Without Christmas, There Would Be No Hanukkah

Without Hanukkah, There Would Be No Christmas

The first night of Hanukkah, the 25^th of Kislev, begins this year on Christmas, the 25^th of December. If you drive through mixed suburban neighborhoods, you will find Christian homes decorated with strings of red and green lights and perhaps an inflatable Santa on the lawn. You’ll also find Jewish homes decorated with strings of blue and white lights and perhaps an inflatable dreidel on the lawn.

There seems to be some conflation of the celebrations of Hanukkah and Christmas beyond the synchronicity of the calendar. Were it not for the influence of Christmas, our observance of Hanukkah would have remained limited to candle lighting, latkes, and small gifts of gelt for the children. From a cultural perspective we wouldn’t have our Hanukkah were it not for the way Americans celebrate Christmas.

But the emergence of Christianity could not have happened without the military victory of Judah and the Maccabees two centuries before. So, from the historical perspective, if it were not for Hanukkah there would be no Christmas.

Judah the Maccabee is the hero of Hanukkah, yet the early Rabbis tried unsuccessfully to write him out of history. The books of the Maccabees were excluded from Scripture. Judah is not mentioned in the Hanukkah liturgy. He was an idealogue zealot who killed not only the pagan enemy, but also Hellenized Jews, not someone the Rabbis wanted to glorify. By the time of the Mishnah (2^nd century, CE) the miracle of Hanukkah for the Rabbis was not the unexpected military victory of Judah, but the one jar of oil that lasted for eight days.

Whether in the Bible or not, the legend of Judah the Maccabee endures. On Hanukkah we sing Ma'oz tzur, a song that celebrates the destruction of our enemies, even as we light the candles and proclaim to the world our festival of lights.

So, within the American community we have Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations cojoined as festivals of light. How do we teach the difference between them?

At the same time, within the Jewish community we celebrate a Hanukkah with opposing themes, a military victory on one hand and the miracle of the jar of oil on the other. Even if we do not articulate these polarities, they become a subliminal source of discomfort. Perhaps that is why the old traditional Hanukkah remained until recently such a minor festival. Is there a compelling way to reconcile the two themes?

Three decades ago, the Havurah of South Florida gathered in a park during Hanukkah to learn the origins of the holiday and to create a story that might celebrate both the light of the festival and the rededication of the Temple. The story the parents and children acted out on that day in the park has been retold many times since, each version varying according to the storyteller. The version below is adapted from a retelling by Rabbi Linda Joseph.

When told with children present, there is a progressive refrain printed below in bold. You can imagine the children chanting it.

The Little Girl Who Saved Hanukkah

A child lived in Modiin. Her family loved to celebrate the holidays. Most of all the little girl liked Shabbat because it came every week, more than any of the other holidays. She and her family had just sat down at their table on Friday night when a Jewish soldier burst into their house. “Let’s go” he said. “Hurry! The enemy is coming! No time! Into the woods!”

The family had bags packed. But the little girl asked, “What about Shabbat?”

“No time for that,” her father said, “we have to save lives.” And they rushed into the woods.

They marched into the woods, sometimes fighting, mostly running away. Soon it came time for Passover. The family sat down with the other families to begin their Passover seder, but again, the soldier burst into their camp and said they had to run. The enemy was coming.

The little girl asked, “What about the Seder?” “No time for that,” her father said, “we have to save lives.” So, they missed out on having a Passover Seder that year.

What did they miss? They missed not only the Seder but also Shabbat.

For seven weeks they were on the move. At the end of the seven weeks was another holiday. Shavuot, the festival of the Giving of the Torah. And they missed that one too. The little girl was upset for three reasons. First, she had missed … Shabbat. And then… Passover. And then… Shavuot.

What did they miss? They missed not only Shavuot, but also the Seder and Shabbat.

The little girl was not happy at all.

It was a difficult summer. They were marching, fighting, tired all the time. At the end of the summer came another holiday. A holy day. Rosh HaShanah. The Jewish New Year. And you know what? They missed that one too.

So now the little girl had missed Shabbat and… Passover, and Shavuot, and Rosh HaShanah.

What did they miss? They missed not only Rosh HaShanah, but also Shavuot and the Seder and Shabbat.

Ten days later came Yom Kippur. She thought, all you have to do on Yom Kippur is fast. No eating. No drinking. All day. But Judah the Maccabee, the leader of the Jewish Army, said no one could fast on Yom Kippur because they had to be strong in case they needed to fight.

