Hanukkah

<v Speaker>[Hebrew prayer] <v Speaker>Praised Art Thou, o lord, our God, king of the universe, who has sanctified <v Speaker>us by thy commandments and bidden us to kindle the Hanukkah lights. <v Speaker>A family lights the first candle in the menorah, the traditional Jewish <v Speaker>lamp. Begins the Hanukkah service. <v Speaker>A joyous holiday that has been celebrated by Jews for over two thousand years. <v Speaker>Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, the festival of the rededication of the Jewish Temple, <v Speaker>celebrated every year in December, Hanukkah recalls the bravery, tenacity and historical <v Speaker>circumstance. Some call it miracle that permitted the ancient Israelites <v Speaker>over two thousand years ago to preserve their freedom.

<v Speaker>And with it, the spiritual source from which Judaism draws its meaning. <v Speaker>The fight for freedom that Hanukkah recalls is not unlike that of our own American <v Speaker>Revolution. In both cases, patriots rose up to overcome <v Speaker>overwhelming odds in defense of their freedom. <v Speaker>Though celebrated by a tiny minority of the world's population, Hanukkah <v Speaker>has universal implications or any people whose love for freedom <v Speaker>makes it necessary to turn from the path of least resistance. <v Speaker>[Hebrew prayer] <v Speaker>Praised Art thou Lord our God, king of the universe, who did wondrous things <v Speaker>for our fathers at this season in those days. <v Speaker>In every generation, the Jewish people have fought to maintain their cracky <v Speaker>independence. That's remarkable tenacity has afforded them a unique role

<v Speaker>in history. Sometimes the fight has been successful. <v Speaker>More often, the light of freedom has been dimmed and forced to burn in impatient <v Speaker>obeyance. <v Speaker>Hanukkah, the Festival of Rededication is a joyous holiday <v Speaker>because this time the freedom lost was retaken due to the audacity of <v Speaker>a few hardy Jews clinging to their already ancient heritage <v Speaker>in this crucible of history, Israel. <v Speaker>Israel has been variously designated Palestine or Judea, <v Speaker>but it is always figured in the minds of the makers of history <v Speaker>located at the crossroads of three continents. <v Speaker>Israel has endured vast armies sweeping back and forth across her, pursuing <v Speaker>endless dreams of world dominion. <v Speaker>And it happened after that Alexander, son of Philip the Macedonian, <v Speaker>had smitten Derrius King of the Persians and meads that he reigned

<v Speaker>in his stead. The first over Greece and made many <v Speaker>war and won many strongholds and slew the kings of the <v Speaker>earth and took spoils of many nations in so much that the <v Speaker>earth was quiet before him. <v Speaker>Whereupon he was exalted, and his heart was lifted up. <v Speaker>And he gathered a mighty strong host and ruled over countries and nations and <v Speaker>kings who became tributaries unto him. <v Speaker>Few came closer to realizing a world empire than the Macedonian. <v Speaker>Alexander the Great. <v Speaker>His realms reached from India to Egypt, absorbing and enriching <v Speaker>the greatest civilizations of the Western world. <v Speaker>Alexander was more than a Macedonian Mongol ignorant of the import of his <v Speaker>conquests. <v Speaker>He was a student of Aristotle and saw a civilizing his vassal lands <v Speaker>as a sacred duty.

<v Speaker>But the Jew, so often subjugated politically, has never allowed <v Speaker>his mind and his view of the universe to be legislated by imperial <v Speaker>decree. Alexander conquered the world. <v Speaker>When Alexander's heirs attempted to alter the Jews ancient division, <v Speaker>they struck the nerve center of Judaism. <v Speaker>So Alexander reigned 12 year and then died <v Speaker>and his servants ruled everyone in his place. <v Speaker>And after his death, they all put the crowns upon themselves. <v Speaker>So did their sons after their many years and evils were multiplied <v Speaker>in the earth. And there came out of them a wicked root Antiochus <v Speaker>surnamed Epiphanes. <v Speaker>And he reigned in the one hundred and thirty and seventh year of the Kingdom of the <v Speaker>Greeks. <v Speaker>Israel was situated midpoint between the two mightiest empires of Alexander's <v Speaker>apportioned realm, Egypt bordered her to the south

