When Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE, his empire, the largest the world had ever known until then, was divided between his four senior generals. In the most recent years before 167 BCE, the descendants of Selucid, based in Damascus, or Damesek as it was called locally, and those of Ptolemy, based in Egypt, had been fighting a local campaign to take control in Israel. The Selucid dynasty appeared to have won and was taking steps to consolidate their position by extending the benefits of Greek culture: political, social and religious, to the people in the annexed territories. The Selucid ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, had issued edicts banning the reading or study of the Jewish writings known as the Torah, the ritual act of circumcision and the use of the Hebrew language.

One day a contingent of Selucid soldiers came into Modi'in, a small Jewish village west of Jerusalem, with a portable altar to one of their gods in order to have a sacrifice offered by the Jewish residents of the village in accordance with the Edict that had been issued from Damascus by Antiochus Epiphanes, before they moved on to the next village. They located the Elders of the village who, in customary manner, refused to offer the sacrifice. As usual, once the consequences of disobeying the Edict from Damascus were explained to the people, someone from the crowd volunteered to offer the sacrifice. At this point, an elderly man, a retired member of the Jewish high-priestly family, pushed his way through the crowd and after rebuking the volunteer sharply, took a knife and killed him, declaring that no Jew should ever make a sacrifice to an idol. He then cried out to the crowd who seized almost the entire platoon of soldiers and killed them all before burning the portable altar.

Once the soldiers had been killed, the elderly man, whose name was Mattityahu, called his sons to come to him and then appealed to the crowd to join him and his family in open rebellion against the Selucid authorities. Knowing that the Selucids could hardly be expected to allow anyone in the village to live after this affront to their authority and rule in the land, the rest of the village residents agreed. Taking the name Maccabee, which means 'Hammer' in Hebrew, they swore not to lay down their weapons until Jerusalem and the Land of Israel were free from Selucid rule. They appeared to have a lot of popular support in the neighbouring towns and villages and sent out a general call for volunteers to help fight the Selucids.

Knowingthat they could overcome the might of the Selucid army, because they served G-d, they set up camps in the Judean Hills, where the Selucids would never find them and waged guerilla warfare upon the Selucids, determined not to stop until they left the land for good. Many throughout Israel heard of the Macabee's struggle and came to join them; their ranks were swelled by all those who would not bow their knees to pagan gods and who recognised that the Holy One of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps and would show Himself to be G-d in Israel through them. Their objective was to free first Jerusalem and then all of Israel from this culture that denied them the Torah, the right to circumcise their sons and teach them Hebrew, the language of their fathers. From their battle cry, Mi Chamocha Ba'elim Adonai - which means "Who is like You among the gods, O L-rd" - they chose their name: MCB - Maccabee.

Antiochus Epiphanes did not want trouble and this uprising by the Jews required him to take drastic action: War was declared upon the Jewish rebels. They were to be hunted and pursued by the Greek armies until they surrendered and were brought to justice. Any town or village found to have harboured them would receive the same punishment as the rebels.

Few Greeks saw any hope of the Macabee's succeeding in overthrowing the power of Antiochus. The Selucid army was well-equipped: thousands of troops at their disposal, war elephants and cavalry, not to mention chariots, bow and spear-men. This was the army that fought against the Ptolemian dynasty of Egypt to establish Selucid control in Israel only a few years before. Each soldier was battle-seasoned with plenty of food, water and fresh reinforcements to call upon. No one thought that this "little Jewish rebellion" would last for more than a few weeks. What could a raggle-taggle band of freedom fighters expect to accomplish against one of the best armies in the known world? Of course the Jewish people felt the loss of their culture and language, the Greeks said, but surely they were the ones who would benefit in the long run by being part of the Greek world, rather than fighting it from the sidelines.

Much to everyone's surprise the Macabees surprise attacks on the Greek soldiers in the mountains succeeded - in the Baccah valley, just north of Jerusalem, an entire squadron of Selucid soldiers were ambushed just after dawn by what appeared to have been an overwhelmingly superior force of Maccabean rebels. Only a handful of the Selucids managed to escape the slaughter and tell a story of hundreds of men swarming down the steep sides of the valley to seal both the entrance and exit before encircling the Greek soldiers and massacring them practically to a man. Again and again whole squadrons of Greek soldiers were killed, a vital loss to Antiochus' forces.

For the Macabees, everything was going according to plan. They were hitting the Syrians hard and often. They were attacking their convoys, their supply lines and their troop movements. They would lie in ambush, go in by night, plan carefully and meticulously and commit every move to G-d, who watched over them. They fought for Him and the honour of His name. Soon their intelligence reports began to show that the enemy were becoming demoralised with the constant wearing down and relentless guerrilla warfare. The Macabees remained confident that they would endure and that they would win.

The Syrian High Command knew that one of the key factors in successfully holding on to occupied territories such as Israel was to immediately subdue any attempt by the local population to resume control of their own affairs or to show any signs of rebellion. There was surprise that Antiochus Epiphanes and his generals had let it go as far as it had; the Selucids were already in significant danger of losing the battle, if not the whole war, at the rate things were going.

In Damascus the Syrian Chiefs of Staff met for several days to consider how best to finally put an end to the Jewish uprising. Antiochus Epiphanes himself attended several of the sessions and insisted that every available resource must be thrown into this endeavour as his personal credibility was at stake. This was serious: there was talk of deploying the war elephants and mobilising every soldier who was able to fight from the whole Damascus area; they began calling up the reserves and canceled all home leave.

