Chanukah is a fun holiday. We are meant to celebrate, party, indulge in greasy foods and sit in awe of the candles remembering the "miracle" of the oil. If that is working for you, you may want to stop reading this post because I am about to burst one of the biggest myths of Hannukka: the oil thing is a load of crap.
About 400 years after the fact, the rabbis of the Talmud fabricate the "single vial of oil lasting 8 days" story to throw off the Romans from the real miracle - the military victory of the Hasmoneans over the Greeks. Now, if you have not read I Maccabees recently you may not remember why those crazy Hasmoneans were willing to take on the Greeks when they were so grossly outnumbered. What Mattathias and Judah and all of those crazy Hasmoneans were fighting against was assimilation.
When the Greeks conquered peoples, back in the day, they tended to want to Greekify (or Hellenize) every new corner of the Empire. They wanted their new constituents to speak Greek, take Greek names, busy themselves with Greek pastimes, eat Greek food, and worship Greek gods. For many people that was great, as Greek stuff was considered hot. In fact, many of the Israelites really got into the whole Hellenization trend; they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem and pig started popping up on menus all over town. Mattathias was mortified, nay, livid that his people were abandoning their ways just to fit in with the conquering horde. So, he fought. He fought the Greeks and their insistence that everyone speak and eat and worship and recreate just like them. Now, to be fair, Mattathias had little interest in actual pluralism and freedom of expression. [He really just wanted all of the Israelites to maintain the "old time religion."] Nevertheless, his platform of anti-assimilation becomes the core value of the original story and is exactly what I hope we all take away from Channuka this year.
Throughout this great nation of ours, there has been an expectation of sexual assimilation--that each and every one of us must assimilate to the most simplistic and mild form of procreative sexuality and sexual intercourse. Homosexuality in unacceptable. Multiple partners is uncivilized. BDSM is unfathomable. Our sex lives, our entire concept of sexuality may only be shaped by the puritanical cookie cutter. The conservative religionists have conquered our land; we must assimilate.
No.
As we leave Hannukah 5771 behind, let us stand up to the conquering hordes and say NO to assimilation. We do not all have to be the same. We do not have to speak the same language, worship the same way and love in the same manner. We do not have to be like everyone else, especially in the most intimate corners of our lives. On the contrary, we must be true to our unique selves and break free from the expectations of the sexual oppressors. We must fight assimilation and revel in the diversity of our sexuality.
Happy Chanukka!
About 400 years after the fact, the rabbis of the Talmud fabricate the "single vial of oil lasting 8 days" story to throw off the Romans from the real miracle - the military victory of the Hasmoneans over the Greeks. Now, if you have not read I Maccabees recently you may not remember why those crazy Hasmoneans were willing to take on the Greeks when they were so grossly outnumbered. What Mattathias and Judah and all of those crazy Hasmoneans were fighting against was assimilation.
When the Greeks conquered peoples, back in the day, they tended to want to Greekify (or Hellenize) every new corner of the Empire. They wanted their new constituents to speak Greek, take Greek names, busy themselves with Greek pastimes, eat Greek food, and worship Greek gods. For many people that was great, as Greek stuff was considered hot. In fact, many of the Israelites really got into the whole Hellenization trend; they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem and pig started popping up on menus all over town. Mattathias was mortified, nay, livid that his people were abandoning their ways just to fit in with the conquering horde. So, he fought. He fought the Greeks and their insistence that everyone speak and eat and worship and recreate just like them. Now, to be fair, Mattathias had little interest in actual pluralism and freedom of expression. [He really just wanted all of the Israelites to maintain the "old time religion."] Nevertheless, his platform of anti-assimilation becomes the core value of the original story and is exactly what I hope we all take away from Channuka this year.
Throughout this great nation of ours, there has been an expectation of sexual assimilation--that each and every one of us must assimilate to the most simplistic and mild form of procreative sexuality and sexual intercourse. Homosexuality in unacceptable. Multiple partners is uncivilized. BDSM is unfathomable. Our sex lives, our entire concept of sexuality may only be shaped by the puritanical cookie cutter. The conservative religionists have conquered our land; we must assimilate.
No.
As we leave Hannukah 5771 behind, let us stand up to the conquering hordes and say NO to assimilation. We do not all have to be the same. We do not have to speak the same language, worship the same way and love in the same manner. We do not have to be like everyone else, especially in the most intimate corners of our lives. On the contrary, we must be true to our unique selves and break free from the expectations of the sexual oppressors. We must fight assimilation and revel in the diversity of our sexuality.
Happy Chanukka!
Day 8: the holiday may be coming to and end but the spirit lives on.
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