This article was co-edited by Prof. Dan Brook (Bio at end) Christmas on December 25 and Chanukah on 25 Kislev periodically coincide and do so again in 2024 on Christmas Day, which is the first night of Chanukah. Some are calling it Chrismukah. Some are calling it another miracle! Hope springs eternal. Indeed, it’s always been an integral part of Jewish and American history, spirituality, and politics. Without hope, there wouldn’t be a Chanukah; without hope, there might not even be a Jewish community; without hope, there might not be America or Israel. That’s the power of radical hope! Christmas has been celebrated for over 1600 years and Chanukah has been celebrated for 2100 years since the 2nd century BCE. The two holidays may be united in our gratitude for Light, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Latkes. We don’t know if Jesus ever ate latkes, but as a Jew, he celebrated Chanukah, which is mentioned in the Christin Bible as the Feast of Dedication, it’s former name. Jewish survival is a miracle of hope. Increasing light at the darkest time of the year to celebrate Chanukah and Jewish survival is also a miracle. Each year, we should be grateful for our miracles and we should work and hope for further miracles. We sincerely hope that Jews and Christians will enhance their celebrations of this spiritually-meaningful Judeo-Christian holiday of Chrismukah by making it a time to strive even harder to live up to Judaism’s and Christianity’s highest moral values and teachings. For most of us, we certainly don’t need more “things” in our homes or more food in our bellies; instead, we need more meaning, purpose, gratitude, peace, love, and spirit in our lives. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this. One significant way we can do this, on a daily basis, is by moving towards plant-based lifestyles. Chanukah commemorates the single small container of pure olive oil — expected to be enough for only one day — which, according to the Talmud (Shabbat 21b), miraculously lasted for eight days in the rededicated Temple on the 25th of Kislev, two years after it was defiled by the Syrian-Greeks, who were ruled by the tyrannical King Antiochus IV. In kabalistic (Jewish mystical) thought, according to Avi Lazerson, “oil is symbolic of chochmah (wisdom), the highest aspect of the intellect from which inspirational thought is derived”. A switch to vegetarianism or veganism would be using our wisdom and compassion to help inspire another great miracle: the end of the tragedy of world hunger, therefore ensuring the survival of tens of millions of people annually. Currently, from one-third to one-half of the world’s grain, and about three-quarters of major food crops in the U.S. (e.g., corn, wheat, soybeans, oats, alfalfa), is fed to animals destined for slaughter, while about one billion poor people chronically suffer from hunger and malnutrition and their debilitating effects, tens of thousands of them consequently dying each day, one every few seconds. Billions of cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and others are bred in unnatural and brutal conditions, leading to injuries and ill-health, first for them and eventually for their consumers. Maimonides, the great rabbi, physician, and scholar known as the Rambam, who wrote that the pain of people is the same as the pain of other animals (Guide for the Perplexed), ruled that one must literally sell the clothes one is wearing, if necessary, to fulfill the mitzvah of lighting the menorah and celebrating the miracle (Hil. Chanukah 4:12). Uniting physical needs and spiritual needs is vitally important for the body, the mind, and the spirit. In the joyous process of celebrating our holidays — including Christmas, Chanukah, and Chrismukah — other beings shouldn’t have to be enslaved, tortured, and killed by our tyranny over them for a passing pleasure. No one should ever have to die on our account or in our name, especially for the purpose of celebration. Chanukah represents the victory of the idealistic and courageous few, over the seemingly invincible power and dominant values of the surrounding society. We learn through both our religious studies and history that might does not make right, even if it sometimes rules the moment. Therefore, quality is more important than quantity; spirituality is more vital than materialism, though each is necessary. “Not by might and not by power, but by spirit”, says Zechariah 4:6, part of the prophetic reading for Shabbat Chanukah. Today, vegetarians and vegans are relatively few in number — though growing — and billions of captive factory farm animals are powerless to defend themselves, but the highest ideals and spirit of Judaism and Christianity — namely, peace, justice, and liberation — are on their side. Still believing in brute force, materialism, greed, and gluttony, the world presently wastes a staggering and nearly unimaginable amount on total military might annually (with about half of that amount by the U.S. alone), while half the world’s population barely survives on $2 a day or less and, as noted, some don’t even survive. Security does not come from superior physical forces or from authoritarian political conditions, as the Chanukah and Christmas stories and contemporary events remind us. Collective security lies in a peaceful, just, sustainable, and beloved society, what Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. described as the justice of “positive peace”, just as personal security lies in a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. These are deeply and intimately related. (Rev. King’s widow said she thought he would have become vegan had he lived longer as a logical extension of his philosophy of non-violence.) The Jewish anti-imperialist insurgency that inspired the Chanukah story, led by the Macabees, was sparked when a pig was killed and Rabbi Eleazar and other Jews were ordered to eat it. Those who refused, including nonagenarian Rabbi Eleazar, were summarily killed. According to the Book of Macabees, some Macabees lived on plant foods — to “avoid being polluted” — when they hid in caves and in the mountains to escape capture. Further, the major