A joyous song to honor Hanukkah and Israel’s fight

When Jewish children bring out their dreidels on Hanukkah, each side of the dreidel bears a different Hebrew letter: נ‎ (nun), ג‎ (gimel), ה‎ (hei), and ש‎ (shin). Those letters are not the equivalent of “A, B, C, and D.” Instead, they stand for the phrase נֵס גָּדוֹל הָיָה שָׁם (nes gadól hayá sham), which means “a great miracle happened there.”

This phrase and the eight Hanukkah candles celebrate the Maccabees’ extraordinary and entirely unexpected victory over the Seleucid Greeks in the 2nd century B.C. In 2023, that story is exceptionally poignant, both here and in Israel. To celebrate the holiday and honor the State of Israel’s current fight to survive her neighbors’ genocidal ambitions, the Maccabeats, a wonderful acapella group, have put out a new song to celebrate.

The Hanukkah story is a wonderful one for Jews (obviously), but this year, I think conservatives will find it compelling as well. The story comes from First and Second Maccabees, which are history books rather than part of the sacred texts.

However, to really understand what happened, you need to go back to Alexander the Great’s spectacular conquest of the Persian empire in 334 B.C., when his 32,000 infantrymen defeated what was then the mightiest empire in the world. One of the prizes from this conquest was Judea, which had been a vassal of Persia. The Jews who made up Judea’s population viewed Alexander as a liberator, and Alexander, in turn, decided to leave them pretty much alone, including allowing them religious liberty.

When Alexander died, three of his generals fought over control of the lands he had conquered, and Ptolemy (Cleopatra’s ancestor) won Egypt and Judea. He, too, subscribed to a “live and let live” philosophy as long as the Jews paid their taxes.

The problem for the Jews was one conservatives will find familiar: The Greek culture, especially its emphasis on sex and its comfort with nudity, was incredibly attractive. It was also an easy culture compared to Judaism because the Greeks didn’t have stringent ritual demands, nor did they proscribe foods.

Jews began to assimilate into Greek culture and to abandon their Jewish ways. They also began to embrace pagan philosophies, which were antithetical to the Jewish ethically based monotheistic beliefs. Still, the anti-Hellenizers had a strong base, forming the Hasidean party, which actually began simply by opposing Greek-style drinking and carousing.

The push and pull of lax, irreligious Greek culture between stringent, God-centered Jewish beliefs came to a head when Antiochus III, a Seleucid, finally wrested control of Judea from the Ptolemy’s in 198 B.C. To consolidate his power against the Romans, Antiochus decided to unify his kingdom by “Hellenizing” everyone. The problem was that the Jews refused to be Hellenized.

While Antiochus III backed down on this one, he was followed by Antiochus Epiphanes, who had murdered his own brother to gain the throne. He appointed Jason, a Hellenized Jewish priest, as the High Priest.

Jason was a single-handed Fifth Column against the Jews of Judea. He brought pagan rituals to the Temple, put Greek (i.e., nude) statues in the sanctuary, and had priests officiate at Greek (i.e., nude) games. He was all in for the dominant Hellenistic culture.

When a rumor spread that Antiochus Epiphanes had died, the traditionalists brutally deposed the Hellenizers, including Jason. (This was a pre-modern era. Magnanimity was not then a “thing.”) Unfortunately, the rumor was wrong, so Antiochus Epiphanes descended on Judea, determined to stop the rebels.

Given the brutal age, had he just slaughtered the bad actors, all probably would have been well. Indeed, however, Antiochus went after the Jewish faith, outlawing the Sabbath and circumcision (the very first covenant with God). Matters came to a head when a Greek official tried to force a priest named Mattathias of the Hasmonean house to sacrifice to the Greek gods. Instead, Mattathias killed the official.

When Antiochus ordered mass reprisals, the Jewish population rose up en masse. Mattathias and his five sons led the war under their new name: The Maccabees, from the Hebrew word for “hammer.” They earned this name because of the hammer blows they rained on the Seleucid armies in battle. For the first time in history, a population willingly died for ideas not land or material things.

The idea that the rag-tag Jewish people, who had been vassals of Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks, could hold off the Seleucid military seemed laughable, yet the Jews prevailed. In 164 B.C., they defeated Antiochus’s armies and retook Jerusalem.

Once there, the victorious Jews found that the Temple had been desecrated. They purged the idols and re-sanctified the Temple, a process lasting eight days. Their victory and the Temple’s re-sanctification were the “great miracle.” However, a tradition developed that the victorious Jews had enough oil to last only one day, not the required eight days, yet their small supply lasted the full eight days. This, too, was a great miracle.

The spirit of the Maccabees lives on in Israel, which is fighting an existential war against Hamas. Hamas’s army is small, but it has on its side the world’s antisemites, which are funding it and making sure that the battle rages not only in Israel but across the Western world, not only wherever there are Jews but also wherever there is liberty. The spirit of the Jews still fights the massed Seleucid army.

The spirt of the Maccabees also lives in the heart of those Americans who are loyal to this country’s core values, which come from the Judeo-Christian canon, Enlightenment principles, and our Constitution. We fight it every time we speak out at a school board meeting, challenge a leftist idea, and cast our votes.

Happy Hanukkah to all!

And with that introduction, here are the Maccabeats:

Image: Lighting the Hanukkiah by freepik.