AN EVERLASTING LIGHT

In my last blog I chronicled the battles that Israel has fought since the State was declared. However, perhaps the most significant battle that the Jews fought, and won,  took place in the second century BCE.   Desiring to unify his kingdom through the medium of a common religion and culture Antiochus, the Greek ruler at that time, tried to root out the individualism of the Jews by desecrating their holy Temple and suppressing all the Jewish Laws.

We are now at the end of an eight day Festival commemorating this particular victory.

The story of Mattitiyahu Maccabee and his sons, who head the Revolt, is told in detail in the two books of the Maccabees.  A small, vastly outnumbered band of Jews waged battle against the mighty Greek armies, and drove them out of the land.

Even though Judaism would have disappeared if Antiochus had succeeded in his strategy,  Jewish sages chose to leave these books outside of the Bible. One of the reasons is perhaps because the most important Jewish value is “sanctification of life”, and in war people are killed - including our enemies.

Bob is a sculptor living in an agricultural community near the border 4 kms. from Gaza. His raw material is rockets and mortar shells fired into Israel by Palestinian militants from Gaza. His latest creation was a monumental Chanukah menorah. “The idea of turning rockets into religious symbols is turning the symbol of death and destruction into a symbol of light, and the Chanukah menorah is the symbol of light,” Bob said. Featured prominently in his workshop is the verse from Isaiah 2:4: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares.”

Instead of glorifying the unprecedented military achievements of the Jewish fighters, our sages focused on the tiny detail of finding a small cruse of undefiled oil when the Maccabees recaptured the Temple. When they reclaimed the Holy Temple (on the day of the present Jewish month), they wished to rededicate the Temple by lighting the menorah (candelabrum) - only to discover that the Greeks had contaminated virtually all the oil.

Miraculously, the one-day supply of oil lasted eight days and nights. Hence, the name of the Festival “Chanukah” one of the meanings of which is “dedication”. To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the majority of Jews worldwide  light a Chanukah menorah on each of the eight nights of Chanukah.

The root of the Hebrew word “Chanukah” also contains another meaning, which is “education”.

In the first century BCE, on the last days of the Temple - which was at the time the centre of Jewish life - Rabbi Joshua ben Gamla established a network of state-funded schools, to include every child from the age of six. This was a unique innovation at the time when even most rulers didn’t know how to read. For the Jews, it meant that the Torah (Pentateuch) would not be forgotten and Judaism would become a civilization rooted, not in a physical building, but in texts and learning.

In Judaism, the real battle is never a military one but a cultural and spiritual one, whose heroes are not warriors but teachers. Their passion is for learning and a life of the mind. The Greeks - whose achievements in their time have perhaps never been surpassed - gradually declined, and their mighty Empire has disappeared.

To defend a country, you need armies. But, to defend a civilization you need education, educators and places of learning. Our duty, as parents, is to ensure that our future generations become literate in their heritage, and carry on the everlasting light which has kept Judaism alive.