15 Dec 2011 at 12:54pm

I love Hanukkah. I always have. Alive in my heart, always, are memories of singing Rock of Ages with my family in front of the fireplace with the Hanukiah on the mantle, while my parents quietly and joyfully brought in little gifts to open by the last verse. We were the Hanukkah people on a block of Christmas people. We had eight nights linked to the miracles of a cruze of oil, and it was definitely good enough for me.

What is Hanukkah, though? It's a question that goes back to the Talmud. Despite being a religiously "minor holiday” (Hanukkah is not biblically based, nor do the restrictions apply that are associated with Shabbat, Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur), Hanukkah has a profound impact on who we are. Noam Zion, senior educator of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, teaches the variations between how the State of Israel, American Liberal Judaism and Habad approach this minor festival.

Before, and even after, Israel was established, the Maccabees were a symbol for "Political Zionism” for those laboring to create a modern Jewish state. Early Zionists emphasized that Jews themselves were the central actors in our people's restoration as an actual state on the ancient land. It wasn't a G-d miracle; it was the sweat and blood of our people.

For 20^thcentury liberal American Jews,Hanukkahcame to mean religious freedom, as the First Amendment of the US Constitution affirms. Living in the dominant Christian culture, the Hanukiah, our nine branch Menorah, is a symbol of Jewish identity and pride.

Habad sees Hanukkah as its primary mission. Each Habadnik is to be a "streetlamp lighter” who will go willingly into the public area and kindle the nearly extinguished flame of Jewish souls who have given up or assimilated into the non-Jewish world. When we see Habad striving to place a Hanukkiah in public places, and engage Jewish men to put on t'fillin, it is because of the belief that every fulfilled mitzvah kindles the flame of a soul and restores it to G-d.

In our lives, what is the real Hanukkah? It is actually what is has always been – a challenge regarding how much we assimilate before losing our Jewishness altogether. The Maccabean war was not a war between the Jews and the Greeks, but rather a violent civil war between the assimilated Hellenized Jews and the observant Jews who lived outside major urban centers. The Maccabees won the war because the moderately Hellenized Jews realized that they would lose all of their own Jewish identity if the radical, fully assimilated Jews called Hellenizers were victorious. The moderately Hellenized Jews joined with the observant village Jewish leaders and together took the Temple and rededicated it.

Tonight in Confirmation class, the students were asked what they were willing to give up in order to fit into the non-Jewish world and what they were not willing to give up. While their answers and their level of observance varied, the essential thread was that they saw themselves at their core as Jews and that nothing and no one could convince them to discard it.

We then played the Dreidel of Life. When you spin and get Nun, you say nothing. When you get Gadol, you share a totally good Jewish experience – and get all the candy. When you get Hey, you get half the candy and share a half good and half bitter Jewish experience. When you get Shin, you put in a piece of candy and you share a bitter personal Jewish experience.

It was a privilege to be in the room and hear the often raging cultural civil war for the heart and soul of our kids played out today. Is it any wonder that Hanukkah, though defined by Judaism as a "minor holiday,” is in truth a major battle-ground for the heart and soul of Judaism and the Jewish people? More than anything, what I can tell you is how important it is for our youth to attend Midrasha (grades 8-12) and our teen youth programs, in order to maintain Judaism as a living presence in their lives, and to share a joy in being Jewish across denominational lines.

Hanukkah begins on Tuesday evening, December 20^th (25 Kislev). In our heart and in our soul, we light each candle to affirm our enduring spirit and our lives as Jewish people.