What are Jews celebrating on Chanukah?
Is it about the wars – the victory of the few over the many? The amazing Maccabean victories over Greek Syrian armies were but battles in a drawn-out conflict that would last for decades after the Chanukah saga. There would be future defeats as well.
Perhaps Jews are celebrating their freedom from oppressive rule? But freedom was only temporary, as the Jews would eventually face persecution under Antiochus’s successor.
Or maybe it was the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem that Jews celebrate? But the Temple was eventually destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.
In the days of antiquity, following the conquests of Alexander the Great, nations accepted each other’s deities and morals as prescribed by the universal creed of the day, Hellenism. The Jews tenaciously clung to their Torah and were the exception to the global trend.
Their unique practices were largely tolerated for the next one hundred and fifty years, until Antiochus Epiphanes IV became emperor. Antiochus, with the encouragement of Jewish adherents to Hellenism, embarked upon a policy of forcing that ideology upon the Jews. Jewish rites were prohibited and idolatry practices were mandated. Those in violation were severely punished.
If the Jews simply acquiesced, and abandoned their heritage, they could have spared themselves much suffering. Most chose a different path – that of defiance. Some ran and hid in the hills, others secreted themselves in the corners of their homes, but they continued to keep their traditions. The Talmud mentions some who defied authority: Chanah and her sons who, with their mother’s support, refused to bow to the emperor and were sentenced to death; the elderly sage Elazar who, in front of a large audience, refused to partake of a food that merely resembled pig, and as a result was executed. His parting words were, “I will leave an example of strength to die willingly with courage for the perfect and holy Torah.” This was not the response that Antiochus had expected.
Resistance to religious persecution is central to the theme of Chanukah. During that era, a precedent was set for future generations of Jews who would look to that example.
When Roman armies first entered Jerusalem in 63 BCE, Jews were ready to die rather then participate in a pagan rite when ordered to do so by the Roman general Pompey. Twenty-five years later, when the Roman emperor Caligula demanded that Jews act as all peoples and worship his image, Jews again were ready to defy the emperor, regardless of the consequences. More than a century and a half later, when the Roman emperor Hadrian sought to turn Jerusalem into a pagan colony, the Jews again resisted, organizing an armed revolt, under the leadership of Simon Bar Kochba, against the mighty Roman Empire.
During Christian rule that spanned more than fifteen hundred years, Jews endured all forms of persecution, from blood libel accusations to inquisitions to massacres. As during the time of the Maccabees they resisted – but they could have been spared endless suffering had they only capitulated to their oppressors’ demands.
In Islamic countries over the centuries, Jews choose to live humiliated as an underclass of dhimmi, often persecuted – but they willingly accepted their predicament rather than submit to conversion.
The examples are far too numerous to list. Two thousand years of history, replete with sacrifice and martyrdom.
The notion of self-sacrifice has been glorified in Jewish history. The Mishnaic sage Rabbi Akiva was one of many who became martyrs in defying the Roman emperor Hadrian’s bans against Torah study. During the era of Inquisitional rule, the author of the Code of Jewish Law, Rabbi Joseph Karo, spoke of martyrdom as the most sanctified of acts.