Thanksginukkah

                                                                                                                                

That's right. Thanksginukkah. With an “n,” not a “v.” Notwithstanding the attempt to create a “Thanksgivukkah.” I know because my family has celebrated this very meaningful pseudo-holiday for several decades.ⁱ For us it's not a one-time affair based on an idiosyncrasy of the calendar, but an opportunity to unite traditions, and we prefer something closer to a more equal merging of names in the term since that characterizes it better and indicates their importance to us and the individuality of both celebrations.ⁱⁱ

It isn't a surprise, but there's a lot being written now about the coincidence of Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah this year, and the rarity of the event. It won't happen, we're told, for another 70,000 years and most people can't wait. So this (almost) unique event is getting a lot of attention. But, in its current form, it's more a commercial phenomenon than a spiritual one. It's a gimmick whose primary purpose is sales – of newspapers, menorahs, cards, songs, and whatever some clever entrepreneurs can link to the occasion. Why let an economic keg like this go untapped?

On the other hand, why have we, as a family, been observing the occasion for so long? There's no denying that it provides us with the opportunity to meet and eat as a family – something difficult to do on other holidays when we don't travel – and a chance to observe a secular national holiday during a season leading up to a celebration revered by the majority national religion.ⁱⁱⁱ But there's more to it than that. The holidays reinforce each other, although there is a significant difference. And, in a way, they also bear a kind of similarity to another holiday – one which never coincided with either of them. But that's where I'll start.

There are many who relate Thanksgiving to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a Fall^iv harvest festival,^v and there are reasons given as to the whys and the hows of Sukkot as the source of this American secular holiday.^vi While the concept of gratitude to G-d is the basis of both, it's probably not true that there is any relationship. There is, however, one similarity^vii that bears mention: in both cases we observe the fact that G-d fearing people fled from a place in which another system of religious observance than theirs held sway, and they went to a land where, whatever the other difficulties, they could follow their own beliefs. The sukkot are the huts in which the Israelites lived after they fled from Egypt, eventually settling in their own land. The Pilgrims, abandoned their country to escape the Church of England, which persecuted them for their beliefs. So in both cases a people fled from their homes in their motherland or in exile so as to gain religious liberty. It's a noble idea, but there are other approaches to the problem and Hanukkah exemplifies one of them – one which many of us admire. I'll note that soon.

The relationships between Thanksgiving and Sukkot, however, are probably more fanciful than actual. The two never coincide, and the Pilgrims (Puritans and Calvinists) who initiated Thanksgiving would probably not have modeled any celebration of theirs on a holiday observed by the Jews, even if they had taken note of it in Holland during their travels when they fled England.^viii It has a nice ecumenical ring – politically correct and all that – but there's no actual evidence that it's true.

Neither, of course, is there any relationship between Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, although they do coincide from time to time. Not often I admit, but far more than the once in 70,000 years which I cited above. That results from the fact that we're only discussing the occurrence of Thanksgiving on the first day of Hanukkah, which is an eight day holiday. It's more frequent, but not so often that it's a “natural,” although the two occur much closer together than Thanksgiving and Sukkot. Like the others, Hanukkah celebrates the quest for religious freedom, but there is an important difference. While Thanksgiving and Sukkot commemorate freedom achieved by flight, in the case of Hanukkah religious freedom was obtained when the Jews stood and fought. They didn't run. They didn't run from another religion, they ran towards their own. That's what makes this holiday so contemporary. The time has come for the Jews to stand and fight.

As Americans we give thanks for the freedom to practice our religion undisturbed. We're grateful for it, but it's not a “given.” As Jews we remember that the price of such freedom is high. The religious liberty upon which both Thanksgiving and Hanukkah are based exemplifies our heritage. The two ideas reinforce each other. But as for the “n” rather than “v,” Never Again. Never surrender to the villains. So as a family we'll observe the two traditions that govern our lives. But we'll never forget our own responsibility to defend the freedom earned by our ancestors through their valiant efforts. We cannot let the ancient Festival of Lights – a holiday that celebrates a dedicated people who fought for their beliefs – be swallowed by a relatively new one which resulted from the flight of some who suffered prejudice in their homeland. The Jews have been subject to such prejudice for thousands of years,^ix and from their homeland there is nowhere to run. The Jews of Israel have no place to go. They have to stand and fight. And we, as Americans and Jews, must never forget that they fight for us as well.

Next episode: “Not My Fault” – It's yours and you'll pay for it.

i         About five decades – half a century – although the name, Thanksginukkah, has only been applied for about fifteen years, since my sister-in-law came up with it.

ii       And it's a chance to reaffirm our determination to survive by adding to the emphasis on Hanukkah. But more later.

iii      The less religious among Jews tend to accept Christmas as a national holiday. The more religious either ignore it or schedule some competing event on the same day.

iv      Well, it's usually in the early Fall. For calendric reasons it took place at the end of summer this year – the earliest it's likely to happen for quite a while.

v       There have also been attempts to link Sukkot to other holidays as well. I leave it to the reader to evaluate two of them. You can do do so if you see http://brotherira.blogspot.com/2009/09/sukktoberfest.html and http://www.israelexperts.com/blog/thanksgiving-sukkot-and-shavuot%E2%80%99s-secular-connecti

vi      See http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2013/8/19/did-sukkot-help-shape-thanksgiving for example.

vii     And a fascinating one in view of the fact that Thanksgiving is a secular holiday.

viii    http://www.patricia-osullivan.com/2009/10/sukkot-and-thanksgiving.html.

“I would love to believe that Sukkot is the origin for the American Thanksgiving, but there are two glaring problems with this view. First, ... there is no clear date for when Thanksgiving began in the colonies and so to tie Sukkot to THE Thanksgiving is false. There was a harvest festival and there were days of Thanksgiving (remember these were fast days) but not a day that brought feasting and thanks together until about 1630. Second, while I find it entirely credible that the Pilgrims and even the Puritans would have used the Bible to help them establish many of their traditions, they would not have consciously taken a Jewish holiday and reworked it as a Christian one. In the 1620's most Englishmen, Anglicans, Catholics and separatists alike, were incredibly anti-Jewish. Even thirty years later, in 1656, when merchant Jews in London were allowed to stay after being 'outed' by their commercial and religious foes, politicians, preachers and public writers railed against the Jews, writing things like this:

"Therefore Jews are not fit for our land, not yet for our dunghills; but to be kept and cast out from amongst us, and trodden under foot of all true Christian men, while unbelievers.” - William Prynne A Short Demurrer to the Jews

ix      Antisemitism was largely a creation of the religion of “love” and has been turned into a major industry by one that achieved its significant status in the Middle East by the sword.