Happy Hanukkah in a dark time

It's been a dark two months since October 7, and we're looking forward toward many more months of war before Hamas is removed from the Gaza strip. So it’s a good time to remember that Hanukkah recalls a military victory.

Then, as now, Israel was mortally threatened: Two thousand years ago, by a Greek empire that demanded everyone – and Jews in particular – give up their own culture and religion and adopt the Greek way of life. Now, by a fanatical form of political Islam, with Israel suffering the worst terror attacks in its history from Hamas, and also harassed with missile attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen – all three of which are armed and trained by Iran, a terror regime which may produce an atomic bomb any time now.

But Israel today is far stronger than was the group of Jewish rebels that took on and beat the Greeks in the first century BCE. Moreover, for 2023, we have our own Hanukkah miracle: Jews everywhere, both in Israel and the diaspora, secular and religious, left-leaning and right-leaning have come together in solidarity to says Am Yisrael Chai – the People Israel live! 

Note: The image above is of a mosaic from a synagogue in Jericho, circa the sixth century. It's a seven-branch menorah, a traditional symbol of the Jewish people, not an eight-branch Hanukkiah. The script reads: Shalom al Yisrael – Peace upon Israel. To which, we can only say, Amen. 

Hanukkiah with one candle lit for the first night of Hanukkah, plus the Shamash candle, the candle used to light the others