“Chanukah is fundamentally an ambiguous holiday.”

— Rabbi Yossi Sapirman

When we think about the Festival of Lights, the word ‘controversy’ generally isn’t the first thing to come to mind.

Yet the history of this holiday period does raise a few questions.

Two well-known stories help to shape our understanding and celebration of Chanukah. The first story is the miracle of the oil that kept the lights burning in the temple for eight days, despite only being enough for one. The second is the Jewish military victory over the Greeks.

While the oil story is a celebration of light, gratitude and peace, the military victory is a celebration of triumph through force. It’s been suggested that the story of the miraculous oil was created in order to demilitarize the celebration of Chanukah.

With two such disparate and almost contradictory themes, how do we recognize, acknowledge and honour both faces of Chanukah?

In this episode of the Living Jewishly podcast series, Dr. Elliot Malamet, Rabbi Yossi Sapirman and Rabbi Bluth shed ‘light’ on the many themes that make Chanukah such a rich, beautiful period of celebration and thanksgiving.

Listen to this episode and then visit livingjewishly.org/channukah to download the Living Jewishly Channukah Guide.

“We do look toward history and draw it into our lives today… in some ways having a wide spread of lessons and themes doesn’t bother me too much. The question for me is: how are we applying it?”

— Bluth

This‌ ‌episode discusses:‌ ‌

• The Maccabees, the politics of sovereignty and how we might feel about this story in our present context
• How do we remain connected to the themes of the holiday in the context of diaspora and assimilation — and should gift-giving remain a part of Chanukah?
• What the popularity of Chanukah might say about current needs and desires surrounding the practice of our faith