Chanukah in July???

This post continues our Chanukah series exploring the idea that: “Jews stand for light in the darkness, and every Jew can rekindle the flame of another.” We are pleased to feature a range of respondents discussing how this concept “illuminates” their perspectives and work. Visit here to read the introduction to this series – and share your favorite educational practice that lights Jewish “sparks” in the next generation!

By: Russell Braman
What would it look like to celebrate Chanukah in the summer?  While our friends in Australia can answer that question with absolute certainty, in North America, Europe, and the Middle East, we associate Chanukah’s festival of lights with colder weather and earlier sunsets. Our menorahs increase the amount of light in the world, publicizing the miracle from those days of old.  But I’d like to imagine a Chanukah celebration at summer camp: an effort to celebrate the miracle of light in an environment full of light. While at first this may seem counterintuitive, in fact Jewish summer camp is a great place to try on Jewish practice: a laboratory of Jewish living with a lake!  This is a great opportunity not only to re-imagine a celebration of a Jewish holiday. It also could give campers who may not celebrate these holidays in their home communities other than through exchanging gifts and lighting candles the chance to experience the joy and meaning of the holiday of lights in a deeper way. How about giving them a Jewish family moment to bring home along with the dirty socks?
The first step to set the educational goals for a summer Chanukah program is to figure out what defines Chanukah in the first place.  There are many possibilities here: Is it the statement of who we are as a Jewish community through the display of our menorahs to publicize the miracle?  The endless array of fried food we eat to remind ourselves of the miracle of the light-sustaining oil lasting eight nights rather than the predicted one night?  One theme stands out to me: the progressive increase in light as we move through the holiday. This was the Rabbis’ logic for adding an additional candle each night rather than starting with eight candles and lighting one less each night.
At a first glance, this may be a challenging aspect to focus on in trying to create Chanukah in camp. In the heat of the summer, how can you retain the sense of the brilliance of the light in contrast to the pervading darkness of the lengthening winter nights?  Even while the real thing is so prevalent in the ever-lengthening summer days, you could still achieve that sense by looking at light as a metaphor.
On the one hand, a Chanukah celebration in the summer could include all kinds of concrete and fun Chanukah-esque activities which are enjoyable year-round.  Many camps do rotation-based special events. Why not include candle-making, pressing olives to make fresh oil, and playing dreidel whenever a group of soldiers came in the room?  Such activities would help especially those in younger units experience the story and ritual of the Festival of Lights.
In a larger sense, however, I believe that the story of the Maccabean revolt provides a great opportunity to re-think a camp culture.  For better or worse, Chanukah, in addition to being about light, is about zealotry.  The Maccabees were zealots for Judaism: they reacted steadfastly and violently to that which they saw as threatening their society, but they also responded to the greatest existential threat to the Jewish life they knew by re-building the ransacked Temple, and re-sanctifying the altar and eternal light. Judah Maccabee and his followers fought viciously against the Hellenizers who sought to incorporate more Greek culture and religious belief into the Jewish culture of the time.  This is certainly an aspect of the Chanukah story which is challenging for many modern Jews, but it also asks us a critical question:  About what are we zealous?  Can we use this story to draw our own lines in the sand for our camp communities?
I would propose thinking about light in terms of the light a camper can bring to her friend, bunk, unit, and the camp as a whole.  In speaking about codes of behavior, about being the light for somebody else, we can look at behavior through a profoundly Jewish lens.  We can teach campers to stand up, to look for opportunities to be mensches to their friends, bunkmates, and counselors.  Ask them to increase the light, even in this bright time of year.  I am reminded of the recent video that made the rounds around Facebook of the middle school football team in Olivet, Michigan.  These young men wanted to show that Keith, their differently abled teammate, was just as much a part of the team as the starting quarterback.  They basically conspired to get the ball to the one-yard line, then hand Keith the ball and rush him into the end zone.  When the reporter interviews the members of the team, you can see that they know mensch-like behavior, and are doing that as best as they know how.  It is also clear how profoundly moved Keith, his family, and even Keith’s teammates were by what happened.  Even after the fact, you can see the light in their faces as they discuss the story.
The Rabbis teach us that lashon hara, evil speech, is prohibited because the reddening of the face is seen to be akin to shedding physical blood: murder.  How wonderful will it be when we spread the light of Chanukah all year long, by making people smile and their faces shine through acting like mensches.  We can start passing the light in our summer camps, and see the dividends in our schools and synagogues during the rest of the year.  I’m happy to be a peaceful zealot for that culture.
Chag Urim Sameach!!
Russell Braman is the Principal of Rebecca and Israel Ivry Prozdor High School of The Jewish Theological Seminary.