Dec. 18 marks the first night of Hanukkah 2022 (5783 by the Hebrew calendar). Hanukkah is not just another winter holiday or “Festival of Lights.” Hanukkah is the holiday of Jewish sovereignty.
If Christmas is about the birth of the foundational figure of Christianity and personal savior of all Christians, Hanukkah is about the birth — actually, rebirth — of the Jewish nation. This makes it highly applicable to our own times. (RELATED: ROB SMITH: Blacks And Jews Must Invoke The Spirit Of Selma Once Again)
Under the leadership of the Maccabees, over 2,000 years ago, the Jewish country — Judea — defied overwhelming odds to win its independence in the Jewish homeland, the Land of Israel.
Today, Jews have resumed sovereignty in the same country, defying similar odds. History and justice are both on our side. That is what Hanukkah is all about.
The year was 168 BCE. A century and a half had passed since Alexander the Great had subjugated the known world to Greek might and culture. Antiochus IV, who ruled everywhere from Pakistan to the Mediterranean, styled himself Epiphanes — “G-d manifest” — but the Jews punily called him Epimanes — “the madman.”
The villain of the Hanukkah story, Antiochus brutally persecuted the Jews, as the historian Diodoros recorded: he “sacrificed a great swine at… the altar of G-d that stood in the outward court [of the Temple in Jerusalem], and sprinkled them with the blood of the sacrifice. He commanded likewise that the [Torah] should be sprinkled with the broth made of the swine’s flesh. And he put out the [Menorah] which burns continually in the Temple.”
The holiday custom of “spinning the dreidel” (a kind of top) originated when Jews had to hide their study of the sacred Torah by pretending to be engaged in a gambling game. Driven to extremes, Mattathias, a Jewish priest from rural Modi’in, and his sons, the Maccabees, led the banner of revolt to protect the ancient Jewish faith and people, which are inseparable.
The Jewish nation was thus reborn out of harsh persecution by a dominant culture that could not understand our distinctiveness. This is the Jewish story. One of the miracles of Hanukkah is that the Jews won our independence against the overwhelming numbers and resources of the enemy.
When the Jewish rebels saw the huge power of the Greek army, they asked their leader, Judah Maccabee: “How can we, few as we are, fight against so great and strong a multitude?”
Judah rallied them and replied: “It is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven. They come against us in great pride and lawlessness to destroy us and our wives and our children, and to despoil us; but we fight for our lives and our laws. [The Lord] himself will crush them before us; as for you, do not be afraid of them.”
Over two millennia later, present-day Israel has done the same, again and again, against the overwhelming might of the hostile Islamic nations which outnumber it by over 200:1.
The other miracle of Hanukkah was the miracle of the oil. The Greeks had profaned the jars of olive oil that fueled the Menorah, the sacred flame of the Temple in Jerusalem, which was never to go out.
After the Maccabees drove them from the Temple — at the exact site where the Muslim Dome of the Rock stands today — they were able to find only one jar of oil, expected to sustain the great lamp for just one night, while it would take eight days to acquire fresh oil from the Galilee.
Nevertheless, they both lit the Menorah and sent for the oil — and providentially, the Menorah remained blazing for eight nights until fresh stocks could arrive. Today, Jews honor this divine occurrence by lighting an eight-stemmed candelabra (the Hanukkiah) and eating foods cooked in olive oil, such as potato pancakes (latkes) and jelly donuts (sufganiyot).
The miracle of the oil represents the necessity of faith. In those days as in our own time, Israel requires our faith. It is a land of miracles and a divine promise, as the Lord told Abraham our Forefather: “To your seed I will give this land.”
In our era, we have seen the fulfillment of ancient prophecies, as with Israel’s restoration of what had degenerated into swamps and fallow wilderness into a fertile agricultural exporter — “the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”
For centuries, Hanukkah has been a remembrance and celebration among the stateless and persecuted Jews of our ancient victories, and our future liberation.
Hanukkah is the celebration of the redemption of the Jewish nation almost 2200 years ago, centuries before the Roman Empire — suppressing a later Jewish revolt for national liberation — invented the word Palestine. Israel lies at the juncture of continents and has always been at the crossroads of empires.
As far back as history goes, Pharaohs and Shahs, Caesars and Caliphs, Sultans and Commissars have fought to dominate its strategic real estate.
But the Land of Israel has a different destiny. It was not promised to the Jews by Lord Balfour or by the United Nations alone, but also and more importantly by G-d: “I will bring you in unto the land, concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an inheritance: I am the Lord.”
The spirit of the holiday is perhaps best encapsulated by the words of the classic Hanukkah song “Who can Retell.”
In its timeless language: “Yea, in every generation the hero shall arise, the redeemer of the [Jewish] nation. Hark! In those days and in our own time, Maccabee saves and rescues. In our days, the whole nation of Israel will unite, rise up and redeem itself.”
David Rebel is an Israeli digital activist, content creator, and influencer who focuses on international affairs as it relates to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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