On Chanukah 1897, four months after the conclusion of the First Zionist Congress, an article penned by Theodore Herzl, entitled, “The Menorah,” appeared in Die Welt, the Zionist newspaper he had founded earlier that year. Herzl begins the article as a fable and writes in the third person.
“The eighth night arrived, when all the candles were lit – eight plus the loyal shamash (servant) whose job is to light the others… In our friends’ eyes the occasion became a parable for the kindling of a whole nation. First one candle; it is still dark, and the solitary light looks gloomy. Then it finds a companion, then another, and yet another. The darkness must retreat. The young and the poor are the first to see the light; then the others join in, all those who love justice, truth, liberty, progress, humanity and beauty. When all the candles are ablaze everyone must stop in amazement and rejoice at what has been wrought. And no office is more blessed than that of a servant of light.”
Die Welt, December 31, 1897
Herzl asserts that each candle represents a group within the Jewish People that at some moment will join the Zionist effort of building a Jewish state, work together to gather the entire nation in its Land, and from this unified entity a light will spread to the world. Herzl’s words imply that the different values and beliefs represented by the eight distinct candles reflect the different political and ideological groups within the Jewish people. For Herzl, the hannukiyah represented the remarkable diversity of the Jewish people while also emphasizing the shared structure of Judaism that held us together as a people.
“The Menorah” also expresses Herzl’s belief that the meaning of Zionism requires a “return to Judaism first” – reflected in an awareness of Jewish identity and the education of both one’s self and one’s children – “before the return to the Land.” Herzl recognizes that if we are to build a Jewish homeland, reflective of Jewish history and tradition, a country in which Judaism is the life essence of the nation, then its future citizenry must understand, value, and reflect those enduring teachings.
Herzl also describes how he came to the recognition of his responsibility to his people, the Jewish People, in the face of the rising tide of modern anti-Semitism. Herzl proclaims his central role in the Zionist endeavor comparing himself to the shamash that lights and thus energizes Jews of all affiliations.
Over 120 years later, Herzl’s message in “The Menorah” remains powerfully true and yet remoter at the same time. The dream of creating the Jewish State, a homeland for the Jewish people, has been achieved but the sense of unity that Herzl in the hannukiyah seems increasingly distant. We need to see in the hannukiyah the same symbol of Jewish unity that Herzl perceived, to recognize that what holds us and binds us together is far greater than what divides us, that our light as a people burns brighter when it is reflected and refracted amongst all of us.
As hannukiyot are kindled throughout the world, and across the State of Israel, may the flickering flames remind Jewish leaders everywhere of Herzl’s vision of Israel as a beacon for all Jews and a unifying force in the Jewish world.
Shabbat Shalom & Chag Orim Sameyach!
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