Hanukkah Greetings


Christians often find it difficult to balance the spiritual and the cultural dimensions of the Christmas season. We insist that Christmas must wait for Christmas Eve and that we must attend to the call of Advent to prepare ourselves spiritually, but the demands of the season and all the commercial enticements prove difficult to resist.

We aren't alone. The American Jewish Community must do much the same with Hanukkah. In an intriguing LA Times article, Tami Abdollah shares how a Jewish festival that is meant to celebrate those who resisted assimilation has become a symbol of American assimilation. In other parts of the world, Hanukkah isn't a major festival, but in the US it has taken on the aura of American Christmas. Thus, being that it falls in December it has become the Jewish equivalent -- especially in regard to the gift giving.


So, on this first full day of Hanukkah I give my greetings and best wishes to my Jewish friends. May we together, Christian and Jew, work to keep that which is spiritual spiritual. May we remember that God is present in our lives and hear the challenge to resist the commercialization of faith.

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