Green Light: Rabbi's Sermon

Rabbi's Sermon Hanukah Shabbat

The following sermon starters can help your rabbi deliver an energetic sermon about Hanukah and climate change on the Shabbat during Hanukah (December 7-8, 2007). Talk to your rabbi and ask if he/she will give such a sermon. This is a great introduction for your congregation to the unique connections between Hanukah and our modern climate crisis.

The Menorah is a Tree

The Menorah that stood in the Temple in Jerusalem was clearly meant to resemble a tree:

“You shall make a menorah of pure gold; the menorah shall be made of hammered work; its base and its shaft, its cups, calyxes, and petals shall be of one piece. Six branches shall issue from its sides; three branches from one side of the menorah and three branches from the other side of the menorah. On one branch there shall be three cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals, and on the next branch there shall be three cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals; so for all six branches issuing from the menorah. And on the menorah itself there shall be four cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals: a calyx, of one piece with it, under a pair of branches; and a calyx, of one piece with it, under the second pair of branches, and a calyx, of one piece with it, under the last pair of branches; so for all six branches issuing from the menorah. Their calyxes and their stems shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single hammered piece of pure gold.” Shemot/Exodus 25:31-40 (A parallel to this passage appears in Shemot/Exodus 37:17-24, describing how Bezalel follows these directions exactly).

The Torah describes the ancient Temple menorah as having intertwined tree-like characteristics, such as branches and buds. In other words, it was literally a Tree of Light. It was, in fact, a green menorah. We need to reclaim this powerful symbol of the unity of the natural world with the light that we bring to it.

The Menorah is Fed Directly from Live Olive Trees

On the Shabbat during Hanukkah, we read the vision of the prophet Zechariah for the haftarah:

[The angel] said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a menorah all of gold, with a bowl above it. The lamps on it are seven in number, and the lamps above it have seven pipes, and the lamps above it have seven pipes; and next to it are two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and one on its left. …”And what,” I asked him, “are those two olive trees, one on the right and one on the left of the menorah?” And I further asked him, “What are the two tops of the olive trees that feed their gold [JPS note: can be read as “oil”] through those two golden tubes?” (Zechariah 4:2-3)

This is astonishing: the menorah has two olive trees that are actually a part of it, interwoven with the part made by human beings. The trees are directly hooked up to the menorah, feeding olive oil directly into the lamps. The light of the menorah is actually fed and sustained by a continuous natural source of oil. The menorah, then, is a combination of nature and of human beings, shaped by both of them into an interwoven whole.

What a powerful image, the menorah becoming the embodiment of the same relationship that we see between human beings and the rest of nature, as symbolized by the Creation story. In Bereishit/Genesis, adam (people) are made out of adamah (ground). This is the same as saying, in English, that earthlings were made out of earth. The shared linguistic root implies an entire unity, an inter-relatedness of human beings with all the rest of creation. That Creation is not “us” vs. “it,” but rather one continuous whole, within which we have a crucial creative and destructive potential, a relationship and a responsibility.

Also, the source of energy for the Temple menorah, as envisioned by Zechariah, is a renewable one. At this time of Hanukkah, we should be inspired by the vision of Zechariah to do what it takes – to increase our energy efficiency, our reliance on renewable sources of energy, and to decrease our reliance on burning fossil fuels that produces carbon dioxide and other pollutants that harm creation.

Hanukkah as Festival of Doing More with Less

Hanukkah, according to the Talmud, celebrates the miracle of one day’s worth of oil – energy – meeting eight days' needs. This image sets an inspiring target for radical conservation and using sustainable sources of energy.

Mai Hanukkah/What is Hanukkah? Our sages taught: For the idolaters entered the Sanctuary and defiled all the oils in the Sanctuary; and when the power of the Hasmoneans overcame and defeated them, they searched, but found no more than one flask of oil, sealed with the seal of the high Priest, and there was not enough oil in it to last more than one day. But a miracle took place, and they kindled with it for eight days. (Shabbat 21b)

Hanukkah can inspire us in our own day to become 8 times more efficient than we are now!

Zechariah a Supporter of Wind Energy?

This is the word of the Divine to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit (b’ruchi) – said the Divine. (Zechariah 4:6)

According to Zechariah, we are supposed to rely upon ruach – often translated as “spirit” but also meaning “wind.” What if this statement read during the haftarah of Hanukkah refers not only to spiritual matters, but also calls us to literally rely on the actual wind itself as a major source of power.

