‘A Great Miracle Happened There’

“Blessed are you, Lord, our God, sovereign of the universe, Who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time.” “Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the Hanukkah light[s].” —Hanukkah blessings the dreidel form an acronym for “A Great Miracle Happened There,” testifying to the genesis of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, which begins this year at sundown on December 11. The eight day feast recalls the miracle in the Temple in Jerusalem, on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev in the year 165 BC.

More than thousand years later, the lights of the menorah serve as a reminder of the great victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians, who had been suppressing the Jewish religion. The story of the Maccabees is a reminder of the fight for religious freedom, and it is one worth recalling, for the freedom to worship God has ever been under assault through the centuries. Witness the horrors of the 1930s and 40s, when menorah lights in Berlin, Amsterdam, Krakow, or Prague became death sentences.

According to the Book of Maccabees, in the Bible’s Apocrypha, Antiochus, the king of the Seleucid Empire who was humbly known as himself “Epiphanes” or “Manifest God,” was not content in simply ruling the Jews; he sought to stamp out and even defile their faith:

“And the king sent letters by the hands of messengers to Jerusalem, and to all the cities of Judah: that they should follow the law of the nations of the earth, and should forbid holocausts and sacrifices, and atonements to be made in the temple of God, and should prohibit the sabbath, and the festival days, to be celebrated. And he commanded the holy places to be profaned, and the holy people of Israel, and he commanded altars to be built, and temples, and idols, and swine’s flesh to be immolated,

and unclean beasts.”

Against this, the Maccabees and their allies stood firm for three years, refusing to reject their faith in order to save life and limb. And after harsh fighting, they achieved victory and rededicated and purified the temple, which had been desecrated by the Syrians. Thus, the Feast of the Dedication was born— Hanukkah meaning “dedication” in Hebrew.

According to the well known story, upon the reclaiming of the temple, the Jews discovered that there was only one flask of olive oil left to light the lamp that was to be lit perpetually in the sanctified Temple. Miraculously, until a supply of oil was ready eight days later, the lights remained lit, though they should have died out within a day.

Thus the menorah itself symbolizes the world of the sacred and the miraculous—a vital symbol in our increasingly profane, materialistic world. According to the rules of the Talmud, the menorah is to be completely useless, at least in the eyes of the world. Its light may not be used for reading or any practical purpose. The candles of the menorah may not even be used to light themselves, for it is an other worldly reminder that there is something beyond this life and something beyond human agency, namely, God who is the source of all creation.

Today, there are revisionists who attempt to argue that there wasn’t really a Hanukkah miracle, or that the battle of the Maccabees was more about class warfare than a fight to defend the right of Jews to practice their religion. But the flames flickering in the menorahs in windowsills throughout the world silently testify to the truth of Hanukkah.

Others say it is simply a renovation of older pagan festivals of winter. But for this reason, the Talmud requires that the candles of the menorah be clearly distinct, so as not to look like the wild bonfires of the heathens.

While Hanukkah does not occupy the status of the High Holy Days, Passover, or even the weekly Sabbath, its annual commemoration is a call to thank God for the blessings of faith and freedom and a reminder for the Jewish people to be ever faithful and ever vigilant. Today, when much of our culture relishes the desecration of the holy, the menorah reminds us to safeguard the sacred and to keep the fire of faith alive in our hearts and actions. For this reason, the lights of the menorah are to be displayed prominently for all to see, a testament to the world of hope, victory, and faith in the midst of the bleak mid-winter.

See page 15 for information about local outdoor menorah lighting ceremonies and other Hanukkah celebrations.