"[The Greeks came] to make them forget Your Torah and transgress the decrees of Your will." (Al Hanisim prayer on Chanukah)
"They tried to kill us, we won, now let's eat." This is a basic summary of Jewish history - as well as of the holidays we have celebrated for thousands of years. From one of the earliest - Passover, to one of the latest - Purim, the Jewish people have been saved from physical annihilation by our enemies. However, the holiday of Chanukah (beginning this Sat. night), is different. YES, the Greeks killed. But their prime objective was not physical death, but rather the killing of the Jewish spirit. It was the intellectual & spiritual beliefs of the Jewish people that bothered them. Haman, like Hitler, had an edict passed that threatened every Jewish body. The Greeks only decreed against the learning of Torah & the performance of Mitzvot. Assimilate, avoid Jewish expression, and you would be fine!
Our Sages teach that the issue the Greeks had with Judaism was a bit more intricate. The Greeks of the time were philosophic innovators, and appreciated good logic; sound intellectual reasoning. In the Torah, they saw much good in that department! From moral reasoning & societal justice to the brilliant didactic teachings of the oral Torah, the Greeks were duly impressed with Judaism and its followers. There was one thing that didn't sit well with their outlook: The Jewish belief in that which is beyond the realms of human logic. The Mitzvot that made sense: "Don't murder", "Don't steal", "commemorate the days in which you left Egypt," were tolerable. But "keep kosher", "don't mix meat & milk", and all of the decrees of the Torah - that wasn't going to cut it!
In essence, the Greeks argued: "Judaism is nice, it's cute, it's even admirable. But leave that God nonsense alone. Appreciate the wisdom in it, but leave the divine out. Do away with the spiritual soul behind the laws and customs!" Heavily outnumbered, with their lives in danger, the Maccabees said "no" - The essence of the Torah & its Mitzvot is that its wisdom is Godly. Not human. Deeper still, the Maccabees argued: "Even those mitzvot that make total sense - like 'don't steal' - we must observe them because they are, in essence, a Divine decision that we do not steal and that we act morally. It is an added incentive that we can also understand the evil within these immoral actions.
After the Maccabees were miraculously victorious, they found a single cruse of pure oil - enough for 1 day, which miraculously lasted for 8 days. This oil & special light of the Menorah shone in the face of the Greeks & their ideology. Specifically here in the temple, a spiritual miracle was taking place. That there is a higher reality that exists on a level beyond the logical. Where 8 days of light can come from 1 day's oil. Where philosophy & the human brain can't understand.
May each of us grow and add in the light of Torah & Mitzvot, like the lights of the Menorahs we light, 1 additional candle each day, as we remember the transcendence of the spirit over the physical, of light over darkness.
Happy Chanukah & Shabbat Shalom!
