Christmas and Chanukah are long gone and even longer before their coming again. Yet there is always time for a good story.
Today I would like to tell you anecdote I have heard from an archeologist working in Israel and giving there lectures. Once he spotted an elderly nun in a group of listeners (mostly youth) of one o his lectures upon ancient Judaism.
Intrigued he asked her with his huge Irish-American sense of humor what was she doing in such a place and he heard quite a story. She used to work at one of UK's or Irish catholic hospitals, years ago, as a young nun. It was Christmas approaching and the staff was placing little, jolly Christmas trees in patients' rooms. There was a Jewish patient in one of the rooms and the young nun - not sure what to do, and not wanting to offend or hurt him either by omitting his room with placing Christmas tree or putting in there the symbol of other religion - asked her supervisor what to do.
The answer - wise and yet obvious - was to ask the patient what he would like.
So the young nun went into the hospital room and asked the Jewish patient if he would like to have Christmas tree in his room or not. He smiled at her and answered :"You are very nice to ask but I'd rather celebrate Chanukah like Jesus did".
Despite her strict catholic upbringing and her being a nun it was the first time it struck her Jesus was a Jew and a rabbi, and celebrated - like all his relatives and disciples - Jewish holidays (it was all before Vatican II). Since then she was looking for information about Judaism, specially from Jesus' time,and that brought her years later to the lecture in Jerusalem......
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