In December, the celebration of Hanukkah commemorates the rededication–the word Hanukkah means dedication– of the Second Temple in the second century BC during a turbulent time in Jewish history. It is a story that mixes sorrow with joy and oppression with triumph.
It also involves a miracle.
The story begins at the beginning of the year 190 BCE after Alexander the Great departed Jerusalem to return to Greece. Although there was much turbulence and jockeying for power following his exit, the relations between the Jews and the Greeks were friendly, so much so that an exchange of cultures took place to the point of near assimilation. Jews who embraced Greek culture became known as Hellenists. They comprised about a third of the Jewish population, becoming so embedded in Greek culture that they gave their children Greek names, discarded important Jewish customs, and sometimes even sided with the enemies of Israel. Although assimilation was not a welcome development, it might have continued until the Jewish population was fully integrated with Greek values. But the Greeks overstepped.
At the beginning of 190 BCE, the Greeks, under king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, outlawed the Jewish religion instead of encouraging good relations with the Jews and ordered Jews to worship Greek gods. His army descended upon Jerusalem, massacring thousands and desecrating the city’s Second Temple. There he erected an altar to Zeus and sacrificed pigs – regarded as filth in the Jewish religion - within its walls. He demanded that altars of other Greek gods be built in the Temple and sacrifices offered to them regularly. He went to the extent of banning the observance of the Sabbath upon the pain of death.
In other words, he made war on the Jewish religion itself. But he underestimated Jewish resolve. Around the year 166 BCE, a figure said to be of noble descent named Mattathias came on the scene. His family included five sons who were all gifted organizers and fighters. He took aim at Antiochus and his regime. When Antiochus again ordered the Jews to sacrifice a pig to Zeus and asked for a Jewish volunteer to perform the sacrifice, the one who stepped forward was stabbed to death by Mattathias. Fierce fighting broke out, but the Jews were armed and slaughtered all of the Greeks that were present that day.
Mattathias’s sons then assembled an army, a force that, over time, grew to 12,000 strong. The General of the army was Matththias’s son Judah, known as Judah the Maccabee (the “hammer”). He was up against a Syrian-Greek army numbering almost 50,000 men. Judah managed to divide and kill many of this army within two years through great cunning and courage, forcing the survivors to flee Jerusalem and go north to Syria. Then he called his followers to cleanse the Second Temple, rebuild its altar and light its menorah, the gold candelabrum whose seven branches represent knowledge and creation and are meant to be kept burning every night with specially prepared olive oil.
But there was a problem. There was only one flask of oil, which would last for one day. It would take eight days to produce a batch of pure oil. They used the one flask they had. Miraculously, it lasted for eight days while a new batch could be procured to light the Temple as it was being rebuilt. That is why Hanukkah is called the Festival of Lights.
It is indeed a festive holiday. Parents and grandparents watch as their children and grandchildren light one candle in the menorah each night to symbolize the eight nights that the single flask of oil burned. Blessings are recited, and traditional foods like potato pancakes, known as latkes, and jam-filled doughnuts, are offered. Playing with four-sided spinning tops called Dreidels and exchanging gifts are Hanukkah traditions.
While fun and festivities are the characteristics of Hannukah, there is another side of it that binds the generations. The story of Hanukkah celebrates, not just the triumph of Judas’s army over the Greeks, but the victory of the spirit.
Susan Meister is a journalist, columnist, and community activist living in Pebble Beach. Susan’s writing has been recognized with awards for service writing and news feature writing from the Parenting Media Association.