There began to be rumours that one of Antiochus Epiphanes sons might be planning to overthrow his father and take control of the country while all the military were occupied with the fighting. It was true that in recent years he had not been popular with the people and this looked like being a critical moment for him and his administration.

It seemed impossible, but only three years after the first uprising in Modi'in the Maccabees managed to free the whole of Judea from the Selucid authority. Their leader, Judah Maccabee, was crushed as he killed the war elephant carrying Antiochus Epiphanes himself in the last major battle on the plains of Samaria. Simon, his brother, took control of the Macabeean troops and continued the struggle, while Antiochus returned to Damascus to find that his son had indeed taken his place and Antiochus was assassinated before being able to regain control. The new Selucid government had little enthusiasm for this war and sent one of their senior negotiators to sue for peace with the Maccabeean leaders.

At last the victorious Maccabees entered the eternal city of Jerusalem just as Judah Maccabee himself said they would, to cleanse it from the idolatry and pagan gods of the Syrian occupiers. As they went in through the gates of the city there was shouting and rejoicing as the Jews in the city gave praise to G-d for their release and freedom from the years of persecution. Torah could once again be studied and the daily sacrifices could be made at the Temple to fulfill the commandments of the G-d of Israel.

Together with the Priestly families, the Macabees began to clean the Holy Temple, removing the statue of Zeus that the idolaters had stood in the Holy Place, cleaning and re-dedicating the altar and the Holy Place, ready to resume the sacrifices commanded of the people of Isra'el by Moshe in the Torah. Although much damage had been done, the Temple was structurally sound. The only difficulty was that they couldn't start the sacrifices without lighting the Menorah which stood in the Holy Place. It was supposed to burn all through the night, and the Ner Tamid (the Eternal Light), which was the westernmost lamp on the Menorah, closest to the Holy of Holies, burnt all day and all night and never went out. Although there was plenty of oil to be found in Jerusalem, none of the sealed flasks of pure olive oil, bearing the High Priests seal, were to be found intact - the Greeks had stolen or shattered them all - and the Menorah could not be lit with anything but the purest oil, approved by the High Priest.

Unwilling to be beaten when they had already done so much, the Macabees searched everywhere and at last found one unbroken flask, with its seal still intact, right in a corner amongst the smashed flasks. But only one. One flask contained enough oil to burn for one day and it would take eight days to press enough olives for another batch - the oil needed to be pure; for the oil which was to be used in the menorah, only the very first drop of oil from an uncrushed olive was used. A Levite would squeeze an olive by hand until a single drop of liquid was produced and the rest of the olive was then processed commercially. Those drops were collected and allowed to settle; the separated oil was very clear and pure and it was called the first pressing for the L-rd. But with only one drop coming from each olive, it took a lot of olives and a lot of time to produce enough oil to light the Menorah.

If they lit the Menorah now, with the oil from this one flask they had found, the Menorah would go out long before the new oil was ready. A debate ensued, half saying that they should wait to light the Menorah and start the sacrifices until they had enough oil to keep the Menorah burning; the other half said that they should light the Menorah and sacrifice that day, since the L-rd had given Jerusalem into their hands.

At last it was decided - they felt that it would be wrong to delay offering the sacrifices, peace and thank offerings to G-d now that He had given Jerusalem into their hands, so they lit the Menorah and made the sacrifices as the Torah commands.

At the end of the day, when the lamps in the Menorah should have gone out, the oil all burnt up, they were still burning! This was quite extraordinary - all the lamps still burning, and full of oil after twenty-four hours. With just that small amount of oil and no re-filling, they should have either burnt out or been almost empty. For seven more days the miracle continued and the Menorah still burned. Then, on the morning of the ninth day, the lamps began to dim and the oil ran out just as the new oil, prepared and approved by the High Priest, was ready to be used.

All through the city people celebrated the double miracle: that the tiny Maccabeean army had been able to expel the Greek/Syrian army of the Selucids and that the tiny cruise of oil burnt for eight days. People danced in the streets, sharing meals in each other's homes, singing and worshiping in the Temple - celebrating that the light of G-d had returned to Israel and in such a miraculous way. The Yeshivahs in the city were re-opening, Torah classes were starting in every synagogue and the Rabbis declared that Hanukkah should be celebrated every year to remember that a great miracle happened there.

Hanukkah - perhaps the greatest miracle the world has ever known ... and again, perhaps not.

In Nazareth, a small town in the Galillean hills, a young Jewish girl called Miryam had a strange visitation from an angel, some 150 years after the miracles of Hanukkah.

As Miryam polished the family Menorah and prepared food for the feast, the room filled with light. In the light there appeared a man - he said that his name was Gabriel and that he was an angel. He said that he had brought her a message; he said that she was going to have a baby - a baby boy - and that she was to call Him Yeshua - in Hebrew that is; Jesus in Greek. How exciting to have a baby, and to start now, on the Feast of Dedication as she and her people celebrated G-d visiting them, His people, the great victory won against impossible odds and, of course, how the Menorah burned for eight days by the miracle of the oil. The light of G-d that came into the world. And her baby was to be called Yeshua, which means "salvation" ...

Copyright JP & N. Allen - MET

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