<v Speaker>and Syria ruled her from the north. <v Speaker>When Antiochus ascended the Syrian throne in 175 B.C. <v Speaker>he set out to strengthen his hold on strategic Israel. <v Speaker>The first step would be to standardize all culture and religion throughout <v Speaker>the empire. <v Speaker>Antiochus outlawed all Jewish customs and traditions. <v Speaker>The statue of Zeus was placed on the temple altar. <v Speaker>Syrian soldiers enforced the edict in village after village. <v Speaker>Those who refused fled to the hills or died. <v Speaker>Whereupon the city was made and habitation of strangers <v Speaker>and became strange to those that were born in her and her own <v Speaker>children left her. <v Speaker>Her sanctuary was laid waste like a wilderness, for feasts

<v Speaker>were turned into mourning, her Sabbath into reproach, <v Speaker>her honor into contempt, as had been her glory. <v Speaker>So was her dishonor in priest. <v Speaker>And her highest state was turned into mourning and <v Speaker>tired, had assumed that the Jews would abandon their faith and <v Speaker>past as readily as all other peoples under Syrian source. <v Speaker>It would be, after all, so simple to succumb. <v Speaker>Mel carped the sacred duty of Concord Tire on the scene <v Speaker>was now conveniently identified as the Greek god, Heraklion. <v Speaker>Ancient ascalon. Now a Syrian province erased generations <v Speaker>of worship to her as stati as she became Aphrodite. <v Speaker>It would not be so difficult for these stubborn Jews with their peculiar idea <v Speaker>of one God to call upon Zus as their master.

<v Speaker>But then Tiresias had not reckoned on that strange devotion to truth and freedom that has <v Speaker>been the watchword of the Hebrews. <v Speaker>The Jews were never a mighty nation, rich with art and swelling with armies, but as art <v Speaker>decayed and legions changed allegiance, truth remained unaltered, as did the <v Speaker>Jews devotion to it. <v Speaker>But that attack is threatening to destroy their freedom of thought. <v Speaker>He aroused the Jews deepest sense of justice and religious destiny. <v Speaker>This was something the Syrian had not foreseen. <v Speaker>It is one of the quirks of history. <v Speaker>Call it miracle that Judaism has survived much stronger death <v Speaker>blows than entire caucus could muster. <v Speaker>The Jew has been driven from Asia to Africa to Europe and <v Speaker>back again. <v Speaker>And I hope that he would intermingle with all the other nations of the Earth and so <v Speaker>disappear the you survive diaspora, an exile to Babylon. <v Speaker>He survived dark ages consigned to inbreed and ghettos.

<v Speaker>He emerged horribly scarred, but still alive <v Speaker>from the ovens of the Third Reich. <v Speaker>Jews have never been noted for cathedrals or works of art designed to endure <v Speaker>for centuries. The Jews knew from experience. <v Speaker>At their temples and homes would be destroyed and they would be driven from <v Speaker>sight of even the rubble. <v Speaker>The Jew has always had to carry his faith in his heart and pass <v Speaker>along the ancient wisdom through prayer and prayer books. <v Speaker>Perhaps the Jews continuing exile from continent to <v Speaker>continent has bred within them their love of knowledge and freedom. <v Speaker>The knowledge can be carried into the farthest exile. <v Speaker>And freedom is never taken for granted. <v Speaker>[Hebrew prayer] <v Speaker>Praised Art Thou, o lord, our God, king of the universe, who has granted us

<v Speaker>life, sustained us and permitted us to celebrate this joyous <v Speaker>festival. <v Speaker>Israel today stands as a symbol of the Jews miraculous endurance <v Speaker>and as a citadel, the wonderings you can rest a bit before beginning, <v Speaker>perhaps another journey the Jews journey through. <v Speaker>History has always been one of difficult decision in the time <v Speaker>of Antiochus. <v Speaker>Many Jews sought to appease their Syrian overlords. <v Speaker>They adopted the fashionable Greek customs and prepared to blend <v Speaker>comfortably into the Syrian empire. <v Speaker>With this assimilation will come economic advantages, plus an opportunity to abandon the <v Speaker>troublesome demands that maintaining a Jewish identity presented. <v Speaker>In those days. <v Speaker>Went there out of Israel, wicked men who dissuaded many saying,

<v Speaker>let us go and make a covenant with the heathen that around about us, <v Speaker>since we departed from them, we have had much sorrow, whereupon <v Speaker>they forsook the holy covenant and joined themselves to the heathen <v Speaker>and sold themselves to do mischief. <v Speaker>This was the process through which countless now nameless nations have dissolved. <v Speaker>More or more Jews adopted the Greek customs and civilization that the Syrians spread <v Speaker>by sword. More and more other ways of the fathers were forgotten. <v Speaker>Those willing to submit remained in the cities, but Jewish fugitives <v Speaker>began organizing guerilla bands in the hills. <v Speaker>At the nucleus was the family of Matthias. <v Speaker>Rebels gathered throughout Judea around Matthias until the Jews had formed <v Speaker>a swift army in the field. <v Speaker>And then came under him, a company of mighty men of Israel.

