Rabbi Michael Bernstein’s Chanukah Message for 2024

This year Chanukah begins on the same day as that other, never misspelled Ch- holiday. That makes for an intertwined question.

Is Chanukah a lasting testimony to the power of resisting assimilation, or a holiday that, like the Jews who celebrate it, has been transformed by every new place and new time?

Both.

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Yes, it is incredible that a relatively small people could survive for so many generations, transmitting from one to another sacred creeds, sacred texts, and sacred practices. Also incredible is how that same people and its ways could have such an impact on the world becoming the seed for other great religions, helping to inspire world changing philosophies, and contributing to rich and varied conversations about ethics, law, and governance.

Part of the miracle of Chanukah is the miracle of Jews in this country partaking fully in the culture around us while remaining strongly and unabashedly identified with being Jewish.

This year many of us will light the menorah and, perhaps eat egg rolls along with our latkes and maybe take in a movie. After all the “Jewish Christmas” originally came out of necessity: Jewish and Chinese immigrants living in proximity who did not fit in while all the other restaurants were closed on December 25th. So, the candles kindled throughout the Jewish world and the tradition born in the tenements of American cities both proclaim the miracle: The people Israel live!

And everywhere we live is also a part of who we are.

Rabbi Michael Bernstein is the Rabbi of Congregation Gesher L’ Torah.