Sermon : On Holidays, Holy Days and a Jewish Dilemma

A Jewish calendar I saw has instructions for a dreidel cutout and a recipe for latkes opposite the page for December, despite the fact that this year Hanukkah, our Festival of Lights, begins Nov. 27, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Even some of the most conscientious Jews place Hanukkah in a Gregorian context, thinking it always falls near the 25th of December rather than on the 25th of Kislev. But because the Jewish calendar is based on solar and lunar cycles--this is the year 5755 for us--Hanukkah will occur a full month before bearded men dressed in red and white ask our children what they would like for being good.

I wonder whether Jewish families will still decorate their homes with blue and white and buy gifts for their children, which many say makes the end of December easier on our kids. It seems in only one generation we have become unable to separate Hanukkah from the Christmas season of gift giving, good cheer and decorated homes. This year we will see if these habits have become a permanent part of American Jewish life or mere tinsel for the Yiddishel.

This dilemma stems from being a citizen of both religious and secular worlds. We have gotten used to living by the secular calendar. We do it every Friday when we start Shabbat services at 6 p.m., no matter what time the sun sets. We do it every Sukkot when we build a sukkah but don’t plan a major dinner in it until the weekend. We do it every Passover when we pass by the synagogue on the mornings after Seders and go to work instead because it’s only a Tuesday and a Wednesday. And we do it during the spring Shavuot when we skip saying the yizkor memorial prayer unless it falls on a weekend. We call ourselves American Jews, but sometimes we find that we are becoming Jewish Americans who may forget to bring the menorah to the ski slopes because who can remember it’s Hanukkah on Thanksgiving weekend?

In my house, we take our Shabbat candlesticks with us on vacation and my kids wouldn’t go to school on the first and last days of Passover even if I wasn’t a rabbi. What I really strive for is to lead a congregation that does the same because it would mean that we didn’t fit our Jewish identity into our lives just when it’s convenient. Instead, we would be a community of Jews who are proud of our identity and live it in the modern world, not in between the lines.