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גבורת המכבים ונס חנוכה
Dear friends,
Chanukah celebrates the triumphant
saga of the Jewish people under the
leadership of the Hasmonean family (the
Maccabees), led by Matityahu Cohen (priest)
ben Yochanan[1] and his
5 sons (Shimon, Yochanan, Yehuda, Elazar and
Yonatan) against the greatest empire of his
time - the Greek Empire - under the despotic
leadership of Antiochus IV; an empire that
defiled our Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and
attempted to impose its hedonistic culture
over the Jewish world view based on an ethic
held by the mitzvot[2].
Our Sages[3]
provided a different interpretation of the
historical events in the Maccabean revolt
which liberated our people from the Seleucid[4]
yoke. During the week of Chanukah, they
ordered the inclusion in our daily prayers
and in the Birkat Hamazon[5]
of an allusive reference to the Holiday that
celebrates the military victory
as a miracle. We read in our
Sidurim[6]:
We thank You for the miraculous deeds
and for the redemption and for the mighty
deeds and the saving acts wrought by You, as
well as for the wars which You waged for our
ancestors in ancient days at this season. In
the days of the Hasmonean Mattathias, son of
Jochanan the High Priest, and his sons, when
the iniquitous Greco-Syrian kingdom rose up
against Your people Israel, to make them
forget Your Torah and to turn them away from
the ordinances of Your will, then You in
your abundant mercy rose up for them in the
time of their trouble, pled their cause,
executed judgment, avenged their wrong,
and delivered the strong into the
hands of the weak, the many into the hands
of few, the impure into the hands of the
pure, the wicked into the hands of the
righteous, and insolent ones into the hands
of those occupied with Your Torah. Both unto
Yourself did you make a great and holy name
in Thy world, and unto Your people did You
achieve a great deliverance and redemption.
Whereupon your children entered the
sanctuary of Your house, cleansed Your
temple, purified Your sanctuary, kindled
lights in Your holy courts, and appointed
these eight days of Hanukkah in order to
give thanks and praises unto Your holy name.
There is no historical doubt about
the existence of Matityahu ben Yochanan
Cohen and his 5 sons - the Maccabim - or of
the liberation achieved by them,
establishing a free reign in the Land of
Israel which lasted from year 165 to 37
b.c.e. Why, then, our Sages describe this
military achievement as a
miracle - especially if we
consider that Matityahu (166 b.c.e.), Elazar
(164 b.c.e.) and Judah (161 b.c.e.) fell in
the struggle for the liberation?
The answer to this question is
based on the concept of
co-participation between man and God,
between the Jewish people and the God of
Israel, and is integral to the
theme of the miracles of Chanukah.
The great liberation war of the
Maccabees was extremely costly from the
human perspective. Many died in the battles
for almost a decade, with extraordinary
levels of human sacrifice and commitment to
the future freedom of action and expression
of the people of Israel. The war was
undoubtedly successful - all the great Greek
generals fell with their armies - Ptolemy,
Nicanor, Gorgias, and the best of them all,
Lisius - but the achievement of Jewish
freedom required sacrifice and extraordinary
effort. It was the decisive action of the
Jewish people that led to the embarrassing
withdrawal of the defeated Greco-Syrian
troops.
Now: these were not just a series
of battles against a powerful enemy. The
issue really at stake was the spiritual
survival of the Jewish People; Antiochus
IV's assault on our liberties forbad the
practice of Judaism (Brit-Milah, Sabbath and
all basic mitzvot) and imposed the
consumption of pork and the service to pagan
gods. The Seleucids were also the greatest
empire of the time. It was
inconceivable that the small, weak and
conquered people of Israel would defeat the
greatest military power of its time... and
yet they won. The enormous
faith in the righteousness of their cause
and the huge size of the threat to Jewish
spiritual life led the Maccabees to a
victory made possible only by a
miracle. Returning to our
initial question, only a miracle could
secure such an achievement, such a victory.
Our sages believed in the co-participation
of our actions with the Divine: when our
commitment is total, and Jewish existence in
the deepest and complete sense - our
nationhood - is in mortal danger, God will
then join and support His people, "fighting
their battles, defending their rights" as we
read in our text prayers. It is the same
feeling and belief we have in relationship
to warfare in the modern State of Israel:
How can we not describe, feel and believe as
miraculous victories
the War of Liberation in 1948, when 7 Arab
countries with tens of millions of people
attacked the 600,000 Jews of the Yishuv, or
when what was advertised by those same Arab
countries as the "Second Holocaust" ended in
a crushing defeat - and a victory
unthinkable for the tiny state of Israel -
in the 1967 Six Days War?
The military victory of Chanukah
celebrates a miracle: a miracle that emerged
as a product of the Jewish people complete
surrender to their cause, and God,
accompanying their efforts, and securing the
victory. As our prayer describes:
"and unto Your people did You
achieve a great deliverance and redemption."
May this Chanukah
bring our Maccabi light to all of you, and
the light of the Maccabees with their
miraculously liberating victory.
Chanukah Sameach!
Chazak Ve'ematz!
RABBI CARLOS TAPIERO
Deputy Director-General
Maccabi World Union
[1]His
name is the acronym of MACCABI, that
is the reason the Hasmonean family
are also called "Maccabees" -
Maccabim.
[3]According
to Kalonymus ben Eleazar ben Judah
of Worms, also called Elazar
Rokeach, 1176 - 1238, Yohanan ben
Matiatiahu himself was responsible
for including this prayer - the same
son who started the great liberation
movement that led to his death in
battle in 166b.c.e.
[4]The
Seleucid kingdom - Greco-Syrian -
was led by Antiochus Epiphanes ("The
Shining"), it was one of the
successive conquests of Alexander
the Great in the Middle East (the
other was the Ptolemy kingdom, based
in Egypt).
[5]Blessing
pronounced after the meals, when
bread has been consumed.
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