This coming Sunday night, December 18, we will celebrate Hanukka. This holiday reminds us of what happened over 2,000 years ago when the Greek-Seleucid empire was in control of the land of Israel and decided to end Judaism. The Jews rose against the Greeks, fought against them, and miraculously defeated them. It was the first time a people rebelled, not to preserve their lives but their religious values. When the Jews recovered the Bet haMiqdash, (the great Temple of Jerusalem), they saw that it had been converted into a pagan sanctuary to worship the Greek gods. Then, they purified the Temple and proceeded to re-inaugurate it, that is, to rededicate it to Divine service. The word “Hanukka” literally means “inauguration.” (or, in this case, re-inauguration)
THE OIL AND THE SWORD
When they recovered the Temple, the Jews only found a small vessel of pure oil necessary to light the Menorah, the candelabrum, which indicated that the temple was functioning normally. This small amount of oil lasted longer than expected until new oil could be obtained. And for this reason, we celebrate Hanukka by lighting candles, one each night of the holiday, to remember the epic reopening of the Temple –the fruit of human effort– was accompanied by the miracle of the Menora candles, a sign of God’s intervention. All this is well known. But it’s only a tiny part of the whole Hanukka story. The meaning of this holiday is profound and relevant to our times. It reminds us that our ancestors had to fight and sacrifice their lives to preserve their religious freedom and the survival of our Torah at a time when Judaism was about to disappear.
EIGHT NIGHTS
The heroic armed rebellion of Matitiyahu and his sons, their triumphs, their defeats, how they rose from the ashes, and all the miracles our people experienced when faced with a superior enemy is perhaps not taught in our communities and schools in a proper way. Even though our rabbis, as can be seen in the ‘al hanisim’ prayer that we mention in our Chanukah Tefillah, saw Divine intervention in all these military victories in a direct way.
I will tell the story of Chanukah in eight chapters, which I will call “The Eight Miracles of Chanukah.”
I recommend reading one chapter every night after lighting the candles so that our hearts fill with pride and inspire us to thank the Creator ‘al hanisim, for the miracles he did for our ancestors and that he continues to do for us.
THE EMPEROR AND THE PRIEST
In his early 30s, Alexander the Great became one of the greatest conquerors in human history. Around 330 BCE (before the Common Era), the armies of Greece and Macedonia under his command defeated the forces of the mighty Persian Empire, with which they had been at war since the time of Achashverosh (Xerxes, 480 BCE). Alexander’s domains stretched from Greece to India, occupying the entire Middle East. When Alexander the Great visited the land of Israel, he arrived in Jerusalem. He demanded what was then considered a standard gesture of submission from the peoples who were now part of his new empire: the erection of the statue of Zeus, the highest god of the Greeks, in the main sanctuary of the city, the Bet HaMiqdash or Great Temple of Jerusalem. For the polytheistic peoples, honoring the gods who granted the triumph was an act of recognition to the winner. And refusing to acknowledge those gods was a sign of rebellion and insurrection against the victor. All the peoples under Alexander’s reign followed the traditional practice without problem: they adopted the gods of the new emperor without resistance. There was only one exception: the Jews.
YOU WILL NOT TOLERATE ANOTHER GOD…
Our ancestors refused to serve and worship idols. And they rejected the request of the young Greek emperor to place the statue of a pagan idol in the Bet haMiqdash. Monotheism is not just the claim that we believe in “one God.” Jewish monotheism also includes the denial of other gods: the non-tolerance of paganism. As the second commandment says: “You shall not have [believe in] no other god…before Me” (that is, while the Jew will not make international crusades to destroy idols or pagan religions, “within Israel”, which is Divine territory, will not tolerate or accept the worship of other gods). To try to convince the emperor that refusing to worship his idols did not amount to rejecting his kingship, a delegation of Jews, headed by the High Priest Shimon haTsadiq, arranged to meet him. The Jews explained to Alexander that Jewish monotheism requires “cult exclusivity,” something very difficult for ancient people to understand. The Jews also said to Alexander that if he wanted to take action against them, the Jews would not offer any armed resistance: they accepted the new emperor. They were willing to sacrifice their lives peacefully (‘al Qiddush HaShem), not to carry out the demand to worship other gods or introduce an idol into the Temple. Furthermore, according to a famous legend, the Jews offered, as a sign of submission, recognition, and affection to the new emperor, that all Jewish children born that year be named “Alexander” in his honor.
MONOTHEISM AND ANTISEMITISM
Alexander’s generals and advisers interpreted the Jews’ rejection of the Greek gods not religiously but politically. And they demanded that the emperor destroy Jerusalem and annihilate the Jews.
Their arguments were the following:
1. They found it incomprehensible that the Jews did not tolerate the coexistence of their God with other gods. “What is wrong with our god being together with the God of the Jews in His sanctuary?”, they reasoned, knowing that no pagan god ever demanded exclusiveness! Why accept that the Jews behaved in this way? The Jews’ refusal to accept other gods was interpreted as a sign of rebellion or, at best, as a gesture of arrogance. Both attitudes deserved punishment.
2. The generals also found it impossible to conceive that the Jews believed in an invisible God. “What cannot be seen does not exist”, thought the rest of the world at that time. And as powerful as the God of the Jews was, now the Jews should abandon Him or put Him in second place. Why? Because in the pagan mind, when a people are defeated, it means that their gods are less powerful than the gods of the victors. Those defeated in battle had to accept the superiority of the victorious gods. Therefore, Alexander’s advisers reasoned, the Jews rejected the Greek gods not out of religious principles but because they refused to accept their defeat.
3. What bothered Alexander’s advisers the most was that the Jews wanted to continue obeying the laws of their invisible God and refused to obey the laws of the sovereign and conqueror. In pagan cultures, the gods were consulted to divine the future or offered sacrifices to appease them. But the gods did not issue laws or commandments. Making the law was the prerogative of the political sovereign, not a god! The Jews, the advisers insisted, follow the rules of their God as if he were a monarch (and they were right), superior to Alexander! For this reason, they said, the sword had to be used to convince the Jews that they should obey Alexander and abandon his other Law. This was also the reasoning that Antiochus Epiphanes made 140 years later when he decided to end the Jewish practice by decree.
PROTECTOR OF THE JEWS
Alexander the Great miraculously did not listen to his advisers. He accepted the explanation of the Jews and did not punish them for their disobedience. On the contrary, the Greek monarch was interested in Judaism, the Tora, monotheism, and the Bet haMiqdash. And far from seeking to persuade Jews to give up their religion, he gave them additional rights so that they could continue to respect their faith. Alexander the Great practically became the protector of our people.
Some examples.
1. Like all emperors, Alexander required each nation under his empire to send military reinforcements to serve in his armies. But Alexander ensured that the Jewish soldiers had their own battalion in the Greek army ranks. And he ordered that the Jewish soldiers be allowed to practice their religion regarding their food (Kashrut) and the observance of the Shabbat rest
2. A letter was found in which Alexander the Great requested that a special oil, “kosher”, be delivered to the Jewish soldiers in Antioch; since they could not consume standard oil (considered at that time impure or tame).
3. Documentation was also found where Alexander instructed his generals to exempt Jewish soldiers from participating in the construction of a pagan temple in Babylon (E. Bickerman).
Rabbi Yosef Bitton
