Chanukah & Education: Difference, Pedagogy, and COVID

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We often see Passover as a shining example of the importance of effective Jewish education, but Chanukah might intend to play a similar role as well. Though Chanukah is generally translated as "dedication," referring to "the (re)dedication of the Temple" (Chanukat HaBayit), the word Chanukah also shares a root with the word for education, or "chinuch":

Interestingly, the above line can be translated either as "educate a child according to their way" or "educate a child in the way the ought to go." These present two distinct approaches to education, which get raised highlighted in a seemingly mundane Talmudic debate about lighting the Chanukah candles.

It's helpful to note that modern commentators have pointed out that, in general, as is the case in our Chanukah lighting, Beit Shammai's positions reflect attention towards and concern for potential events or distant outcomes, while Beit Hillel's reflect making decisions based on the actual case and considerations in front of him in that moment.

Keeping in mind that human beings are themselves described as candles or lights in the Jewish tradition, as in the following:

Discuss:

Another lesson from understanding Proverbs 22:6 (above) in two different and arguably opposing ways is that two (or more) people can and oftentimes do look at a single object and see two completely different things. This, too, is relevant to the Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel debate.

The Talmud also offers the following explanation for the different practices, which is a basis for later comments by 20th-century rabbinic thinker, Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin:

The Talmud in Sukkah 55b says that these sacrificial bulls - which symbolize the 70 nations of the world - are a form of universal prayer on behalf of the non-Jewish world and are intended to bring about peace. This would suggest that Beit Shammai's decreasing count from eight candles to one culminates in unity across divisions.

Later sages, however, take thee opposite view. They explain that the decreasing candles of Beit Shammai represent the steady destruction of those nations that oppressed the Jews. This understanding fits one narrative of the Chanukah story. According to this interpretation, Beit Hillel's emphasis, then, is on the elevation and Jewish triumph in the Chanukah story. The net result is the same, but the framings differ significantly. Based on this latter understanding, Rabbi Zevin further elaborates on the differences between what Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel see when they look at the Chanukah candles:

Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin (1888-1978, Belarus & Israel)

The light of the soul needs to dwell in the far corners of man, and to shed light on one’s whole body. And the light of Torah needs to be manifest now, and in the future, in all far corners of the world and to shed light on all that causes darkness in the universe...And fire symbolizes burning and the destruction of evil. Fire burns the evil forces that are in the soul of man...and fire destroys the evil forces that materialize in the whole world...Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai were debating what the primacy of man’s work is. Beit Shammai, characteristically, is strict: it is impossible for a person to be elevated to the high light unless they burn all the evil forces in their midsts...Beit Hillel is lenient, on the contrary, and through the light of Torah will the darkness of evil retreat. A little bit of light pushes out a lot of darkness by itself and automatically, and all the more so, a lot of light.