To the Jew First | 15
ChosCenh oPseeonp Plee oMpinleis Mtriensis t. rciehso s. ecnhpoeseonpplee.coopmle .c |o m15
The Story of Hanukkah
Let me tell you the story of Hanukkah. Antiochus, one of
Alexander the Great’s generals who was given a portion of the
Greek Empire after the conqueror’s death, attempted to Hellenize
the Hebrews. Our story focuses on one of his delegations which
entered the Israeli town of Moadin. They set up a statue of
Antiochus in the middle of the village and demanded that the
Jewish people worship the ruler (called the Madman by the
Jewish people) as a god.
The men and women of that small town refused and killed the
members of the delegation, destroyed the statue, and fled to
the surrounding hills to wage guerrilla warfare against the Syrian
Greeks. This continued from 168 through 165 BC and eventually
the Jewish people prevailed. Soon thereafter, the leaders of the
guerrilla’s family, called the Maccabees, established what came
to be known as the Hasmonean dynasty, a Levitical rather than
Davidic dynasty.
The story of Hanukkah, however, zeroes in on one significant
event that took place after the Maccabean victory. It seems
that Antiochus was so enraged by the Jewish refusal to
become Hellenized and worship him as a god that he sacrificed
a pig on the Temple altar in Jerusalem. Since there was no
way for this altar to be cleansed, the Maccabees tore it down
and made a pile of the “unclean” stones, which would have to
wait for the coming of the Messiah who, according to tradition,
would cleanse them.
The story continues that the eternal light in the Temple had gone
out and the Maccabees only had enough olive oil to keep the
eternal light lit for one day. Eight days were needed to make
more oil as it took that long to cure. But, according to tradition,
a miracle happened! The oil lasted for eight days and the light
continued to burn without ever running out of oil.
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