Do people totally miss the point of Chanuka?
Am I mistaken or does it make absolutely no sense for a secular Jew to celebrate Chanuka?
Chanuka, correct me if I am wrong, is a holiday created to memorialize the battle of the Chashmonaim against the Greek Hellenists and against the misyavnim – the assimilationists who were Jews but followed and adopted Greek culture. The story of finding the flask of oil is nice, but is really only a minor part of the history of the holiday.
Secular Jews who celebrate Chanuka are living the lives of the misyavnim (generally though not all of them) yet they celebrate a holiday that memorializes the battle and victory against themselves.
Is it their complete ignorance of what Chanuka really represents? Is it the pintele yid within them? Is it ignorance mixed with the desire for a holiday to compete with Christmas?
I’m actually writing a piece now on this very topic for my website but it’s geared toward secular college students. I will say it over for you but in yeshivish which captures it much better.
The Shem M’Shmuel says that Hanukah reaches Jews who are otherwise alienated from Torah because it is related to the Sefirah of Hochmah which is represented by the oil, which he learns from the Nevuah of Zecharia’s Menorah. Hochmah is defined as knowledge that a person cannot know on their own and is planted into a person’s head by Hashem, which is later processed into something comprehensible and then coalesces into actual thought which is Da’at. The Greeks were trying to destroy Torah because it brought Hochmah into the world. Hochmah through the filter of Torah has the ability to change a person’s character.
The reason there are eight branches on the menorah is to represent Hochmah which is the eight sefirah. Eight is the number which is above Teva, as in brit milah. Hanukah connects to the secular Jew because it is beyond nature and it reaches the piece of their soul which is beyond intellect.
I hope I wasn’t too confusing in telling it over.