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Hanukkah, Oil, 8 Days
of Action: The Green Menorah
Covenant
Hanukkah this year begins with the lighting of one candle on
the evening of December 21. At the dark time of the moon and sun, we kindle a
growing blaze of lights. And light is the central symbol of the holy season.
In this letter we will share
some of the deepest symbols that make Hanukkah a festival for sharing light by
saving energy, and will also share some specific earth-healing actions for each
of the Eight Days.
First: The traditional
Hanukkah song of Ma'oz Tzur has not just one but a number of verses, celebrating
God's redemption of the Jewish people from a series of oppressions -- Egypt,
Babylonia, Haman, Rome, as well as Antiochus.
It ends with a verse looking forward to the ultimate Messianic redemption
of -- we might well say in our generation -- all peoples and all life. There
follows a new version of this verse in English that I have written to fit the
traditional Jewish melody. (It uses two phrases by Rabbi Zalman
Schachter-Shalomi from a quite different version of that verse.) We encourage
you to sing it at the lighting of the candles or in any context that calls to
you.
Holy aid extend to
us and bring our planet's healing near.
When Your foes oppress the earth,
give all life compassion's ear.
In oil-addiction dour, at our darkest
hour,
Bless the sun and everyone, Make our shepherd flower.
Bless the sun
and everyone, Make our shepherd flower!
On the Shabbat that comes in
the midst of Hanukkah, Jews traditionally read the passage from the Prophet
Zechariah that celebrates the Great Menorah (literally, a Light-bearer) in the Holy
Temple that he envisions will be rebuilt after the Babylonian Captivity.
Zechariah, in
visionary, prophetic style, goes beyond the Torah's description of the original
Menorah . That Menorah was planned as part of the portable Shrine, the Mishkan,
in the Wilderness.
First Zechariah describes the Menorah of the future
that he sees: "All of gold, with a bowl on its top, seven lamps, and seven pipes
leading to the seven lamps." It sounds like the original bearer of the sacred
Light. But then he adds a new detail: "By it are two olive trees, one on the
right of the bowl and one on the left." (4: 2-3)
And then --- in a
passage the Rabbis did not include in the special prophetic reading on Shabbat
--- Zechariah explains that the two olive trees are feeding their oil directly
into the Menorah (4: 11-13). No human being needs to press the olives, collect
the oil, clarify and sanctify it. The trees alone can do it all.
Now
wait! This is extraordinary. What is this Light-Bearer that is so intimately
interwoven with two trees? Is the Menorah the work of human hands, or itself the
fruit of a tree?
Both, and beyond. In our generation it might be called
a "cyborg," a cybernetic organism that is woven from the fruitfulness both of
"adamah" (the Hebrew for earth) and of "adam" (a human
earthling). Just as earth and earthling were deeply intermingled in the biblical
Creation story, so the Divine Light must interweave them once again, and again
and again, every time the Light is lit in the Holy Temple.
What stirs
Zechariah to this uncanny vision? Once we listen closely to the Torah's original
description of the Menorah for the wandering desert Shrine, we may not be quite
so surprised. For the Torah describes a Menorah that has branches, cups shaped
like almond-blossoms, petals, and calyxes (the tight bundles of green leaves
that hold a blossom). (Exodus 25:31-40 and 37:17-24)
In short, a Tree of
Light, a Green Menorah. Small wonder that Zechariah envisioned its receiving oil
directly from the olive-trees!
And in the legend told by the Talmud as
the origin of Hanukkah, the Light itself is a miracle. One day's oil becomes
sufficient for eight days' needs.
At the physical level, this is about
conserving energy, the triumph of sustainable sources of energy over the
Seleucid Empire that guzzles oil and other forms of material wealth. Seen this
way, the Green Menorah can become the symbol of a covenant among Jewish
communities and congregations to renew the miracle of Hanukkah in our own
generation: Using one day's oil to meet eight days' needs. By 2020, cutting oil
consumption by seven-eighths.
We
can start right away, this Hanukkah, by joining in The Shalom Center's Green
Menorah Covenant for taking action -- personal, communal and political -- to
heal the Earth from the global climate crisis.
After lighting your
Hanukkah menorah each evening, dedicate yourself to making the changes in your
life that will minimize our use of oil (and coal). (And this pattern can be used
for the Twelve Days of Christmas, the Seven Days of Kwanzaa, and so
on.)
Day 1: Personal/Household: Call your electric-power utility to
switch to wind-powered electricity. (For each home, 100 percent wind-power
reduces carbon dioxide emissions the same as not driving 20,000 miles in one
year.)
Day 2: Synagogue, Hillel, or JCC: Call your congregational board
chair to urge that your building switch to wind-powered electricity.
Day
3. Your network of friends, IM buddies and members of civic or professional
groups to which you belong: Connect with people like newspaper editors, real
estate developers, architects, bankers, etc. to urge them to strengthen the
green factor in all their decisions, speeches and actions.
Day 4:
Town/City: Urge town/city officials to require greening of buildings through
ordinances and executive orders. Creating change is often easier on the local
level.
Day 5: Workplace or college: Urge the top officials to arrange an
energy audit. Check with utility company about getting one free or at low
cost.
Day 6 , which this year is Shabbat. Automobile: If possible, choose
this Shabbat and through the year, one day a week to not use your car. Walk.
Bike. Other days, lessen driving. Shop on-line. Cluster errands. Car pool. Don't
idle engine beyond 20 seconds.
Day 7: State: Urge state representatives
to reduce subsidies for highways, increase them for public transit so it becomes
convenient, swift, frequent, and inexpensive.
Day 8: National: Write a
letter to at least one of your senators and congressmembers urging them to
support the strongest possible limits on CO2 emissions, and to support Federal
grants to develop sustainable energy and fund Green Jobs. As the new Congress
gathers in January, The Shalom Center will send you information on the bills
most likely to make the necessary changes.
Give our planet a Happy
Hanukkah!
If the necessary changes seem overwhelmingly hard to
accomplish against the entrenched power of our own oil empires, Hanukkah also
reminds us: Small groups of seemingly powerless human beings can face huge and
powerful institutions --- and change the world.
But let us not stop at
the economic, political, or ecological levels of meaning that hide in the
Hanukkah candles. At the spiritual level, since "eight" is the number of
"Beyond," the Infinite, the storied eight-day miracle when One Becomes Eight
reminds us that when we enter deeply into the One, the Infinite becomes fully present.
It reminds us that conserving oil, or coal, or our whole planet, is not
just a political or economic or even ecological decision. It reminds us to take
into our hearts the knowledge that we do not need all the "oil," all the glut of
material goods, that tug and pull at us. If we can fully
celebrate the Infinite
One, of course we need some food, some oil, some light -- but hyper-ownership
will not fulfill us.
The Infinite is always present when we choose to
light One Light.
Blessings of shalom, salaam, peace -- and
LIGHT!
--
Arthur
^^^^^^^^^
Rabbi
Arthur Waskow is the author of Down-to-Earth Judaism, available by
writing Office@shalomctr.org For more information on the Green Menorah Covenant, see ---
http://www.shalomctr.org/taxonomy_menu/1/1
(There's an underline before the word
"menu.") To donate to the Shalom Center, click on our logo!
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