December 18, 1995
Web posted at: 9:45 a.m. EST
From Correspondent Veronica Pedrosa
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins on December 17. The festival of lights, as it is known, illuminates some important points about Judaism.
The ancient holiday has traveled from its roots in Israel to New York and the world's largest candleholder, a giant version of the traditional menorah, and even into orbit, with a Jewish astronaut on the space shuttle spinning the traditional holiday toy, the dreidel.
Celebrations have changed, but even a child can give the basic message -- Hanukkah represents a Jewish military victory, and a miracle.
The war nearly 2,100 years ago was a revolt by Jews against a Greco-Syrian ruler who had banned Jewish observances. Traditional writings say that after the rebels triumphed, a miracle occurred -- one day's worth of oil burned for eight days in the Jews' holy temple in Jerusalem. Now, on Hanukkah, candles are lit in menorahs for eight days.
Some Jewish holidays, like Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, are concerned with religion, with a Jew's relationship to God. But Hanukkah largely commemorates an event in the history of the Jewish people. It is an example of how Judaism closely links the religion and the culture.
"A Jew is a member of a people that comes out of a religious faith, and a member of a faith that comes out of people," explained Rabbi David Rosen of the Anti-Defamation League.
"You are born into being a Jew. Even if you don't live as a Jew, you're connected to a people, a past."
-- Rabbi Daniel Hartman, Shalom Hartman Institute
According to the Jewish sacred writings, the Torah, that past begins with Abraham, a Middle Eastern shepherd, and reached a pivotal event when God gave the Jews the law at Mount Sinai.
"At that revelation at Mount Sinai, God revealed the way of life that he wants the people to live, as a kingdom of priests, ideally in the land of Israel," Rosen said.
The Jewish people were exiled from that land by the Roman Empire 1,900 years ago. In exile, Jews adapted to being a religious minority -- which at best meant tolerance by their adopted communities, and at worst meant being hated, discriminated against, expelled or even killed.
One of the most horrific periods of Jewish history came during the 1930s and 1940s, when Germany's Nazi Party organized an attempt to rid the world of Jews. In the ensuing Holocaust an estimated 6 million Jews died, but the Jewish people survived.
Some Jews view this as divine intervention. Rosen says that the fact of survival after such discrimination is beyond material explanation.
"For the believing Jew," he said, "this testifies to a higher dimension in the world."
After the holocaust, in 1948, Israel was established as a Jewish state.
Statehood fulfilled the dreams of Zionism -- the political movement that began about a century ago seeking to establish a homeland for the Jews. But the founding of Israel also tapped into hundreds of years of Jewish prayer.
"When you come to Israel you connect back to this people," Hartman said. "When you walk in Israel you're connected to 3,500 years of Jewish history."
The fervor of this feeling for the land is part of what motivates some religious Israelis to settle it and hold onto it as God's will.
Yigal Amir, the ultra-religious Jew who killed Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, said he acted to protect the lives of Jews in Israel who might be harmed by giving what he views as sacred land back to Arabs.
Other Jewish Israelis are more willing to compromise. They see the need to re-adapt their religion to the new situation of statehood.
"We're no longer guests," Hartman said. "We're now equals and hosts to others. That must lead to philosophical and practical challenges."
Many Israelis see their state not religiously, but in secular terms, as a homeland for the Jewish people. And they feel that homeland can be safeguarded best by making peace with its neighbors.
The ancient story of Hanukkah, still celebrated today, tells of disagreement among Jews even then. Some Jews favored conciliation -- others revolt.
Jews still disagree on many things, but in the words of one Jewish prayer, the people of Israel live.
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