From Rabbi Fred, for Kislev 5785 / December 2024
Though we’re now two months past the High Holidays, my time with the Jewish Community of Kauai still warms the heart and feels fresh in my consciousness. Hope that the spiritual and communal power of that time remains with you too.
And now, welcome to Winter, everyone!
In more northern latitudes it’s more pronounced -- but even at 22 degrees North, have you noticed how low the sun is these days? And how early (and how far south of due west) it now sets over the mountains, or off the Waimea-Kekaha corner of the island? The sun’s lowest and briefest path across the southern sky comes soon, of course, on December 21 – Solstice, the northern hemisphere’s shortest day of the year, which is the astronomical start of the Winter quarter. But ‘meteorological winter’ began already, on the First of December. (In Maryland this year, the mercury got the memo! And as Sweet Baby James [Taylor] sang, “the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston” was indeed “covered with snow”).
This year, it happened that “Jewish winter” started at the very same time: December 1 and 2 were Rosh Hodesh Kislev, the New Moon mini-festival, inaugurating the Hebrew month which ends close to solstice, and ushers in the cold season.
Nearly every culture has found meaning in solstice, and has developed something that emphasizes light at this time of maximal darkness. It’s often embedded in the architecture, as at Stonehenge; and Mayan and Incan ziggurats; and in the alignment of countless Native American shrines and burial mounds – including many an ancient Hawai’ian heiau.
It’s also embedded in the calendar – most famously, with Christmas; and with Hannukah too. The 25th of Kislev always falls close to the Winter Solstice, and it inaugurates Hannukah, whose sixth and seventh days are always the New Moon of the coming month (Tevet). Thus we hold our Festival of Lights right at the time of lowest total lumens, with little or no moonlight over a nighttime sandwiched between the shortest of days.
Pay attention this month to the moon! Now it’s an evening crescent over the west-southwest horizon; by next week it’ll be a waxing gibbous moon, visible longer and offering ever greater illumination – all the way to the Full Moon, mid-month, when it shines longest and brightest. And then, in the later-December / late-Kislev countdown to the winter holidays, the waning moon will offer less and less light, until it’s just a crescent at dawn.
This year, as these low lumens loom – let’s be the light!
Many of us feel like we’re living in dark ages, irrespective of our dance with moon and sun: Israel at war, and in strife; America polarized, and seeking to return to some putatively ‘great’ past, despite the extended enfranchisements of recent history; autocrats across Europe and the world, with Putin at the helm, pedaling disinformation and death. All this, atop climate change and other existential woes, atop the very real challenges of our own lives, and the dislocations and losses we each suffer. Darkness encroaches.
Is it right to merely curse that darkness? Or shall we instead light some candles, and show ourselves and others a way forward?!
One cause for hope this season comes from the very blendedness of so many of our families – what was recently dubbed the “December Dilemma,” now more of a Winter Oneness Wonderland. We all have beloveds who celebrate Channukah, and beloveds who celebrate Christmas. Though a fraught choice just a generation or two ago, today, most of us can and do enjoy the best of both.
I bless us all to take solace and sweetness from the lights of the season, be they white and blue, or green and red, or any other color scheme. After all, the global phenomenon of Solstice looms over all of it. (In my science-oriented Unitarian family’s community in Minnesota, their solstice-centered maxim is, “the reason for the season: axial tilt!”). And four days later, when the 25ths of Kislev and December overlap, we light our first Channukah candle at sunset on Christmas day. Yes the Eight Days of Hannukah, the Seven Days of Kwanzaa, and the One or Twelve Day/s of Christmas all line up neatly. And yes, the lights are all beautiful, whether on tree, or chanukiyah (candelabra for 9), or menorah or kinara (candelabra for 7).
When December began, it was still Thanksgiving Weekend, which highlights the overlap of American values with Jewish ones: hodaya / gratitude, and hakarat ha’tov / focusing on what’s good. The month of Solstice that’s just begun is not only filled with festivals of light, but with opportunities for generosity – from Giving Tuesday (behind us, but it’s never too late!), to holiday gifts, to year-end tzedakah donations. And indeed, being generous – developing our n’div lev, generous heart; and letting it lead us to acts of hitnadvut / generosity – is another core Jewish value.
May we make Kislev most meaningful, and December dazzlingly delightful, as we practice gratitude and generosity all the way to the New Year, and beyond.
Chodesh Kislev tov – or: “ho ho ho, a merry and Maccabean month to all!”
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, D. Min. (he/him)
