Dealing With December

It's the time again... time for an endless stream of Xmas specials, holiday parties and the inescapable background of Xmas music that seemingly follows you wherever you go. That's right, Xmas is almost here and with it comes the challenge of helping our kids (our ourselves) navigate the maze of holiday parties, gift giving and finding time to focus on the actual meaning of Hanukkah. However, since Hanukkah often comes just before or during the height Xmas season, the message of Hanukkah often gets drowned out by the bright, glitzy lights of Xmas.

While most of us just think of Hanukkah celebrating the miracle finding the oil (via candles, latkes & donuts!) to re-dedicate the Temple and having it last 8 days, the holiday loses some of it's resonance when taken out of the context in which it occurred. 

After the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE), the empire he had carved out was divided among his generals and the area known as Judea eventually became part of the Greco-Syrian Empire (198 BCE). Of course, when the inevitable result was that Greek thinking and culture began to make inroads into the Jewish homeland.

By 175 BCE when the evil Antiochus Epiphanes ('God personified' in Greek!) rose to the throne, Hellenism had taken root within the Jewish people. The Hellenists, a significant minority among the Jews (mostly wealthy elite of Jerusalem and the large coastal cities) saw Greek culture as the most advanced and enlightened of the day, and turned their backs on their God and their people. These new Hellenists encouraged Antiochus to outlaw Jewish practices in order to force the Jews to accept the seemingly superior Hellenist culture.

Antiochus was only to happy to comply and so, circumcision, Shabbat observance and Torah study were outlawed. Women whose babies were discovered to be circumcised were put to death together with their sons. An idol of the Greek god Zeus was erected in the Temple; Torah scrolls were sought out and torched. That is until forces came to the town of Modiin to enforce their decree that each town make sacrifices on an altar to Greek gods. That's when Mattityahu, who as head of the town was asked to do the "honor" of making the sacrifice, realized that he could live as an idolator or die as a Jew defending the Torah. He refused, killed the official, destroyed the altar and thus began the Hashmonean revolt.

The rest, as they say, is history: in a campaign that lasted three years, an irregular army of untrained peasant-soldiers, poorly armed and forced to live off the land, led by Matithyahu's son Yehudah (Judah), succeeded in driving the Greco-Syrian forces out of Jerusalem and much of the country. They reinstated the Laws of the Torah and marched on Jerusalem to restore the Temple.

In the end, the revolt succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Not only did they restore Torah culture and practice in Israel for the first time in centuries, but the Jewish nation was once again sovereign and able to determine its own destiny. The historic significance of this victory cannot be overstated, since without the successful armed revolt led by Matithyahu and his sons, we would have disappeared as a people more than 2000 years ago. 

So, this Hanukkah celebrate those who died to keep our tradition strong and bright. Tell your kids about the heroes of Hanukkah and what makes this holiday so special. It isn't about which holiday looks bigger or more impressive, it isn't about more gifts, it's about the chance to live as Jews and the responsibility to fight to preserve who and what we are, no matter what's going on in the world around us.