Why I Miss Lawrence

In case you didn't already know, its the holidays. As in multiple. And just to make sure that we don't get too carried away celebrating only one, *cough* Christmas *throat clearing*, our old friend the LJ World has provided this little nugget on the "festival of lights".

And why you might ask?

“The message of Hanukkah needs to be displayed in public,” [Rabbi] Tiechtel said. “It’s about the concept that you are not to be ashamed of who you are.”

So Jews are ashamed of being Jewish at Christmas? And that's the message of Hanukkah?

. . . during the season when Santa pops up in every shopping mall and parade and Christmas songs play over speakers in grocery stores, being Jewish can become more pronounced and more apparent.

Maybe I have a poor understanding of Jewish history, but isn't that a good thing in Judaism?! God's chosen people, set apart from the rest of the world. I know that circumcision is "in" right now, but I'm pretty sure that for several thousand years it was a defining mark of the Jewish people, one that made "being Jewish more pronounced and more apparent."

One Jewish student had a different take:

. . . KU graduate student Shana Beach, who grew up celebrating Judaism. . . attended services twice a week, was bat mitzvahed at 13 and lit Sabbath candles after sundown on Fridays. That upbringing, she said, made her feel part of the holiday season even while her friends and neighbors celebrated a different holiday. “I felt proud enough of that that I didn’t feel left out by the Christmas stuff,” she said.

So what is the message of Hanukkah to a proud Jew:

. . . Beach said that to her Hanukkah has become blended into a cultural season — a season of holidays for everyone, whether Jewish, Christian or otherwise. “I look at Christmas as not so much a Christian thing but as an American thing,” she said.

I'm going to agree with Shana on this one. But surely this American cultural phenomenon is a good thing and we would only be cheating ourselves by overlooking such an important festival:

. . . compared with other Jewish holy days — Rosh Hashanah, for example — Hanukkah represents a fairly minor celebration. “The only reason that it has become a big holiday is because it happens at the same time as Christmas,” she said.

So what exactly is the message? Diversity. American's don't worship baby Jesus or Yahweh or whatever other religious figure you can think of this holiday season, they worship diversity. And why is diversity good? Because it is diverse. A.K.A. Nonsense.

P.S. If you go the main page of the LJ World, there is an interesting picture of an electric menorah. Again, not so up to speed with Jewish tradition, but isn't this festival about burning oil?