So now she had missed her Shabbat, and her Passover, and her Shavuot, and her Rosh HaShanah and her Yom Kippur.

What did they miss? They missed not only Yom Kippur, but also Rosh HaShanah and Shavuot and the Seder and Shabbat.

Just a few days after Yom Kippur came the festival of Sukkot.

The little girl thought all you have to do on Sukkot is camp outside in temporary shelters, and that is what they had been doing all along. She thought they cannot take this festival away from us. But… all that week they had to march. There was hardly any time to sleep, let alone celebrate.

What did they miss? They missed not only Sukkot, but also Yom Kippur and Rosh HaShanah and Shavuot and the Seder and Shabbat.

Eight days later came the Eighth day of Assembly, Shemini Atzeret.

Do you think they were able to celebrate? No, they had to fight another battle.

What did they miss? They missed not only Shemini Atzeret, but also Sukkot and Yom Kippur and Rosh HaShanah and Shavuot and the Seder and Shabbat.

Then came the biggest battle of all. The Maccabees fought for days. They finally marched into Jerusalem to the Temple steps.

Judah Maccabee stood on the steps and said: “Tomorrow we will have a holiday. A holiday of Hanukkah, meaning ‘dedication’ to rededicate the Temple. It will be a day we will remember throughout all our generations, forever and ever…”

But before Judah could finish the little girl cried out – “But one day is not enough! We need to replace all the holidays we missed….

What did we miss? We missed not only Shemini Atzeret, but also Sukkot and Yom Kippur and Rosh HaShanah and Shavuot and the Seder and Shabbat.

“ … and then we can have one day for Hanukkah, but first seven days for each of the holidays we missed.”

Now Judah was a smart man. He heard what the little girl had to say and saw that the people liked it. But Judah was also a practical man. There was so much work to be done. They could not afford to take eight days off.

So, what did Judah do? He appealed to a higher authority. The priests had found only one jar of oil for use in the Menorah in the Temple. So he said he would leave the matter in God’s hands. He said, “As long as the jar of oil lasts, we will have our holiday.”

But that was not the end of the story.

The little girl was not happy with what Judah had said. So that night she snuck into the Temple with some ordinary oil and poured the jar into the Menorah.

The next day when Judah stood on the steps to announce that the holiday was over and it was time to get back to work, the little girl pointed to the Menorah. “Look the light is still going!”

Judah looked at the Menorah and was surprised. It was still burning. He must have figured out the amount of the oil incorrectly. “OK” he said. “We will celebrate one more day for the Shabbat we missed.”

That night, the little girl slipped into the Temple again and added another jar of oil. Imagine Judah’s surprise in the morning when he saw the Menorah was still burning.

The little girl said: “Yesterday was for the Shabbat we missed. Today is for the Passover.”

She did the same thing the next night, adding more oil to the Menorah, and the next morning the Menorah was still burning. That was for … Shavuot.

And the next day for… Rosh HaShanah.

And the next day for… Yom Kippur.

And the next day for… Sukkot.

And the next day for… Shemini Atzeret.

Seven days. Judah was fit to be tied. Seven days when he had planned on only one. He knew something had to be going on. So, that night after sunset he hid and stood watch in the Temple to see what would happen. He saw the little girl slip in to add ordinary oil to the Menorah.

Judah came out from the shadows, and he lifted the little girl high up into the air. He lifted her high over his head. And then he lifted her over the Menorah, and she poured in her last flask of oil.

And that is when Judah Maccabee, Judah the Hammer, said to her: “Don’t you ever tell anyone what happened this night, and neither will I.”

So, the Israelites, seeing the Menorah burning observed one more day of this new Dedication Festival for… Hanukkah.

And so it is, to this very day, that we celebrate for eight nights, for the festivals of the Bible, and this new festival of Hanukkah, and for the miracle of the oil that lasted longer than it should.

The NHC Summer Institute 2025 Will Take Place Monday, July 28 - Sunday, August 3 at the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Reisterstown, Maryland.

The National Havurah Committee (NHC) is a network of diverse individuals and communities dedicated to Jewish living and learning, community building, and tikkun olam (repairing the world). For more than 40 years, the NHC has helped Jews across North America envision a joyful grassroots Judaism. The NHC is nondenominational, multigenerational, egalitarian, and volunteer-run.