Harnessing the power of wind as a source of renewable energy is one great area of hope.

Hanukkah and Energy Efficiency

The Rabbis wrestled with the question: what exactly is the nature of the miracle of Hanukkah? One answer:

A question posed by the Beit Yosef: The only oil valid for lighting the menorah in the Temple was olive oil, that is, oil squeezed from olives that grew on an olive tree. This being so, how could they fulfill the obligation of lighting the menorah with miraculous oil, which did not come from olive trees but was produced by a miracle?

Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk answered: We must conclude that the miracle did not cause the quantity of the oil to increase; no new oil came into being. What happened was that the quality of the olive oil changed miraculously, so that the original olive oil became more potent and burned more efficiently, allowing the one-day supply to burn eight days. Thus, although initially they poured the entire contents of the jar into the lamps of the menorah, each night only one-eighth of the oil was consumed. Consequently, the same miracle occurred on the first day as on each of the following days.

According to Rabbi Soloveitchik, the miracle was not that the amount of oil increased. It was, rather, that one day’s worth of non-miraculous oil burned for eight days. The miracle was that God made the small amount of oil eight times more efficient. Can we, created in the Divine image, also achieve such a feat? Can we, in the light of the Hanukkah menorah, in the light of the Hanukkah miracle, find inspiration to likewise make our sources of energy eight times more efficient?

Burning Fuel for Light as Efficiently as Possible

Rav Zutra said: Whoever covers an oil lamp, or uncovers a naphtha lamp, transgresses the law of bal tashchit (do not needlessly destroy). (Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 67b)

In other words, both actions make fuel burn less efficiently and therefore are forbidden. By extension, this law prohibits using any energy source any less efficiently than is possible.

Hanukkah and Materialism

Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav taught: Hanukkah tells us that we cannot begin to serve God unless we first wage a war with ourselves to break the stranglehold of the power of materialism. This is the deeper meaning of the battle against Greek idolatry that led to the establishment of Hanukkah.

Also: But when one is fortunate enough to…master one’s base instincts, then one kindles the Hanukkah lights. Its bright lights symbolize the ladder that reaches upward toward inner perfection. However, we should not remain standing on the rung we have reached. Our souls must grow and aspire to greater purity and holiness. This idea is reflected in the number of Hanukkah lights, which increases from day to day.

Proclaiming the Miracle – The Need for Public Action

We are instructed to light the menorah not only for ourselves, but rather in order to pirsum hanes – to make the miracle of Hanukkah known to others as well.

Just as it is not sufficient to light the menorah in private, so too, in facing the global climate crisis, must we turn our individual actions outward into the wider world. Just as the miracle of Hanukkah was magnified eight times, so too must we find ways to multiply the impact of our individual actions. Can we identify key areas for change in our own lives, make those changes, and then commit ourselves to multiplying our own efforts at least eightfold? While we need to take many small steps, we also need to commit ourselves to making sure that those small steps lead to big results.

But never forget that individual and even institutional measures will never be enough by themselves. Individual and institutional efforts must lead to changes in public policy, to multiply our individual efforts by far more than eight times.

We must remember that the Maccabees were a small band of true believers. And that their actions changed history not only for the small historical nation of Israel, but for the world as a whole.

By taking individual action, we create an environment in which we can call upon our institutions to be brave, to take the bold steps necessary to lead their communities. And by individuals and institutions taking action, we in turn create an environment in which we can call on our politicians to be brave.

Hanukkah means “dedication,” and refers to the rededication of the Temple following its desecration in the time of the Maccabees. But that act of rededication didn’t end back then; rather, that’s only when it started. By instituting the observance of Hanukkah each year through the lighting of the menorah, the Rabbis transformed any place in which the menorah is lit into a mikdash m’at, a small sanctuary.

Our homes and our synagogues become a place, on eight consecutive nights, when we increase the light that fills these dark times. They represent a series of moments when we can rededicate ourselves to make a difference. On the Jewish festival that is concerned most explicitly with how we use energy, can we kindle lights through our actions that will inspire the wider world to make the necessary changes in order to avert a global climate crisis? Can we take the small lights of each of our menorahs and transform them into a light unto the nations?

Adopted from Rabbi Jeff Sultar, Director
The Shalom Center’s Green Menorah Covenant Campaign
6711 Lincoln Drive
Philadelphia, PA 19119
(215) 438-2983
greenmenorah@shalomctr.org
www.shalomctr.org

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