{"id":37879,"date":"2021-11-19T01:04:50","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T09:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=37879"},"modified":"2021-11-18T18:06:30","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T02:06:30","slug":"the-lights-of-allyship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2021\/11\/19\/the-lights-of-allyship\/","title":{"rendered":"The lights of allyship"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Chanukah, kindle the light of liberation, not just for you and your loved ones, but for all people whose freedom of expression is threatened. (photo by Robert Couse-Baker \/ flickr.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

In a time of identity searching, introspection and anticipation, Chanukah can be an inviting space to reflect and refract the light before us. From the Chanukah that was to the Chanukah we arrive at, the world has shifted and we are not the same. This holiday of chocolate, oil and games of dreidel beckons us into a moment of contemplation.<\/p>\n

Chanukah expresses a language of novelty, innovation and a miraculous expansion from what we thought was possible. The ease and accessibility, the simplicity of candles, the sense that Chanukah is predictable and performative belies the very creative, radical nature of the Festival of Lights.<\/p>\n

The annual Chanukah experience, at its core, is an opportunity to receive new insight, empowerment and opportunity to overcome the forces that oppress, debase and deny our most essential identities. Had the few Maccabees not searched to provide that light for the many, none of us would have a miracle to celebrate today. Even though we are privileged to be able to publicly observe our traditions, Chanukah reminds us that our work is not complete until everyone can safely and freely express their identities.<\/p>\n

Visibility and proximity<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the unique aspects of Chanukah is that it is the only festival that occurs in two different months. It is literally positioned between Kislev and Tevet to help us be aware and adapt to changing times. In the light of the candles, it is possible to see our roles anew, clarifying our commitment to ensuring that the privilege and expression of being is available to everyone.<\/p>\n

When the Talmud explores modalities of the mitzvah of lighting the chanukiyah, it says that each and every person should have a candle. It continues to explain that an even greater beautification of the mitzvah is when everyone is able to increase the light with each additional day. When everyone has their own chanukiyah, when everyone is able to light all the candles on each night, then\u00a0everyone<\/em>\u00a0is bringing the fullest light possible. This is the hope: with so much light, the world is relieved of darkness.<\/p>\n

Our rabbis teach that this attribute of adding is connected to Joseph, whose story we read on Shabbat Chanukah. Joseph\u2019s name means to increase, and his story reveals the relationship between proximity and visibility. The Talmud, Shabbat 22a, juxtaposes the narrative of Joseph being thrown into a pit with the laws detailing the proper placement of the menorah and the limits on how far off the ground it can be.<\/p>\n

In Genesis 37:18, Joseph\u2019s brothers \u201csaw [Joseph] from afar \u2026 and they conspired against him.\u201d They throw him into a pit, which Genesis 37:24 says \u201cwas empty and didn\u2019t have water.\u201d\u00a0But the rabbis disagree, arguing that, while \u201cempty\u201d implies that the pit didn\u2019t have water in it, it was not without venomous pit-dwellers. There were snakes and scorpions that the brothers didn\u2019t know about, because they were not close enough to the pit to see.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the distance at which the brothers first saw Joseph approaching made it easy for them to plot against him. In not one, but two cases, the brothers\u2019 lack of proximity leads to actions that degrade and humiliate.\u00a0If only they waited to see their little brother up close before acting, they might have changed their plan. If only they approached the pit to look inside, they might have seen the snakes and scorpions. The Torah is clear: proximity and visibility lead to responsibility.<\/p>\n

It is for that reason the Talmud\u00a0instructs us that we cannot place a menorah too far off of the ground \u2013 we must be close enough to see and be affected by the candles. If the menorah can\u2019t be seen, we miss the message of the miracle, and the opportunity to take responsibility is lost.<\/p>\n

The Hasmoneans were descendants of Aaron, who, the Mishnah tells us, was a lover of peace, pursuer of peace and lover of peoples.<\/p>\n

Judaism is a religion of action, and we must be practitioners of our tradition\u2019s wisdom by taking responsibility.<\/p>\n

Today, even with technologies that keep us connected across oceans and continents, we understand the challenge and, more so, the threat of being too distant. Jews have a response to prevent the dehumanization that often comes when we are distanced from the lived experience of others \u2013 draw in close.<\/p>\n

A great miracle happens with allyship<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hebrew words behind the story of Chanukah and Joseph also reaffirm the holiday\u2019s charge to increase visibility, to be an ally. The rabbis saw our world as created through speech and language and, thus, all Hebrew letters represent hidden truths. Just like the story of Joseph in the pit, the closer you look, the more that is revealed.<\/p>\n

