מתתיהו ובית חשמונאי

In the days of Greek rule, under Antiochus, the decree came not to destroy the body but the soul. Shabbat, circumcision and the sanctification of the new moon were banned, and the Temple was defiled with idols. Worse still, many of the Jews themselves, the Hellenizers, embraced Greek culture gladly. The danger was that Judaism would be erased from within.

In Modi'in the old priest Matityahu stood and refused. When a Jew came to offer to an idol in public, the zeal of Pinchas rose in him, and he killed the one who offered, cried 'whoever is for the Lord, to me,' and fled with his five sons to the hills. There a small seed of revolt arose against an empire.

After Matityahu's death his son Yehuda HaMaccabi led a small band of fighters against the strongest army in the world, and won battle after battle. 'You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, and the many into the hands of the few,' as we say in Al HaNissim. It was not force that decided but self-sacrifice.

When they returned and captured Jerusalem and purified the Temple, they found only one cruse of pure oil with the seal of the High Priest, enough for a single day, and a miracle was done and it burned for eight days (Shabbat 21b). Therefore they fixed eight days of Chanukah.

And here the Sages emphasized something profound: they established the festival on the miracle of the oil, not on the miracle of the war. The menorah recalls the light, not the sword. This was a war for the soul of Israel, not for territory, and it is its spiritual victory that endured.

Yet their greatness bore a shadow too. The Hasmoneans later took the kingship, though they were priests and not of the tribe of Yehuda, and Ramban (on Genesis 49:10) counts this as their sin, on account of which the dynasty was cut off. Supreme heroism in the moment of self-sacrifice, and tragedy afterward, when they grasped what was not theirs.

To this day, every year, we kindle the Chanukah lights and say 'these lights are holy,' and remember that a small flame of faithfulness can outlast an empire.