CHANUKAH AND CONTEMPORARY JUDAISM

Although Chanukah is a Yom Tov of Rabbinic origin, it nevertheless has the distinction of being one of the most widely accepted Festivals by all factions of the Jewish community. Paradoxically, even Jewish secularists commemorate Chanukah, for they regard it as a tribute to Jewish valor, and as a symbol of the indomitable courage and resoluteness of the Jewish spirit. It is indeed ironic, however, to realize that while many of these secularists remember the valor and the military success of the Maccabees, they nevertheless choose to ignore the deeper meaning of their struggle; the Torah ideals to which the Chashmonaim consecrated their lives are forgotten entirely.

Those Jews who have removed Torah from their lives and G-d from their hearts would do well to remember that the fearless struggle of the Chashmonaim was not only directed against the compulsory Hellenism which was imposed upon the Jewish community by the tyrannical Greeks; it was likewise a struggle against the pagan influence which was introduced by the voluntary Jewish Hellenists. To deny this, is to deny history.

The Chashmonaim saw with their own eyes the devastating inroads made by the Hellenists in the edifice of Torah Judaism. From their own recent experience, they already knew only too well that Jewish secularism is only a stepping-stone to assimilation, and that reform and innovations in any guise constitute a grave threat to the entire structure of Torah Judaism. The Maccabees strove desperately, therefore, to counteract the influence of the Hellenists of their own generation. Like the entire story of Chanukah itself, however, the deeper significance of this phase of the struggle of the Chashmonaim was to be found in the message it contained for posterity, and its true impact could be felt in the application of this message to subsequent generations.

Source: Chanukah: Season of Valor by Rabbi Zechariah Fendel. Hashkafah Publications. New York

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