How Hanukkah Was Hijacked—and Why It Matters
After the Maccabees won their war against the Syrian-Greeks and the Hellenists, the Hasmonean dynasty they founded eventually collapsed into a corrupt, expansionist regime—a historical warning for certain countries today.
Centuries ago, the Sages foresaw this danger. When they codified Chanukah, they ignored the military narrative, purging battlefield glory from our liturgy. They demanded we look away from the sword and focus on two spiritual events:
1. The Miracle of the Oil
2. The Rededication of the Temple.
In the Talmudic record (Shabbat 21b) and the Chanukah blessings and prayers, military triumph is conspicuously absent. Even when salvation is mentioned, it is only in the context of freedom to practice Torah, mitzvot and Temple worship. Never national liberation for liberation’s sake.
While modern nations—including those perpetrating atrocities—glorify physical might, authentic Rabbinic Judaism rejected that definition.
Our Sages redefined gevurah (power, might) not as the ability to crush an enemy, but as the internal strength to impose moral constraints, and uphold the sanctity of life.
As Avot DeRabbi Natan 23 asks and answers:
“Who is the mightiest of the mighty? One who turns an enemy into a friend.”
Dismantling a 2,000-year-old tradition
However, in the past century, that tradition of restraint has been systematically dismantled.
The popular Hanukkah song Mi Yemalel, sung by millions of Israeli children, serves as a prime example of this secular-nationalist takeover.
The song praises the “mighty Maccabee” as the sole source of salvation, conspicuously omitting any reference to God, Torah, or divine miracles.
The Linguistic Subversion
It goes further, weaponizing sacred scripture to engineer a “new Jew” Zionist identity through two radical rewrites:
1. Replacing God with the nation:
Instead of Psalm 106:2, which states:
מִי יְמַלֵּל גְּבוּרוֹת יְ-הוָה
“Who can retell the mighty acts of Adonai,”
the author, Menashe Ravina, changed it to:
מִי יְמַלֵּל גְּבוּרוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל
“Who can retell the mighty acts of Israel.”
2. Subverting the Hanukkah liturgy:
The phrase בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בַּזְּמַן הַזֶּה—“In those days, and in our time”—featuring prominently in the candle blessings and Al HaNisim prayer, serves as a liturgical device to thank God for divine deliverance.
Yet in the song it is stripped of its spiritual meaning, and subverted to glorify military victory:
שְׁמַע! בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בַּזְּמַן הַזֶּה, מַכַּבִּי מוֹשִׁיעַ וּפוֹדֶה
“Hear! In those days and in our time, A Maccabee to rescue us arrives.”
The Moral Cost
This isn’t just a lyrical shift of emphasis. It is symptomatic of a society that has replaced the traditional gevurah, the strength to restrain ourselves, with the worshipping of military might and national power.
Today, as we see nations—including our own—glorifying military might while perpetrating mass destruction, we must decide which path we follow: the wisdom of the Sages or the altar of destructive ethno-nationalism.
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