Rabbi Josh Hearshen's Chanukah Message for 2024

For our Chanukah holiday issue, we invited members of our community to share their responses.

We do not have a biblical origin for the holiday of Hanukah. Its origins are found in a variation of sources including the Apocrypha, midrashic works and the Talmud. Each of these portray Hanukah in a slightly different light and each of them help us to unearth the miracle that is Hanukah. We spend a lot of time focusing on the miracle of the eight days of light that was generated from one container of pure oil that should have only lasted for one day. This is a beautiful reason for Hanukah and yet it is not the essence nor is it the true depth of the festival. Olive oil is deeply connected to the Jewish people and to the land of Israel. It was a key component of the anointing oil used for elevating priests or kings. Olive oil was clearly the fuel used to keep the Menorah burning in both the mishkan and the beit hamikdash. Olive oil is also deeply connected to the land of Israel where olive trees grow in great numbers and the olives have been harvested for millennia to press into oil. No trip to Israel’s archaeological parks would be complete without seeing the enormous oil presses that have been unearthed. But the oil is a vehicle for celebrating the holiday and not the essence of the holiday itself.

The essence is seen in the name of the holiday, Hanukah, which means dedication. It is on Hanukah that we rededicate ourselves to our people, our religion, our land and to our relationship with God. It is on Hanukah that we find that we need to be more dedicated and more engaged in our identity and our community. We light the candles or oil lamps each night to bring more and more light into the world but also into our own homes. We need to bring that light into our religious world. We need to increase our level of engagement more and more each day. This should never be limited to Hanukah as it should be our attitude all year long. But it we can each use the reminder once a year that we need to be more dedicated and show more dedication in our Jewish lives.

Rabbi Josh Hearshen is the Rabbi of Congregation Or VeShalom in Brookhaven, Ga.