This piece was written by Rabbi Perry Netter of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, CA for PJA's "Eight Ways to Have a Kosher Hanukkah," exploring ways to act ethically and promote economic justice over the holiday season.

We suggest that you share and discuss this reading with friends and family as you light candles, eat latkes, and spin the dredyl. 



We wish you a Kosher Hanukkah.

And we’re not just talking about latkes and jelly donuts.

We’re also talking about toys.  And clothing, and electronics, and music, and everything we buy this Hanukkah.

In the Middle Ages, there were times when rabbis declared Passover food to be unkosher.  Sometimes it was because of the way the food was made and sometimes because of the way the food was sold.  If merchants charged too much for the special food, exploiting the needs of Jews who were restricted by the laws of Pesah from buying food elsewhere, the rabbis would say the food was as unkosher as hametz.  The way we conduct business, the way we buy and sell, also has to follow God’s standard.  God simply does not allow us to take advantage of someone else.

Why?  Because in Jewish law, economics is not just about supply and demand; it is also about justice.  Economics is about fair prices and fair wages, about integrity and dignity.  Companies that take advantage of poverty by paying their workers wages that keep them poor produce unkosher products, CDs and DVDs that steal someone’s music or movie are treyf.   Profits are not more important than Prophets, many of whom warned that a culture that exploits the poor, the weak, the vulnerable and the stranger will collapse from its own moral decay. 

Business is business, the popular saying goes, and there is no better business than this period, from Thanksgiving to New Years.  We buy a lot during this time of the year.  We lavish gifts on so many people in our lives - people we love, people we value and appreciate and respect, people who enrich our lives with their selfless gifts of love and care.  We buy them things they might want or need.  We buy them things they are grateful to receive.  We buy them things to make them look and feel better.

But how would you feel about your gift if you knew that beautiful wool sweater you were buying for your sister was made in a sweatshop?  How would you feel about your gift if you knew that fun toy you were buying for your child was made by a child in a far away country, who started working on it before the sun came up and finished it hours after the sun went down?  And how would you feel about your gift if you knew that the electronic gadget, or the watch, or the purse, or the perfume was a knock off, and the company whose name is on the package never authorized this to be made or got paid for its production?

We know the answer to these questions.  And you know the answer to these questions.  That is why we are wishing you a kosher Hanukkah.  We wish that your gifts will truly be the way you intend them: given from the purest part of your soul, adding quality to the life of the one who receives it and not exploiting and demeaning the one who made it. 

May the light of the Hanukkah candles burn in your home, and may that light – which reminds us each year who we are and what we stand for – be able to shine brightly on everything you buy this year.