Perspective shapes everything. Take Chanukah:
Roughly 165 years before the Common Era (BCE), the Greek King Antiochus IV, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, that fraction of Alexander’s empire headquartered in Syria and ruling over the Land of Israel, decided to end Judaism. He forbade keeping Shabbat, observing Kashrut, and circumcision. He took over the Temple, instituting worship of Greek gods (including Antiochus himself as one), and even imposing sacrifice of pigs to Zeus in the Temple.
If we stopped there, the story of Chanukah would be a tragedy. Of course, the story does not end there. Over the following several years, the Maccabean revolt – led by a family of priests – shockingly drove this mighty regional power from the land, recaptured the Temple, purified it from the pagan abuses, and rededicated it to worship of God and God alone in an eight day celebration that became the holiday of Chanukah. By the end of the war, the Maccabees had established an independent Jewish kingdom after four hundred years of foreign domination going back to the Babylonian destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE. Hooray!
But… the story does not end there. After around a century of Hasmonean (Maccabee) rule, characterized by infighting, abuses of authority, and improper mixing of civil and religious leadership roles, a descendant of the Maccabees brought the Roman Army in to support him against his brother in a war of succession, turning the Jewish kingdom into a Roman puppet, which would ultimately lead to complete loss of autonomy, destruction of the Second Temple (in 70 CE), two extremely bloody major revolts against Roman rule, and a second exile of most of the Jewish People that would last nearly two millennia. If we stopped there, the story would be a tragedy.
Of course, the story does not end there. After centuries of being driven from one place to another, facing all manner of pressures and persecutions, culminating in a genocide in which a third of the world’s Jews were murdered, a renewed Jewish State in the Land of Israel declared its independence in 1948. After miraculously surviving an attempted national infanticide by every neighboring state upon its birth, the young State of Israel would go on nineteen years later to once again recapture the Temple Mount and much of the biblical heartland which had been seized by Transjordan (later renamed Jordan) in Israel’s War of Independence, along with the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. What an amazing story, if history ended there! But…
We could go on, but the point is that tragedy or victory, right or wrong, win or loss often depends on how we frame the story, what bounds we put on its time and scope, and what perspective we view it from. The big stories that capture our attention today – war in Ukraine, war in Gaza and Lebanon (and Yemen and Iran…), and the incoming administration taking shape here at home – are all unfinished, and will be reevaluated again and again in new frames and perspectives as history unfolds. Chanukah reminds us that history is a long time and never ends – at least so far. Just as Chanukah comes in the darkest and coldest season of the year, but points the way toward light and warmth ahead, which will turn back to dark and then back to light again and again as season follows season and year follows year; the story of Chanukah reminds us that the dark and cold moments in history turn toward light and warmth, and unfortunately, the warm and light times turn back toward cold and dark, and then back to light again, as decade follows decade and century follows century – at least until history comes to an end.
Chag same’ach! Have a happy Chanukah, and keep the world in perspective this winter.