<v Speaker>Even all such has offered themselves willingly for the law. <v Speaker>Also, all they fled for persecution, joined themselves and to them, <v Speaker>and were a stay on to them. <v Speaker>So they joined their forces and smote sinful men in their anger and wicked <v Speaker>men and their wrath. <v Speaker>Then Matthias and his friends went round about and pulled down the altars <v Speaker>they pursued also after the proud men and the work prospered <v Speaker>in their hands, so they recovered the law out of the hand of kings. <v Speaker>Neither suffered they the sinner to triumph. <v Speaker>Mega-fires, it seemed that the coin had only two sides to submit <v Speaker>or fight for him. <v Speaker>The choice was clear he had struck the first blow in a battle that was to become <v Speaker>one of the miracles of history. <v Speaker>Now, when the time drew near that matter, Matthias should die, <v Speaker>he said unto his son.

<v Speaker>Thou hath pride and rebuke gotten strength and the time <v Speaker>of destruction and the wrath of indignation. <v Speaker>Now, therefore, my sons, these help us follow <v Speaker>the law and give your lives for the covenant of your fathers. <v Speaker>Be valiant and show yourselves men in the behalf <v Speaker>of the law whereby it shall ye obtain glory. <v Speaker>As for Judah Maccabee, he had been mighty and strong, <v Speaker>even from his youth. <v Speaker>Let him be your captain and fight the battle <v Speaker>of the people. <v Speaker>Judah Maccabee. <v Speaker>Juda the hammer. <v Speaker>Was the greatest military hero the Jews have ever known. <v Speaker>In the year 1 67 B.C., he became the general of the Jewish Army and continued <v Speaker>the work his father metathesis had begun.

<v Speaker>And all his brethren helped him. <v Speaker>And so did all they that held with his father. <v Speaker>And they fought with cheerfulness. The Battle of Israel. <v Speaker>So he got his people great honor and put on a breastplate as a giant and <v Speaker>gurt, his warlike hardness about him. <v Speaker>And he made battles protecting the host with his sword <v Speaker>in his acts. He was like a lion. <v Speaker>I'd like a lion's whelp roaring for his prey. <v Speaker>But the Syrians heir to the might of Macedonia <v Speaker>gathered their armies and marched through the desert. <v Speaker>The first Syrian force that Judah Maccabee met was led by apollonius <v Speaker>military governor of the province of Samaria. <v Speaker>Desert skirmishes and midnight raids were one thing, but was this <v Speaker>rag tale army of idealistic Jews equal to a pitched battle?

<v Speaker>The army's met. <v Speaker>The Judah's band overcame the Syrians. <v Speaker>Juda killed Apollonius, general of the Sumerians and took his sword and used <v Speaker>it thereafter. <v Speaker>After Apollonius came Ceara, another general <v Speaker>with a larger force. <v Speaker>Judah Maccabee, moving swiftly with his army, surprised him at Beth Huron, <v Speaker>north of Jerusalem. <v Speaker>The armies met. <v Speaker>And Judas band overcame the Syrians.

<v Speaker>Such ready victories by a fledgling army seem unlikely. <v Speaker>But Judah's small band benefited from the dictates of history. <v Speaker>Rome, a growing force in the Mediterranean, was even then seeking world mastery. <v Speaker>There are many indications that Rome found it advantageous to weaken Syria by <v Speaker>secretly supplying the Maccabees with arms and military advisers. <v Speaker>When news of these defeats reached Antiochus, he was enraged <v Speaker>and he called up two huge armies <v Speaker>and sent them south to destroy the rebels. <v Speaker>Judah Maccabee knew that his small band would be overwhelmed by a direct confrontation <v Speaker>with this huge enemy force.

