

The story is told of a Jewish man, an older Jewish man who’s moved into a new apartment. And so his adult daughter wants to come and visit him at Hanukkah time. So, the man explains to his daughter,

As soon as you get to the apartment, when you come to the door to the apartment building, I want you to take your elbow use it. Hit the buzzer. That’ll let me know you’re there. I’ll buzz you in. As soon as you are ready to open the door to the apartment building, take your elbow. Use it to bend the doorknob and that will allow you to walk in the door.

Ok. And then when you get to my door of the apartment itself, I want you to buzz me again use your elbow, hit the buzzer and I’ll let you in. And the daughter says, OK, dad, I got the instructions, elbow, elbow, elbow. But can you help me understand why I have to use my elbow for all of this? And the father responds of course you’re going to show up empty handed.

We all have our Hanukkah stories. I would love to hear your Hanukkah story. For me, as I think about this beautiful holiday of Hanukkah, my mind goes first and foremost to growing up in Troy, a distinctly non Jewish area. In my graduating class from the Troy Athens High School of 450 students in my graduating class, there were two Jews, which I think, if my math is correct, means that Rebecca, who grew up on a sheep farm in the Upper Peninsula in Pickford and graduated one Jew of 30 she had a higher percentage of Jews in her graduating class than I actually had in mind.

But as a little kid, I remember Mom coming in every year at Hanukkah time she took the day off of work. She would come in and fill my classroom with latkes and with Jelly doughnuts and with chocolate gelt and with dreidels and Hanukkah was huge when I was growing up. My friends, my classmates, would look forward every year to Hanukkah when Mom would come in with the latkes and the doughnuts and the chocolate gelt. And we as kids would look forward every year to opening gifts, a tremendous number of gifts at Hanukkah time and my brother would open his gifts with surprises to what they might be and I would open my gifts with surprises to what they might be.

And even as we were opening our gifts, my dad would look on as surprise, wondering what these gifts might be.

Hanukkah was big because to some extent we were competing with our Christian neighbors growing up in Troy. I also remember these wonderful pictures we would take every year, lighting the Hanukiah, surrounded by aunts and uncles and grandparents. And I now, of course, look at those pictures and count how many people are no longer with us as we celebrate the Hanukkah holiday, but whose presence is very much part of my life still. And I wonder what Hanukkah memories, what Hanukkah stories my kids will tell when they grow up.

Will it be similarly of Hanukkah celebrations, with lots of gifts and surrounded by their grandparents? Will it be the few years thank God we’ve been able to celebrate Hanukkah in Israel? And the sufganiyot, the doughnuts decorated beautifully, We would pick up along the streets of Jerusalem, one after the next, after the next. Would they remember? Will they remember lighting the Hanukiah with friends just a few minutes drive north of Modi’in where Judah Maccabee himself was born? Will those be their Hanukkah memories? Love to hear at lunch what your Hanukkah story is as you think about Hanukkah, what’s your story? And I think in this year in particular, we are called upon to ask what is the Hanukkah story for 2024 for 5785 Of course, if we rewind twenty two hundred years ago and we talked about the original Hanukkah story, we ask what that might be.

You remember from your history lessons that Alexander the Great came in and conquered most of the known world nearly 2 and a half millennia ago. And not only did he conquer most of the known world, he actually Hellenized much of it as well. And so after he died, after Alexander the Great died, his Kingdom was divided into two, into the Ptolemais, who by and large had Egypt, into the Seleucids, who had the rest of the Middle East.

And because much of the world had become Hellenized, in Israel in particular, there were a number of Jews who also had become Hellenized. They were giving up circumcision, they were giving up kashrut. When a family named Khashmonai, when the Hasmonian family saw this, they got upset and they thought it would be a good idea to go around killing the assimilated Jews. And so the Hellenized Jews, the assimilated ones, they called in the Greeks who were headquartered in Syria, modern day Syria, and they came in, those Greeks came in to have the back of the assimilated Jews.

And in so doing they desecrated the Holy Temple. And of course, then we know that the Maccabees came through this Hashmoni, this Hasmonean family. The Maccabees came through and they cast off the yoke of the Greek Syrians, and they rededicated the Holy Temple. And in rededicating the Holy Temple, they relit the menorah. And to the Maccabees, the Hasmonean family even more importantly, because they weren’t able to celebrate Sukkot holiday in its season because of the desecration of the Temple, they were able to celebrate Sukkot, albeit a couple months later.

And so why is this holiday of Hanukkah 8 days long? Because Sukkot is 8 days long and they were able to rededicate the temple and celebrate Sukkot. That’s the story we read in the Book of Maccabees, which is not part of our Bible. Why is it not part of our Bible? Because it was written in Greek. It was written by a member of the Hasmonean court writing in Greek for a particular audience, probably at the behest of the Hasmonean kings to record their mighty military victory over the Greeks. Now, if we Fast forward a little bit to just after the destruction of the First Holy Temple, some hundred and fifty years or so after the Hanukkah story took place.

