Have a happy Chanukah, one and all! During Chanukah, we remember how the Jews (led by the Maccabees) won their independence from King Antiochus IV of the Selucid Empire (a Hellenistic successor to Alexander the Great’s empire, stretching from Turkey to Pakistan), who outlawed their religious practices, sacked Jerusalem, and defiled their temple. Before the Maccabees’ revolt, Jews were forced to either hide in the countryside or asimilate and pay tribute to Zeus. When I see a menorah in a public display alongside the traditional Christmas displays, it reminds me that I live in a nation of fundamental freedoms where I don’t have to asimilate or pay tribute to the dominant religion. When Bill O’Reilly talks about the War On Christmas, what he’s really doing is waging war against Chanukah. In Billo’s mind, we Jews do not deserve recognition or inclusion – we should asimilate and participate in celebrating the birth of Jesus. So if your vision of America is exclusively Christian, then go ahead, wish me a very pointed “Merry Christmas” while I’m in the checkout line – go ahead and remind me that my people are not welcome in your store. And if you instead choose to wish me “Happy Holidays” at your place of business, then I thank you for sharing your holiday cheer with me. Christmas can be a very oppressive time for non-Christians.
We also celebrate the miracle of the oil. After the Maccabees recaptured the Temple, cleansed it, and reconsecrated it, they were only left with a single day’s worth of olive oil to keep the Temple’s eternal flame lit. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight full days, enough time to prepare a new batch of olive oil. Imagine if you needed to drive out to Los Angeles, starting with a full tank of gasoline, but there was no gasoline anywhere in America to refill it; and you just kept on driving, and driving, and driving until your car finally sputtered out within walking distance of your destination. That would be a miracle, unless of course you were driving some kind of advanced solar-electric hybrid. Or imagine if the world’s oil supply lasted for 240 years instead of 30; unless we started drastically changing our consumption habits today, it would take a miracle for the supply of oil to outlive today’s children.
So my Chanukah message to you is, “be the miracle you wish to see in the world.” Don’t just pray that our supply of oil will last long enough to find efficient alternatives; do everything you can to conserve. Walk. Ride a bike. Take public transportation. Carpool. Move closer to the place where you work. Trade your gas-guzzler for a hybrid, a compact, a motorcycle/scooter or an electric. Own one car instead of two. Get your car a tune-up. Change the oil regularly. Use efficient air filters and change them regularly. Get your fuel injector cleaned. Use low-resistance tires, and keep them properly inflated. Remove racks when you’re not using them and anything else that increases the amount of weight your car is hauling. Avoid idling. Plan your trips out to make them as short and efficient as possible; using a GPS may help. Drive at a consistent speed (use cruise control if the road isn’t wet) and stay under 60mph. Park in the shade. Don’t tailgate. After a full stop, accelerte gradually. When driving under 40mph on a hot day, open the windows rather than use AC – but use AC instead when driving faster than that, because the open windows would create too much wind resistance. And support politicians who vote for energy efficiency and energy alternatives. Our future depends on it.