<v Speaker>Swiftly, Juda mobilized his men, Judah <v Speaker>was fighting for the land he had explored as a child. <v Speaker>He knew every twisted path of hilly Judea. <v Speaker>Swiftly and silently, Judah's small mobile force moved toward their approaching enemy <v Speaker>along these familiar paths. <v Speaker>Judah Maccabee, ranging ahead saw from afar the <v Speaker>armies of his enemy. <v Speaker>They covered the horizon. <v Speaker>And as the Syrian legions with elephants dragging the war machines of a war <v Speaker>making nation blinded the desert with clouds of dust, <v Speaker>Judah Maccabee turned to the God of his fathers. <v Speaker>Blessed art thou o savior of Israel, who didst quell <v Speaker>the violence of the mighty man by the hand of thy servant David, <v Speaker>and gave us the host of strangers into the hands of Jonathan, the son

<v Speaker>of Saul and his armor bearer. <v Speaker>Shut up this army and the hand of thy people Israel, <v Speaker>and let them be confounded in their power and Horsemen <v Speaker>make them to be of no courage, and cause the boldness <v Speaker>of their strength to fall away and let them quake <v Speaker>at the destruction. Cast them down with the sword of them that <v Speaker>love thee. And let all those that know thy name. <v Speaker>Praise thee with Thanksgiving. <v Speaker>Judah looked up, and suddenly his strategist's mind saw what he had <v Speaker>been waiting for a division in the enemy's forces. <v Speaker>Judah's men swept forward into the breach and fell upon their enemies. <v Speaker>They attacked one legion of the divided Syrian hosts.

<v Speaker>Cut off from reinforcements to Syrians from. <v Speaker>They were put to flight and the armies of the oppressor were reduced. <v Speaker>And in term, Juda attacked the other leaders of the divided Syrian hosts. <v Speaker>Their numbers diminish. <v Speaker>They're huge. Elephants use this the closest, but again, Syria. <v Speaker>And they were put to flight and the armies of the plus.

<v Speaker>The field was quiet. <v Speaker>Judah Maccabee and his tiny band of stubborn Jews had defeated the legions <v Speaker>of an empire. <v Speaker>And Juda set out to recapture the holy city, Jerusalem. <v Speaker>If a miracle may be defined as a fortunate coincidence <v Speaker>and truly Hannukah may be said to commemorate a miracle. <v Speaker>Three defeats notwithstanding, the angry Syrian force was so mighty that they surely <v Speaker>would have crushed Judah's upstart army in the next encounter. <v Speaker>But history here seems to have been written for the Jews, just <v Speaker>as Antiochus was readying a huge army to crush the rebels. <v Speaker>He was compelled to divert a huge expedition to Partha in an <v Speaker>executive attempt to manage his far flung empire.

<v Speaker>Behold. Our enemies are just comforted. <v Speaker>Let us go to plans and dedicate the sanctuary and unopposed, <v Speaker>Judah Maccabee marched into Jerusalem. <v Speaker>Jews entered their beloved city, rejoicing and singing <v Speaker>in their pride. <v Speaker>But as they walk through the familiar streets, their songs still to Septimus, <v Speaker>three years of civil war have left Jerusalem marooned. <v Speaker>Judas friends had long since been exiled or killed by the Syrian. <v Speaker>He looked at their fallen houses that now held only memories <v Speaker>and when they saw the sanctuary desolate. <v Speaker>And they alter profaned and the gates burned up, <v Speaker>shrubs growing in the courts, as in a forest or in one of the mountains, <v Speaker>yei in the priest's chambers pulled down.

<v Speaker>They rent their clothes and made great lamentation and cast ashes <v Speaker>upon their heads and fell down flat to the ground upon their faces <v Speaker>and blew an alarm with trumpets. <v Speaker>Judah's men removed all signs of pagan occupation. <v Speaker>They were particularly infuriated by the stone altars that the Syrian <v Speaker>and their Judean convents had used for sacrifices to the alien <v Speaker>God. <v Speaker>The altars were removed. <v Speaker>The statue of Zeus was removed. <v Speaker>The temple was rebuilt. <v Speaker>A holiday was proclaimed and celebrated on the 25th day <v Speaker>of the Jewish month of Kislev. <v Speaker>The third anniversary of the destruction of the temple. <v Speaker>For eight days, the Maccabees celebrated hummin.