And we have Josephus, the Jewish turncoat, who tells the story in his History of the Jews about this holiday of Hanukkah. And he calls it a festival of lights because he was writing by and large, for a Pagan audience who understood holidays that celebrated light in the middle of the darkest days of the year. And so all of a sudden Hanukkah became this festival of lights. And a couple centuries after that, in the Talmud, written by rabbis who hated the Hasmoneans, who hated the Maccabees, written by rabbis who lived in oppressed life outside the land of Israel, come to tell us the story of a miracle of a jug of oil which in rededicating the Temple, was supposed to only last for one day, but by act of God lasted for eight days.

And according to the rabbis, that is the story of Hanukkah. So which is it? What’s the story of Hanukkah? Is it about the military victory of the Jews over the Greeks? Is it about the rededication of the Holy Temple? Is it about light in the midst of the darkness? It’s about the miracle of a little jug of oil that lasted for eight days. If we Fast forward again several centuries, we come to the rabbis of roughly the ninth and tenth century who wrote the prayer Al honey seem that’s in our prayer book that we will chant every day of Hanukkah. And they brought back the story then of the Jews defeating the Greeks and rededicating the temple but they put their own twist on it it’s not just about a military victory.

It’s about God helping the Jews in their darkest times. And that’s the prayer on the scene that will chant every day of Hanukkah.

What’s the story of Hanukkah? If we Fast forward even more to the beginning of the twentieth century when we have the birth of Zionism as we really came to know it today the Zionists celebrate the story of Hanukkah as Jews reclaiming the land of Israel and casting off the authority of non Jewish government. That’s the Zionist story of Hanukkah. And you know, Hanukkah is pretty big in Israel as a result. In America, though, in the early twentieth, century there’s a different frame and Hanukkah become Hanukkah becomes this holiday of religious freedom where the Jews were finally able to celebrate their own religion once again. It’s a very American story. So what is the story of Hanukkah? I read a wonderful article by Rabbi Dalia Marx this week in which she spoke about Hanukkah 5785 this year.

And of course we know the word kanuka itself comes from the expression Hanukkah habayit or dedicating the temple. And she said this year we’re dedicating another bayit in Israel where she lives. They’re talking about finally having some peace again in the world. As we see Hezbollah has nearly collapsed, as we see Syria has totally collapsed, as we see Hamas is on the verge of total collapse, and as we see Iran reeling. Israel’s in an entirely new situation today than it was two years ago at this time. And maybe that Israel that is our bayit, is our home, is in need of rededication because of this incredible time in which it finds itself on the verge perhaps of a peace that it hasn’t known for a very long time.

Or, Rabbi Marks writes, maybe we need to rethink of dedicating our home in a different way because Jews of North America are feeling something very different. With the incredible rise of anti-Semitism over these last many years, what does it mean to find safety in our own homes? What does it mean to rededicate our bayit, our house as a place of safety and sanctuary? We have this story this year of Hanukkah Habayit of dedicating our homes and they’re very different stories depending on which truths you want to focus on.

And we have, especially in America, this idea of being a light in the darkness of course, we hearken back to Isaiah and being an Orla goyim, a light to the nations. Despite our sense of profound insecurity, vulnerability here in North America, we are incredibly blessed. We have everything we need and most of what we want. And can we, especially during these dark days when there’s so much suffering around us, when there’s sadness, when there’s loss, when there’s deprivation, when there’s people in need, can we give deeply of ourselves to be a light in the midst of the darkness? Can we find our own gratitude in giving deeply to those who are in need? Or maybe we look at it a little bit differently the light in the darkness that we need to find is in the lighting of the Hanukkiah.

We reestablish our faith and in so doing, recommit ourselves to this bayit, this House of God, this sanctuary, and we refocus on our face.

As you light the Hanukiah, as you light the Hanukkiah this year, what will be your focus where will your Kavanaugh be? Will it be in Israel or will it be in North America? Will it be on freedom or will it be on insecurity? Will it be on our need to care deeply for others because of how blessed and how strong we are? Or will it be on our own renewed faith and need to bring ourselves closer to God? What is our Hanukkah story for this year, 5785 and how will that intermingle with your own personal Hanukkah story? The one you use to envelope your children and your grandchildren and maybe even great grandchildren? The one you use to bring in your non Jewish friends into the story of Hanukkah.

How will you celebrate Hanukkah this year?

Whether it’s with beautiful sweaters or a sharp elbow. Whether it’s surrounded by loved ones, whether it’s in the intimacy of your own home. As you light the Hanukkah menorah this year, as you light the Hanukah Hanukkiah, my prayer is that it should fill your home with light and face. It should fill our people with strength and renewed hope. And most of all, may the Hanukkah lights this year bring us all true and lasting inner peace and outer peace. And let us say together Amin Shabbat Shalom and an early happy Hanukkah.