Chanukah: Ancient Challenges

(First published in the December issue of Jewish Image magazine)

It is not widely known but Jerusalem is at the center of each of the Jewish holidays. In addition to the three pilgrimage festivals, a second day was added to Rosh Hashana to facilitate the Temple service in case the precise appearance of the New Moon perplexed the authorities. The Temple service was at the heart of Yom Kippur and Jerusalem celebrates Purim on the same day it was celebrated in Shushan, one day after most of the Jewish world rejoices.

But on no holiday does Jerusalem feature as prominently in its history and observance as it does on Chanukah. The miracle of Chanukah – the burning of the Temple Menorah for eight days – occurred in Jerusalem and the liberation of Jerusalem was considered the apex of the military victory even though the war itself continued for another two decades. And there is much that happened on Chanukah that can guide us today as the challenges that bedeviled the Jewish people then are prevalent, not to mention, exasperating, in modern times.

The story of Chanukah almost 2200 years ago took place against the backdrop of three major crises. The Jewish world then had to wrestle with a foreign enemy, internal strife, and a spiritual malaise that threatened the continuity of Jewish life.

The Syrian Greeks led by a descendant of one of the generals of Alexander the Great captured the land of Israel and the Temple itself and embarked on a campaign of coerced Hellenization of the Jewish population. The Temple was defiled with a statue of Zeus, service in the Temple was summarily halted, and the Syrians attempted to force the Jews to abandon Torah study, circumcision, and other fundamental commandments in the hope that Jews would assimilate into the Greek culture as all other conquered nations had done.  Additionally, the Syrians exercised hegemony over the land of Israel and the Jews were subjugated in their own land.

Most Jews succumbed to the allures of Hellenism, embraced their conquerors, and fiercely opposed the rebellion of the Hasmoneans. In a real yet frightening sense, the war of Chanukah was as much a civil war among Jews as it was a rebellion against the foreign enemy. Jews were quite willing to lend support to the enemy and too many did not hesitate to abandon the particulars of Jewish observance and identity in order to integrate into the Hellenist culture that had swept the world.

None of these predicaments are unknown to us today. The Jewish state, and Jerusalem itself, hosts a large Arab population that does not necessarily perceive its destiny as identical to that of Israeli Jews. There are hostile foreign elements within Jerusalem – chapters of Hamas, Turkish anti-Israel organizations, Qatar money funding a variety of nefarious activities, and European consulates that operate in Jerusalem as embassies to the Palestinians in defiance of Israeli law and thus threatening Israeli sovereignty in the Holy City, including that of Greece, of all countries, our ancient tormentor.

The internal disharmony in Israel over the last few years, which itself precipitated the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, was mostly papered over by the war but has now slowly re-emerged. It mostly centers on starkly different, even diametrically opposed, visions of Jewish destiny, the meaning, importance, and even continued relevance of a Jewish state, and competing notions of Israeli and Jewish identity.

To be sure, the good news is that the state of affairs when the rebellion of Chanukah began was far more precarious than it is today. We have endured much as a people, weathered conquests, expulsions, exiles, pogroms, and Holocausts, only to return to our land – as promised in the Bible – and reestablish thereon the third Jewish commonwealth. Jews for the last two millennia could only dream of an independent Jewish state in which Torah study is abundant, the observance of mitzvot is woven into the societal structure, a Jewish army can rise up against our foes in righteous self-defense, and Chanukah is a national celebration. Indeed, despite all our differences and the superficial discord, somehow, we have created and maintained a thriving society, prosperous and caring, boisterous but determined, tolerant and broadminded, embattled but audacious, and in many respects, the envy of the world.

We should never ignore the gifts we have been given nor trivialize the opportunities with which we have been blessed. The Jewish population of Jerusalem has not been as sizable as it is today since the destruction of the Temple over nineteen centuries ago. The challenges that we face today – both domestic and foreign – pale before the challenges we overcame throughout history.

That is because the great light of Chanukah still illuminates our way forward and reminds us of the great days of faith, unity, and redemption ahead.

Happy Chanukah to all!