The US-Hanukkah-Israel connection
By Yoram Ettinger, ISRAEL HAYOM
The legacy of Hanukkah has been an integral element of the American ethos; a cornerstone in the foundation of the covenant — established by the Pilgrims in the 17th century — between the American people and the vision of the reconstructed Jewish state in the land of Israel.
“Where are today’s Maccabees?” was the December 2013 title of an article by Ambassador Hank Cooper, former director of the Pentagon’s Strategic Defense Initiative: “All Americans should remember our common love of liberty, the heritage that has set the West apart. … We need modern Maccabees to preserve that heritage of liberty for our posterity.” Cooper highlighted the impact of the Hanukkah/Maccabee spirit on the Founding Fathers, such as George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and Patrick Henry.
The former SDI director referred to the heritage of the 167 B.C.E. Jewish rebellion led by the Hasmonean (Maccabee) family against the Seleucid/Greek Emperor Antiochus (IV) Epiphanies, who was determined to ruthlessly uproot Judaism and replace it with Hellenic values. In 169 B.C.E., he devastated Jerusalem, massacred the Jews, forbade the practice of Judaism, including the Sabbath and circumcision. The heroic battles conducted by the Maccabees were consistent with the reputation of Jews as superb warriors, who were frequently hired as mercenaries by Egypt, Syria, Rome and other global and regional powers.
On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry delivered the “Give me liberty, or give me death” speech, reflecting the spirit of the Maccabean rebellion against the oppressive Seleucid/Greek Empire:
“I consider [the rebellion against Britain] as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery…We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne. … If we wish to be free … we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left for us. … Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs? We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three million people, armed in the holy cause of liberty are invincible. … We shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations. … There is no retreat but in submission and slavery. … As for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
“Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God” was proposed by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin to be inscribed on the official U.S. Seal, reflecting the legacy of the Maccabees: A tiny minority of rebels — condemned by the loyalist majority — rising against an oppressive superpower. The Maccabees and the Founding Fathers demonstrated the victory of the few over the many, right over wrong, moral over immoral, truth over lies, faith over cynicism and opportunism, long-term conviction over short-term convenience. Paul Revere’s nickname was the “modern day Maccabee.”
Israel’s Founding Father, David Ben-Gurion, was also inspired the Hanukkah legacy, as documented in his book, “Uniqueness and Destiny” (pp. 20-22):
“The struggle of the Maccabees was one of the most dramatic clashes of civilizations in human history, not merely a political-military struggle against foreign oppression. … The meager Jewish people did not assimilate, as did many peoples. The Jewish people prevailed, won, sustained and enhanced their independence and unique civilization. … The Hasmoneans [Maccabees] overcame one of the most magnificent spiritual, political and military challenges in Jewish history due to the spirit of the people, rather than the failed spirit of the establishment.”
In 2014, the U.S.-Hanukkah connection is also demonstrated by the bust of Judah the Maccabee, which is displayed in West Point Military Academy’s Taylor Hall headquarters building along with the busts of Joshua, David, Alexander the Great, Hector, Julius Caesar, King Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon — “the Nine Worthies.” The busts of these nine great, principle-driven warriors are placed over the table of West Point’s Academic Board, which sets the curriculum and budget for the U.S. military academy.
The official motto of the U.S., “In God we trust” — which has overcome multiple lawsuits — is similar to the Maccabees’ battle cry, which adopted Moses’ battle cry against the builders of the Golden Calf: “Whoever trusts God, join me!”
Unlike Passover and Purim, Chanukah commemorates a national Jewish liberation holiday and a series of battles, which took place in the land of Israel, mostly in the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, the home court of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Therefore, Shimon the Maccabee — who succeeded his brothers, Judah and Yonatan — defied an ultimatum by the Syrian emperor, Antiochus (Book of Maccabees A, Chapter 15, verse 33), who demanded an end to the “occupation” of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Gaza, Gezer and Akron: “We have not occupied a foreign land; we have not ruled a foreign land; we have liberated the land of our forefathers from foreign occupation.”
Shimon the Maccabee’s statement is as valid in 2014 as it was in 143 B.C.E., with the Jewish state facing — once again — global pressure to withdraw from its own cradle of history. The moral high ground requires Israel and her allies to align themselves with the Hanukkah legacy, the 17th century Pilgrims, the U.S. and Israeli Founding Fathers and other patriots of liberty against rogue regimes and agents of appeasement, oversimplification and wishful thinking.
Max Said:
Glad you’re back Max and that time has not mellowed you.
Today an Islamic Terrorist holds Australians hostage inside a cafe. Despite the terrorist forcing the hostages to hold up an Islamic declaration, the Australian PM says he really can’t say if this is an “act of terrorism”.
Liberty or death? Western leaders are too afraid of Muslims to even call one a terrorist when he is committing a terrorist act on camera, on the news , in the here and now!.
The Islamists seem to be more willing to fight for their cause than we are for our cappuccinos – we are the weak.
No wonder converts are flocking to radical Islam. Our civilization and it’s riches are ripe for the picking and no one is guarding the gate.
Forget about the Hanukkah legacy, the West can’t even measure up to the resilience of a boy scout troop.
So how can you trust that knowledge?
You can’t have it both ways.
If you cannot trust RCC when it relates things you disagree with or DON’T like
— then you cannot rely on it when it relates things you DO like.
A suspect witness is suspect in ALL matters.
Rabbonim? — suppress history???
Fancy that. . . .
honeybee Said:
For it’s time Jewish theocracy was anything but repressive toward women. It should never be compared to accepted liberal concepts of today.
HANNAH AND HER SEVEN SONS
Another version
Ted Belman Said:
Is a repressive theocracy freedom ??????????? From a woman’s point of view ????
@ Ted Belman:
Not for narrow political freedom although that resulted to a degree but for religious freedom and there is a difference of context.
I suggest you study the subject and compare with today there are remarkable similarities. Most of what we know comes from the catholic Church who preserved and cannonized the books of the Maccabees, the Jews didn’t most because of the long bloody civil war. They wanted that part of our history buried.
@ honeybee:
Yes! There are only two Biblical mandates for political governance of the Jewish people in their own land. Monarchy and theocracy…. Judaism and democracy are at polar extremes. A system that worked for us for over a thousand years should not be discounted out of hand.
The long and bloody civil war went on for years after the Greeks were defeated. The civil war was so bloody that the Rabbis wanted to blot it out of our history and invented the miracle of the oil to put a religious face to that bloody debacle. Historians surmise and some believe that the assimilated Hellenist Jews were the ones who prompted the Greek king to impose such harsh anti Jewish decrees that forced the rebellion and led to the civil war.
@ honeybee:
Latkes and doughnuts can stay!!! 🙂
Either way you look at it, it is still a fight for freedom.
yamit82 Said:
Does that include Latkas?????????? If so, count me out, yamit82.
@ yamit82:
Hanukah has revised to fit an Amer. Liberal Jewish narrative. It was not a fight against toltarianism. It was a fight to remove a foreign influence and restore a theocracy.
Revisionist history. The Maccabees Revolt was not primarily a revolt for political independence but for religious freedom to practice traditional Judaism.
Two wars thus ensued the one against the Greek Syrian empire and the civil war against the Jews who had assimilated into Hellenistic culture.
The civil war was a bloodbath lasting some 23 years.
In the end the traditional Jewish zealots of that time prevailed. They preserved Judaism, preserved the Jewish people, for if they had lost both would have disappeared and the course of history changed.
There would today besides being no Jews, no christians or Muslims either.
DOWN WITH HANUKAH