At a previous job, while living in San Diego, a non-Jewish coworker asked about my religion.  I don’t  remember how the conversation started, but when I said I was Jewish, she asked about my affiliation.  When I responded Conservative, she immediately asked how it felt to be less Jewish than the           Orthodox.  I immediately felt shock and rage  The best I could come back with was to tell her that this was not a fair comparison.  It was no different than Protestant and Catholicism; they’re not ‘more’, they’re just different.

 

Amidst the awkwardness and horror of the moment, I also felt a tinge of shame.  Was I any less  Jewish because I was not as strict in my halakhah.  How would I have responded if it were another Jew who said it?

 

Hanukkah will be here soon.  We celebrate the miraculous victory of the Maccabees over the   Seleucids (Assyrian Greeks).  This story of mythic pride is recounted in the Book of Maccabees, providing a historical telling of the events.  (The miracle of the oil was first told nearly 600 years later, in the Talmud.)  It turns out, however, that the events we celebrate are only half the story.  The revolt  actually started after the priest Mattathias, who refused to worship Greek gods, killed a Hellenistic Jew who tried to sacrifice to an idol in Mattathias’ place.  The origins of war were not a revolt against Antiochus, but a civil war between traditional Jews and Hellenized Jews!  Although the result was a Maccabee victory, and a re-dedication of the   Temple, considering the destruction of the Temple around 200 years later, it may  not have been the best path.  Can any good results come from a battle pitting Jew against Jew?

 

In his commentary, Accepting the Yoke of Heaven, Yeshayahu Leibowitz says that God’s response to the tower of Babel, splitting the people into differing languages, was done out of kindness, not anger. 

 

In His mercy and compassion for mankind, God prevented this (no deviation in what is accepted) from occurring, and He made a humanity where a totalitarianism of complete unity cannot be.  Thus, there are differences and contrasts, differentiation of thought and differentiation of values ….

 

We are made to disagree and debate.  Taking our opinions to the extreme, using them to attack       others, figuratively or literally, goes against a gift God has given us. Arguing over apple sauce or sour cream as the singular topping for latkes is something we should relish.  This has the potential to be a debate for the sake of heaven! 

 

May you have an enjoyable and celebratory Chanukkah.  May it be filled with light, joy, and the             opportunity to see and appreciate different perspectives, even when you disagree with them.