<v Speaker>The festival of dedication. <v Speaker>And so they kept the dedication of the altar eight days and offered burnt offerings with <v Speaker>gladness and sacrifice, the sacrifice of deliverance and praise. <v Speaker>Thus was their very great gladness among the people. <v Speaker>For that, the reproach of the heathen was put away. <v Speaker>Moreover, Judah and his brethren with the whole congregation of Israel ordain <v Speaker>that the days of the dedication of the altar should be kept in their season from year to <v Speaker>year by the space of eight days from the five and twentieth day <v Speaker>of the month. Kislev with mirth and gladness. <v Speaker>Today, Hanukkah is celebrated by Jews everywhere as the festival of Rededication <v Speaker>and Light. <v Speaker>It is a joyous time. <v Speaker>The first night one candle is lit by the Shamash, I help. <v Speaker>The second night, two candles lit and so on for eight nights <v Speaker>until all eight candles blaze in commemoration of the Maccabees, <v Speaker>first triumphant Thomma.

<v Speaker>When the menorah flame was rekindled and the spirit of Judaism <v Speaker>was rededicated. <v Speaker>History seems to have bent over backwards to prevent the Jews to survive. <v Speaker>And the story of Hanukkah is rich with miracles. <v Speaker>The Talmud, the ancient Jewish Book of Wisdom, offers an explanation of why the holiday <v Speaker>is celebrated for eight nights, commencing with <v Speaker>the 25th day of the month. Kislev There are eight days upon which there shall be neither <v Speaker>morning nor fasting. <v Speaker>Or I'll be at the Greek center, the temple and defile. <v Speaker>The oil was when the might of the Jews overcame and vanquished them. <v Speaker>That upon search, a single cruise of undefiled oil sealed <v Speaker>by the high priest was found, and it was oil enough for the needs of a solitary <v Speaker>day. <v Speaker>Then it was that a miracle was rocked. <v Speaker>The oil in the crews burned eight days. <v Speaker>The miracle of the oil is a symbol of the Jews durability.

<v Speaker>The light continued to burn in praise of the God who had granted the Jews life, <v Speaker>sustained them and permitted them to celebrate their joyous festival. <v Speaker>Praised Art Thou, O Lord, our God, king of the universe <v Speaker>for the inspiring truths of which we are reminded by these Hanukkah lights. <v Speaker>We kindle them to recall the great and wonderful D wrought <v Speaker>through the zeal with which God filled the hearts of you, wrote Maccabees. <v Speaker>He sleights. Remind us that we should ever look unto God <v Speaker>comes our help. <v Speaker>As the brightness increases for my tonight, let us more fervently <v Speaker>do praise to God for the ever present help he has been to our fathers. <v Speaker>Gloomy nights and repression and trouble. <v Speaker>The sages and heroes of all generations made every sacrifice <v Speaker>to keep the light of God's truth burning brightly.

<v Speaker>May we and our children be inspired by their example <v Speaker>so that at last Israel may be a guide to all men <v Speaker>on the way of righteousness and peace? <v Speaker>The Maccabees first, Hanukkah did not mean that troubles were at an end. <v Speaker>Judah and his sons continued to fight the Syrians, but a nation's <v Speaker>freedom to keep its faith had been preserved. <v Speaker>There is no better cause for celebration, and Hanukkah is a happy time <v Speaker>when the family gathers together and every member participates in the service. <v Speaker>Hanukkah celebrates important victories, <v Speaker>but to Jewish children, it also means spinning the dreidel. <v Speaker>A four-sided top inscribed with four Hebrew letters <v Speaker>Nun. <v Speaker>Gimel. <v Speaker>Hey.

<v Speaker>Shin. <v Speaker>Their initials spell. <v Speaker>A great miracle. <v Speaker>Happen there. <v Speaker>And for children, Hanukkah means presents. <v Speaker>Each of the eight nights the children of the family are given a present so <v Speaker>that they may echo that ancient joy of faith, vindicated and <v Speaker>prayer answered. <v Speaker>I will lift up mine eyes and to the mountains. <v Speaker>From whence shall my help come? <v Speaker>My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth. <v Speaker>He will not suffer thy foot to be moved he that keepth thee will not slumber. <v Speaker>Behold, he that keepth Israel doth neither <v Speaker>slumber nor sleep. <v Speaker>The Lord is thy keeper. <v Speaker>The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

<v Speaker>The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by <v Speaker>night. <v Speaker>The Lord shall keep thee from all evil. <v Speaker>He shall keep thy soul. <v Speaker>The Lord shall guard thy going out and coming in from this time <v Speaker>forth and forever.