A candle is a brief flare of light. A wick dipped in oil burns and then goes out again. The light of Chanukah appears no different. Briefly there is light and warmth and then darkness again.
Out of the exile of Babylon, the handful that returned to resettle and rebuild the land faced the might of new empires. The Jews who returned from the exile of one evil empire some twenty-six hundred years ago were forced to decide whether they would be a people with their own faith and history, or the colony of another empire, with its history and beliefs.
Jerusalem’s wealthy elites threw in their lot with the empire and its ways. But out in the rural heartland where the old ways where still kept, a spark flared to life. Modi’in. Maccabee.
And so war came between the handfuls of Jewish resistance fighters from a small town in the hinterlands and the Hellenized elites of the big city, between those who wished to be Jews and those who wanted to be pawns in an empire, between the tradition of the priests and the progress of a new order, between the Maccabees and the armies of Antiochus IV’s Selecuid empire. A war that had its echoes in the past and would have it again in the future as lightly armed and untrained armies of Jewish soldiers would go on to fight in those same hills and valleys against the Romans and eventually the armies of six Arab nations.
The Syrian Greek armies were among the best of their day. The Maccabees were living in the backwaters of Israel, a nation that had not been independently ruled since the armies of Babylon had flooded across the land, destroying everything in their path.
Individualist/Writer/Blogger/Historian/Sometime pain in the ass. Unapologetic Lover of the Founders, America, the South, our Constitution. Proud descendant of numerous American and Confederate veterans. And yes, massive Gator fan.
No patience for cancel culture, and the Marxists who hide behind it.
Lover of good beer, good BBQ, and yes beautiful women.
Individualist/Writer/Blogger/Historian/Sometime pain in the ass. Unapologetic Lover of the Founders, America, the South, our Constitution. Proud descendant of numerous American and Confederate veterans. And yes, massive Gator fan.
No patience for cancel culture, and the Marxists who hide behind it.
Lover of good beer, good BBQ, and yes beautiful women.
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