The Jerusalem Post is reporting a fascinating story about a group of Israeli environmentalists who proposed that Jews light one less candle this Hanukkah to save the environment.
The founders of the Green Hanukkia campaign found that every candle that burns completely produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide. If an estimated one million Israeli households light for eight days, they said, it would do significant damage to the atmosphere.
Not surprisingly, this isn’t sitting well with everyone, and some critics are seeing this as something of a Hanukkah story for our time, presenting the environmentalists as Hellenists.
Shas MK Nissim Ze’ev:
“They should be fighting the trucks instead of Judaism. This is so trivial, so anti-Jewish and so anti-religious that even the worst anti-Semites couldn’t think of it. Just like the Helenists, they are trying to extinguish the flames of the Jewish soul.” (MORE)
Over at Yeshiva World one commenter made a similar connection and a couple of others highlighted the theological question at stake. To what degree do we rely on God’s protection?
Ridiculous! I could think of a million other ways to save the environment…..I think these crazy people just don’t want people to remember that there is a Hashem who performs Nissim. Just like the Miracle of Chanukah, if we do the right things, and behave the way Hashem wants us to he will protect us and our environment too. (MORE)
Hanukkah
Pronounced: KHAH-nuh-kah, also ha-new-KAH, an eight-day festival commemorating the Maccabees’ victory over the Greeks and subsequent rededication of the temple. Falls in the Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually corresponds with December.
