Chanukah, the Jews, and the Nature of Anti-Semitism

It must have been an extraordinary experience when the Kohanim in the days of the Chashmonaim suddenly realized that a tiny amount of oil which should have lasted for only one day would last for eight days. They probably did not realize this at the beginning. But when the same amount of oil had burned for two days, and then for three days, and ultimately for eight days, they must have wondered what was going on.

It would have taken some time to sink in. First, all sorts of explanations were probably offered, as this is the nature of rational people. But slowly and surely it must have dawned on them that something was happening that was not of this world. They must have stood in awe. They were confronted with what religious thinker Rudolf Otto called the Mysterium Tremendous et Fascinans. Their preconceived ideas and routine explanations were failing them. The multitude of words that, until now would convert reality into common sense, could no longer cope with the transcendental phenomenon taking place in front of their eyes.

A solemn terror must have overtaken them.

This is the foundation of genuine religiosity; the dawning of awareness that all things cannot be explained by the ordinary. It is radical amazement, which shatters the commonplace and makes us realize that our wisdom is sometimes inferior to dust.

And so it is with the Jews. It is terrifying to contemplate the mysterious existence and the extraordinary doings of the Jews.

Like the Chanukah lights, they keep on reminding the world that there is exceptionality, which transcends history and ordinary human accomplishments.

They are a wondrous people who continue to violate rules that most believe to be absolute and unconditional. By surviving the brutality of the world for thousands of years, and by making contributions to the world totally out of proportion to their numbers, Jews remind mankind that the world does not always bow down to mere logic and common sense. The oft-quoted observation by Mark Twain is still of utmost relevance:

If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one quarter of one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. . . All things are mortal but the Jews; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?[1]

This anomaly is a representation of the Divine. The purpose of the Jews is to epitomize the Godliness and dignity of all men. And this requires them to embrace their otherness and their mission to be a light unto the nations. But for those who abhor this view of man and want him to be nothing more than one branch of the primate tree, similar to apes and chimpanzees, this view arouses extreme hatred which they hurl back at the Jews, the bearers of this message. Most anti-Semites do not even know why they are anti-Semitic. They are plagued by a subconscious hatred for those who stand for and teach the preeminence of man and his moral character.

It was Edward H. Flannery’s famous book on anti-Semitism, The Anguish of the Jews (1965), which clearly pointed this out. Flannery wrote: “It was Judaism that brought the concept of a God-given universal moral law into the world…the Jew carries the burden of God in history (and) for this has never been forgiven.”[2] It is the rejection of universal morality which is at the root of anti-Semitism.

Jews themselves must realize that the wars being fought now with their concurrent worldwide outburst of anti-Semitism are the result of this phenomenon. Because the Jews continually violate the very rules of history, surviving nearly two thousand years of exile while outliving all their enemies, returning to their ancient homeland and continually astonishing the world, they are a constant reminder of their otherness. Together with their insistence that man is unique, they remain the most challenged people under the sun.

These wars are not just about land and not just about the Jewish people. These wars are about the Jews’ right to be different in order to be Jews, serving mankind to make this a better, more dignified world.

Even when many Jews today no longer see themselves as the carriers of this moral quest, subconsciously their arch enemies still identify them with this mission. There is no escaping this.

But it is a blessing in disguise. While remaining humble, Jews should realize that they are either superfluous or indispensable to the world. There is no in-between. It is either tragic or magnificent to be a Jew. Either the Jews are of no importance or they are of supreme importance. There is no purpose to their existence if they are not extraordinary.

To strive to be merely “normal” is to be less than we can be. Only by refusing to surrender to normalcy are we able to be Jews.

This has become the greatest problem for a large part of our people, including hundreds of thousands of “secular” Israelis. In their longing to be accepted by the world, they strive to be “normal” by the ordinary—and often mediocre—standards of the world. They do not realize that this is wishful thinking. In fact, this desire for normality only adds to their perplexity when the world rejects them and anti-Semitism in all of its hypocrisy rears its head once more.

One of the great tragedies of the State of Israel is that it must constantly defend itself against ongoing attacks on its citizens. When its enemies claim that Israel will be wiped out, “from the river to the sea” there is no other option but to defend itself with all its might. Israeli Jews are forced to rely on military power to survive. But this is a reliance that they abhor. It was Golda Meir who said, “When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”

It is this paradox that makes these wars so intolerable. Those who are forced to fight are those that hate it the most. What is most ironic is that were the Jews not to fight these wars, one day the anti-Semites would blame the Jews for allowing Arab terrorists such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis—and above all Iran—to take over Europe and kill millions.

Those willing to be honest will one day praise the Jews for defending Europe and beyond. But only a few will realize that they themselves should have participated in the fighting, but instead, cowardly left it to the Jews.

The current wave of anti-Semitism has nothing to do with Gaza, the occupation, nor accusations of ethnic cleaning and war-crimes. These spurious accusations are merely one more pretext to find a way to attack the Jews, whose very existence is a thorn in the side of a large portion of this world.

For thousands of years Jews have been the object of hatred in societies boasting every religion, or none. Fascists called them communists. Communists branded them capitalists. Poor Jews were bullied, and rich Jews were accused of world dominion. Jews have been expelled from nearly every country in which they have resided. They were told to go home. Now, after two thousand years of exile and the murder of six million of them, they have returned to their homeland, only to be told that they need to be annihilated again.

This is the reason why the Sages of Israel decided to make it an obligation for every Jewish family to light candles on Chanukah. They did not emphasize the military victory of the Chashmonaim—the Maccabees—against the Greek empire. Instead, it was the miraculous candle lighting in the Temple that they chose to emphasize. A tiny amount of pure oil, not sufficient for more than one day was able to remain lit for eight days. Because this is the nature of Israel; to achieve the impossible and illuminate the world, rebelling against the ordinary and the status quo; even when the price is high.

Jews should be proud of what they are hated for. They are the moral conscious of this world. It was Winston Churchill who said: “Some people like Jews and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are beyond question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world.”

We forget this at our peril. We are all, whether we acknowledge it or not, living expressions of the flame of Chanukah, which refuses to submit to mere normalcy. We too continue to shine against all odds.

[1] Mark Twain. Harper’s Magazine, September 1899.

[2] Edward H. Flannery. The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, first published 1965, latest edition: (Mahwah, Paulist Press, 2004).