Time To Share Our Stories:

Sharing similarities across cultures

By Sarah Bier
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
KOC Assistant Editor

Every year, the same holidays roll around, and after a lifetime of craftily woven stories about the origins of the miracles and stories of our ancestors, I’ve gotten bored.

The Hanukkah story is one of exquisite detail: oil that never ends, a battle that resonates with the likes of David and Goliath, and a little toy. But as an adult, such aspects lose their intrigue and we have to build on more believable tales by the rabbis and their midrashim (interpretive stories). To me, the story of Hanukkah becomes more than an "us vs. them" scenario. Rather, it tells of the misfortune that will inevitably result from consistently poor relationships with our non-Jewish neighbors, often leading to war in our conflict-ridden history.

As with many Jewish holidays, Hanukkah begins with the typical Jewish mentality of "they tried to kill us, they failed, we won, let’s eat!" The holiday shares its basic tale with Passover, Purim and Yom Haatzmaut. But I think it highlights the simple necessity of understanding the "other." For centuries, we’ve been persecuted by people who didn’t understand us -- but we’ve also done a pretty poor job of educating people on our strange rituals like waving plants on Sukkot (which bare a striking resemblance to sexual organs) and the five hour history lesson on yetziat mitzrayim (the Exodus from Egypt) before we can even get to the food on Passover. Can you imagine how weird it would be to enter our communities at times like these? You almost can’t blame non-Jews for failing to understand us.… By comparison, most branches of Christianity lack our obsession with ritual and symbolism – with the exception of Catholicism. Muslims too have a lesser focus on religious paraphenalia. But I digress…

The basis of Hanukkah is the interaction between the Jews and the Romans. While greater mutual understanding may not have avoided the bloodshed, it certainly seems like an option today. So many people fear the unknown that it results in phobia-like behavior -- all the moreso when we begin to discuss our thoughts on God. When it comes to issues of religion and spirituality, we fear validating another’s stance because it may invalidate our own. We are convinced that when it comes to God, there can only be one right answer and forget that just like all other aspects of life, there can be shades of gray. Contact with people of other faiths can shed light on our own beliefs and help us to grow spiritually.

At a time of the year in which so many religious holidays fall: the end of Ramadan (the Muslim holy month in which the Qur’an was revealed to the prophet Mohammed), Christmas, Dhiwali (a Hindu holiday), Kwanzaa and, of course, Hanukkah, we should embrace the opportunity to share our knowledge and beliefs with observers of other holidays. We’ve seen what happens when we don’t understand each other, but we have such limited experience in truly grappling with our similarities. I challenge you to do that this holiday season.

[Posted 11/25/03]