By NOAM ZION
Under the missionary Lubavitcher rebbe Menahem Mendel
Schneersohn in Brooklyn, CHaBaD (Chohkma, Binah, v’Da’at, an acronym of
highest and more abstract spheres of the mystical Godhead) has reinvented
Hanukkah in ways dialectically related to the Reform and Zionist Hanukkah.
These and only these Hasidim have chosen this holiday to
carry their chief ideological and strategic message for Jewish survival and
renaissance in the 20th and 21st centuries. For the Reform movement,
Hanukkah symbolizes the light of religious liberty shared by Jews and
enlightened Americans in contradistinction to benighted obscurantist
religion. Therefore the "wall of separation" between church and
state which Thomas Jefferson wished to build must keep the public space
clear of religious symbols like the Christmas creche, while proud Jews may
demonstrate their belief in that value in their homes and synagogues.
But American Chabad places its menorahs – electric, for the
most part – on the White House lawn, at the most conspicuous public
intersections and even on highways in Florida. Now Chabad knows that such
menorahs do not fulfill the mitzvah of lighting candles in your home on the
threshold. But they see this as an extension of the mitzvah of publicizing
the miracle.
While many Reform Jews are scandalized by this violation of
their American democratic faith and fearful that it invites Bible Belt
Christians to reconquer the public space, Lubavitchers see it as an
assertion of visceral Jewish pride that disregards the desire for
conformism and assimilation typical of modern day Hellenists and their
obsequies surrender to the darkness of Greek, that is, Western
values:
The Error of Greek Ways
Some people think that Hanukkah is chiefly about a military
victory. However, while the military victory was essential, it was a means
to the final purpose of purifying the Temple, spiritual survival. In short,
the point is to remove Greek pagan influence and spread light of holiness.
Greek culture has two faces. Outwardly it is brilliant and
attractive. Inwardly it is rotten and corrupt. It is the culture of sports,
circuses and theater. Nevertheless, even in Eretz Yisrael there were Jews
who wanted to assimilate, “to live it up” as Hellenists. Hagei Yisrael for Youth, Lubavitch
Center for Education
Like Secular Zionists who reclaim the militancy of Judah the
Maccabee, Chabad organizes its youth movement in quasi-military fashion,
calling it Tzivos HaShem, the Armies of God, and assigning children ranks,
as in the army. It sends forth missionaries in Mitzvah “anks” to reconquer
secularized Jews by bringing them the light of Torah wherever they may be
in the world, from Mumbai to Machu Picchu to Bangkok. The enemy, however,
is not hostile Arabs, and the goal is not political independence, but an
internal cultural religious civil war with non-Orthodox rabbis and wholly
assimilated and hence extinguished Jewish souls (neshama).
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Material
for this article and the others in this series is adapted from Noam
Zion's book, A
Different Light, The Hanukkah Book of Celebration.
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Lubavitch outreach uses the shamash, the servant candle of
the menorah which lights the eight sacred candles, as its symbol – to light
the candle is to ignite the lost soul of a Jew who still possesses the
"pintele yid," the Jewish spark:
My father-in-law reported this conversation with his own
father, Rebbe Sholom Dov-Ber, then the Lubavitcher Rebbe:
The Hassid asked: Rebbe, what is a Hassid? The Rebbe
answered: A Hassid is a streetlamp lighter.
In olden days, there was a person in every town who would
light the gas street-lamps with a light he carried at the end of a long
pole. On the street corners, the lamps were there in readiness, waiting to
be lit. A streetlamp lighter has a pole with fire. He knows that the fire
is not his own, and he goes around lighting all lamps on his route.
Today, the lamps are there, but they need to be lit. It is
written, “The soul of man is a lamp of G-d” (Proverbs 20:27), and it is
also written, “A mitzvah is a lamp and the Torah is light” (Proverbs 6:23).
A Hassid is one who puts personal affairs aside and goes around lighting up
the souls of Jews with the light of Torah and mitzvot. Jewish souls are in
readiness to be lit. Sometimes they are around the corner. Sometimes they
are in a wilderness or at sea. But there must be someone who disregards
personal comforts and conveniences and goes out to ignite these lamps with
his or her flame. That is the function of a true Hassid. – Rabbi Menachem
Mendel Schneerson (Lubavitcher Rebbe from 1950-1994), based on Sichot
HaRebbe (Talks of the Rebbe) from the years 5701, 5700, 5722.
When all Jews have returned to their true Jewish spiritual
self, then the messiah has come. No wonder so many Chabad followers regard
their dead rebbe (1994) as still alive, as the messiah incarnate. The
redemption of all Israel and of the whole world is accomplished a soul at
time, a mitzvah at a time, just as the Hanukkah candles are added one each
day as the power of their light are broadcast into the darkness at the
darkest time of the solar year and the lunar month.
Mixing modern technology for communication and ancient,
Chabad arranged a worldwide candlelighting by the rebbe, broadcast by
satellite all uniting their worldwide outreach.
Recently we can “proclaim and propagate the miracle” the
world over using a satellite or other scientific inventions to honor God,
because as the Rabbis said “everything God created in the world was for his
honor” (Pirkei Avot 6).
In fact the ability to see visually by satellite how one
person, even a child, can light a candle seen round the world
instantaneously teaches us that it is within the power of each one of us to
light up the whole world. By satellite we can unite Jews all over the world
no matter how dispersed, thus Hanukkah teaches the oneness of Israel, of
God and of Torah.
The satellite connection teaches the Jews that what happens
in one place can have an effect in any other place, what happens in heaven
(satellite) can have an effect on what happens on earth. If it is a mitzvah
“to place the candle on the outside of one’s doorway to proclaim the
miracle,” then even more so is it a mitzvah to place it “outside” in a
central public space for even greater “proclamation of the miracle” –
including for the nations of the world, for they too are commanded to
observe Torah, the laws of Noah. Of course one’s house should also be a
source of light for one’s environment – a house filled with inner spiritual
light of Torah, prayer and loving kindness.
The Hanukkah candles we light are comprised of two aspects;
a) illuminating the world during the time of exile, and thereby b)
preparing the world for the coming redemption. - Rabbi Menachem Schneerson
during candle lighting by satellite (1992)
However Chabad's welcoming embrace of all Jews, observant or
not, which is so at odds with most Haredim, is not a sign that they have
forsaken the cultural civil war of Hanukkah. The Jew is welcome but not the
Jew's heretical beliefs in Western enlightenment or Reform and Conservative
Judaism.
Chabad
rabbis and President Ronald Reagan at White House
(note
four arranged on either side of Reagan, who is the "shamash" in
the middle)
A more pluralistic imagery of the Hanukkah candle and the
Jewish people can be found in Rav Abraham Kook:
Everyone must know and understand
that within burns a candle/lamp.
There is no one's candle is like his/her fellow's
and no one lacks their own candle.
Everyone must know and understand
that it is their task to work to reveal the light of that
candle in the public realm.
And to ignite it until it is a great flame,
and to illuminate the whole world.
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