Hanuka - Victory in War

The haftorah for Shabbos Hanuka is a vision seen by the prophet Zechariah. In it he sees a menorah. Beside it are olive trees providing oil for its lights. Next an angel gives this message from Hashem to Zerubavel, "Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts", (Zechariah 4:6). A connection of the haftorah to Hanuka is the menorah and another is the theme of the resettlement of the land of Israel. Zerubabel was spearheading the resettlement of the Jews in the Holy Land at the end of the Babylonian exile. Hanuka expands on these ideas. Namely that a one day's supply of olive oil for the Temple menorah miraculously lasted eight days. Another theme is the military victory of the Maccabees over the powerful emperor Antiochus. A byproduct of this victory is that Judea became an independent state whereas before it was only a province of one empire or another.

The victory of the Maccabees was an unlikely one. The Jews were vastly outnumbered by a well equipped, professional army and Antiochus was a top general. Matisyahu and his five sons were better leaders. The commitment of the Jews to mitzvahs and Torah learning gave them the advantage of being much more spirited. On the deepest level the Greeks insisted that there was nothing beyond science, nature, and the human intellect. Opposing this the Jews said that above nature was a supernatural God who could be perceived, but not totally understood. 

The reaction of the Hellenists was repression, persecution, and humiliation. For example they would publicly sacrifice a pig in the Temple and invite community dignitaries to eat the meat. This was highly inflammatory, particularly to Yochanan the son of Matisyahu the high priest who responded by killing the imperial governor, Bagris. It was in fact a seesaw battle that ended when the enemy general demanded to sleep with Judith the daughter of Yohanan the High Priest. Her response was to get him drunk and when he passed out she chopped off his head and brought it to Jerusalem. The army of Antiochus was terrorized, fled, and never came back.

Based on the Maccabees it is possible to think that brute force is the way for the Jews to obtain the land of Israel and sovereignty over it. The prophet comes to let us know that if we look into it deeply it is not through military force that Israel will be an independent state rather it is through the spirit of the Holy One blessed be He. The return to Zion started with Hashem arousing the spirit of Cyrus, the King of Persia, to proclaim that any Jew, who wished to resettle Jerusalem and Judea was encouraged to do so. He also proudly declared that Hashem had made him ruler of the world in order to build the Temple. 

There are forerunners. Towards the end of the seventy years in exile, Daniel confesses the sins of the Jewish people and prays that the words of Jeremiah should be fulfilled and Jerusalem should be rebuilt. Previously Queen Esther in a slip of the tongue laments, "How can I bear to see the destruction of my motherland (מוֹלַדְתִּי)", (Esther 8:6). Finally Nechemia laments the destruction of Jerusalem, confesses the sins of the nation, and requests that he be given permission to return to Judah. This is the restoration of Israel and it is done peacefully through prayer, penitence, and the will of God.

It says in the Chumash, "Hashem is a man of war", (Exodus 15:3), meaning that at times God's will is revealed through war, and the Maccabees were a vehicle for this. Nevertheless this becomes a stumbling block when the Jews start believing that it was by their own sword that they acquired the land and it is their salvation. It is then that they are humiliated and slaughtered like sheep by those that hate them. At some point, often a low one, the Jews are embarrassed by their vain illusions, and admit that Israel is a gift from God. With that they become a vehicle for God's strength and prevail over their enemies (paraphrase from Psalm 44).

לע"נ  האמא מלכה בת חיים ז"ל נלב"ע טז ניסן תשנ"ח

העלון ניתן לקבל בדואר אלקטרוני  וגם באתר http://dyschreiber.blogspot.com