On Saturday night, the Jewish people will start commemorating Chanukah, commonly known the Festival of Lights. For the next eight nights, we will light the Menorah (what we refer to as the chanukiah), where each branch represents a singular night where the oil miraculously burned after the Maccabees rededicated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. While Chanukah is a minor Jewish holiday compared to the holy festivals of Sukkos, Pesach, and Shavuos, it represents an important moment in our history and it embodies the Jewish people’s soul.
The story begins in Judea, the Jewish people’s indigenous homeland where Israel and the disputed territories currently exist. Prior to the Maccabean Revolt, there were two Hellenistic empires in the Levant: The Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Seleucid Empire. At one point, they were united under Alexander the Great of Macedon. Following his death over 100 years prior, a leadership dispute resulted in competing political and military alliances that resulted in the two Greek kingdoms splitting control over land. In 198 BCE, Antiochus III of the Selecuid Empire defeated the Ptolemies, gaining control of Judea. Initially, Antiochus III promised the Jewish people that they would be allowed to live under the laws of the Torah instead of the Hellenized laws he imposed in his other territories.
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