Happy Thanksgivikkah from Morristown’s Temple B’Nai Or

Rabbi Donald Rossoff of Temple B'nai Or in Morristown. Sharon Sheridan photo
Rabbi Donald Rossoff of Temple B'nai Or in Morristown. Sharon Sheridan photo
1

Happy Thanksgivikkah: Why is this night different?

 

By Rabbi Donald Rossoff, Temple B’Nai Or

The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins tonight, Nov. 27, 2013, with the lighting of the first candle on our hannukiya (Hanukkah candelabra). That means that the first day of Hanukkah is Thanksgiving. This overlapping of two beloved holidays has given rise to a new word in Jewish circles: Thanksgivikkah!

The question was posed to me, how often do Hanukkah and Thanksgiving come together as they do this year? The answer: Less than rarely.

In fact, this year is the first time that Hanukkah has ever overlapped with the American national holiday of Thanksgiving.

Rabbi Donald Rossoff of Temple B'nai Or in Morristown. Sharon Sheridan photo
Rabbi Donald Rossoff of Temple B’nai Or in Morristown. Sharon Sheridan photo

True, way back in 1861, the fourth Thursday in November coincided with Hanukkah. But that does not count, since President Lincoln did not declare Thanksgiving to be a national holiday until 1863.

When will it happen again? It is difficult to pin that down exactly, but I would have to answer, almost never.

I know that “never” is a very long time; but with built in adjustments to both the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars to keep them “on track,” various calculations have determined that won’t happen again for somewhere between 70,000 and 78,000 years. And that’s as close to never as “almost never” can get!

(For a more precise explanation of the complexities of it all, I recommend an article by Dr. Joel Hoffman.)

CALENDAR DRIFT?

Why do the Jewish holidays seem to move around so much? It is because the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar with adjustments for the solar calendar, while the Gregorian calendar is, by and large, a solar calendar.

A solar year is defined as the time it takes for the earth to circle the sun, measured from vernal equinox to vernal equinox. Because that time span is slightly longer than 365 days, every four years there is a “leap year” which adds another day to February in order to keep the calendar from drifting away from the seasons.

The Hebrew calendar follows the cycles of the moon, each new month beginning on the new moon.  But since the lunar calendar is shorter than the solar based Gregorian calendar, adjustments need to be made to the Hebrew calendar.

Without these adjustments, the Hebrew calendar would continue to “drift forward” compared to the solar seasons, and we would be celebrating Hanukkah in July. In order to compensate for the shorter year and keep the Hebrew calendar aligned with the solar/agricultural, a 13th “leap-month” is added to the Hebrew calendar seven times every 19 years.

Contrast this with the Muslim calendar, which is totally a lunar calendar. That is why the observance of Ramadan could be in the summer one year and a few years later be in the winter.

Of course, one could say that the Jewish holidays don’t move around at all. They are on exactly the same date every year – on the Hebrew calendar. It’s the holidays on the Gregorian calendar that move around. It’s just a matter of your frame of reference.

And that is an important point. We tend to look at the world as if the way we measure it is the right and only way to measure. We often assume that our values and way of life are universally shared, not seeing the particularity of our point of view.

The fish don’t know that the water is wet. People, immersed in their own world-view, are not even aware that what they assume is universally shared by all is in fact something that is particular to them, even when it is shared by the majority within a given society.

LATKES WITH CRANBERRY SAUCE

That’s why the Pilgrims came to these American shores. That is why the Maccabees fought so valiantly and with so much conviction against their Greek/Syrian oppressors. Each group wanted to maintain the integrity of their own beliefs. They wanted to practice their religion as they understood it – serve God in their own unique ways — in the face of powerful, pervasive and popular forces which used their dominance to coerce a dissenting minority to bow to the will of the majority.

So this year, American Jews are wholeheartedly celebrating this once-in-a-lifetime confluence between Jewish history and American history. We are taking this opportunity to lift up, celebrate and give thanks for the double-blessing of living in this country – conceived in liberty – which ensures freedom of religion and freedom from religion.

One last note: for those of us who have gotten our kicks referring to “Thanksgivikkah,” we had better say it a lot, since it will not happen again in our lifetime, perhaps not even in the history of humanity on our planet, who knows?

And for those of you who are annoyed with the term “Thanksgivikkah,” recipes for turkey brined in Manischewitz wine and latkes with cranberry sauce, for those who can’t believe it when they see drawings of Pilgrims and indigenous persons spinning dreydles around the campfire (OK, I just made that one up), you can rejoice and be thankful that it will all be over in a matter of hours.

1 COMMENT

LEAVE A REPLY