The mystics teach that the Hebrew letters for Greece (Yavan<\/em> is spelled yud, vav, nun) are three lines that descend as the word progresses. The great and mighty culture that claimed elite thought and refinement was in fact a culture that debased and denigrated. Greek leadership prioritized the body over the spirit; what was seen on the outside was of greater value than that which was within. Thus, it could be said that Greece, by elevating the external, actually debases it, a message hidden within the descending letters: yud, vav, nun.<\/p>\n

The Hebrew word for Joseph, Yosef<\/em>, begins with the same first two letters. But the third letter is where the comparison is stark. Instead of a nun sofit<\/em> (a nun at the end of a word), which is a straight line going down, we have the round letter samech, a symbol for equality. Unlike the hierarchy of the nun, the circle of the samech allows every point on its circumference to be equidistant to the centre. Joseph chooses to\u00a0chaver <\/em>(friend)\u00a0up\u00a0and stops the descent by treating others as equals.<\/p>\n

The nun and samech form the word miracle, nes<\/em>. The first letter, nun, is the only letter in Hebrew that doesn\u2019t appear in the alphabetical acrostic of the prayer Ashrei. Our rabbis explain that this letter stands for nefela<\/em>, falling, and, therefore, is omitted. The next letter in the alphabet is the samech and it starts the Ashrei verse, \u201csamech l\u2019chol hanoflim<\/em>,\u201d \u201csupporting all those who have fallen.\u201d Jews in those days, as in ours, had a choice between the \u201cnun\u201d and the \u201csamech\u201d \u2013 to\u00a0align\u00a0with the oppressors and feel secure or to\u00a0ally\u00a0with those who needed support. In choosing the latter, a great miracle (nes) happened there.<\/p>\n

Kindling the light<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the story and words of Chanukah convey, the Jewish response to oppression is not just to be free but to dismantle the system of oppression and provide equality for others. Today, we place a menorah in the window in order to publicize\u00a0our engagement\u00a0in the ancient and ongoing story of this struggle. We\u00a0stand up\u00a0in broken places of despair and hopelessness to rededicate\u00a0ourselves and our institutions to this cause. Now, when we see an injustice, when we are proximate to the dehumanization of a child of G-d, we not only see the unholy act itself but also we recognize the imperative to respond.<\/p>\n

This Chanukah, kindle the light of liberation, not just for you and your loved ones, but for all people whose freedom of expression is threatened. Kindle a light to banish the darkness of hatred, racism, transphobia and misogyny. Kindle a light that signals to outsiders that you are a home (or an organization) committed to rededication and the recreation of holy space, particularly in the most broken of places.<\/p>\n

Chanukah was not immediately established as a holiday. The Talmud\u00a0teaches that the rabbis waited until the following year to institute a permanent commemoration. When they realized that the miracle could be replicated \u2013 that, in every generation, Jews could learn to take the little they had and turn it into something miraculous \u2013 they created the holiday. That is the holy ask of Chanukah: to be the light that can extend and expand, to be the miracle that someone else needs.<\/p>\n

Michael Walzer writes that \u201cwherever we go, it is eternally Egypt,\u201d but that there is a Promised Land,\u00a0and the only way to make it across the wilderness is by \u201cjoining hands, marching together.\u201d\u00a0The story of oppression and liberation is also a story of allyship.\u00a0We will not survive without hands to support and guide us, to hold and elevate us. This year, on Chanukah, be the light and bring the light out of the closet and into the world.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Mike Moskowitz<\/strong>\u00a0is scholar-in-residence of trans and queer Jewish studies at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York and <\/em>Rabbi Dara Frimmer<\/strong>\u00a0is senior rabbi at Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles. This article was originally published in the <\/em>Jewish Journal and articles by other Shalom Hartman Institute scholars can be found at shalomhartman.org<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Chanukah, kindle the light of liberation, not just for you and your loved ones, but for all people whose freedom of expression is threatened. (photo by Robert Couse-Baker \/ flickr.com) In a time of identity searching, introspection and anticipation, Chanukah can be an inviting space to reflect and refract the light before us. From […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[781],"tags":[21041,20812,7599,2777,218,915],"class_list":["post-37879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","tag-allyship","tag-anti-judaism","tag-diversity","tag-inclusion","tag-judaism","tag-shalom-hartman-institute"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}