"What is the significance of the eventual Jewish Maccabean victory over Greece? The Ancient Greeks under Alexander the Great (356 BCE-323 BCE) had conquered Judea about 2,300 years ago and prided themselves in their great Greek philosophy. Ancient Greek wisdom tore chunks from the Torah as it has been doing throughout the ages.
The essential Hanukkah miracle, greater even than the miracle of the Temple Menorah or the miracle of 'the weak and the few who overcame the strong and the many' (i.e. the eventual military victory of the Maccabees against the Greeks) was the initiation of a new era of Torah learning and transmission. The rekindling of the Temple Menorah on Hanukkah represents this new era of Torah transmission. The Temple Menorah was located in the southern side of the Temple. For this reason the Talmudic Sages teach: 'He who wishes to pursue wisdom should go south' (Baba Basra 25b); i.e. the acquisition of Torah wisdom is symbolized by the Menorah itself.
We have already mentioned (in previous lectures) that the Hanukkah menorah (called Hanukkia in Hebrew as it has eight candles instead of 7, ed.) is an extension of the Temple Menorah. As we light the menorah on Hanukkah, we say, 'These lights are holy, it is forbidden to make use of them; we are only permitted to gaze on them.' The rule that 'it is forbidden to use the Hanukkah lights', says the RAN (Rabbi Nissim of Gerona, 1290-1376), derives from the laws governing the Temple Menorah.
The Temple Menorah was the flame of Klal Yisrael - the Jewish collective. On Hanukkah, we place the Temple Menorah in the home of each and every Jew to mark the transition from collective Torah to the Torah of the individual.
The Beis Hamikdash (Jewish Temple in Jerusalem) is a sacred precinct. Reshus G'vohah ('higher domain'), sanctified and elevated territory, while the outside world is secular territory. While it is true that all of 'the earth is the Lord's,' Jewish Law defines the world as secular territory. Even if on some level everything in the world is sanctified and belongs to God, halakhically (according to Jewish Law) only the Holy Jewish Temple in Jerusalem is sacred territory.
On Hanukkah when we install the flame of the Temple Menorah in each Jew's home, each Jewish home becomes sacred territory. God said to a dejected Aaron the High Priest (Moses' brother), 'Your portion is greater than theirs' (i.e. greater than the other heads of the Tribes of Israel) because your Menorah will glow forever!
When we say in the Hanukkah prayers: 'You created a great and holy Name in Your world,' means that God's Name is holy not only in the Temple, but also in the home of each Jew. This is accomplished through the annual re-enactment of the Hanukkah miracle. The Temple Menorah has now become the menorah of each individual Jew. As each Jew installs the sacred menorah in his home, its light spreads from there to the world.
The phrase in the Hanukkah prayers: 'You have made for Yourself a great and Holy Name in Your World' refers to the task of each Jew and every Jewish home to serve as an instrument for generating and disseminating sanctity. The collective Torah of Klal Yisrael is now the Torah of the individual through the instrumentality of the Hanukkah Menorah.
From the time of the confrontation with Ancient Greece over 2,300 years ago, until the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem by Ancient Rome about 2,000 years ago, the Jewish People underwent a major transformation. Until this period inspiration came from the Jewish Biblical Prophets, from the multifaceted Jewish Temple, and from the presence of God as a readily apparent force. The Jews were inspired by external experiences.
Beginning with Hanukkah and the confrontation with Ancient Greece, motivation had to come from within each individual Jewish person.
So long as the Jewish Biblical Prophets proclaimed the Divine message of God , so long as the Jewish Temple stood, these institutions upheld the Jewish People. They were the source of instruction, inspiration and motivation. The Anshei Knesses Hagedolah ('Men of the Great Assembly' that lived about 2,500 years ago) and the Sanhedrin (the highest Jewish Court that coexisted with the Jewish Temples at the time the Jewish Temples stood) defined the Jewish People.
Then (after the decline and destruction of the Jewish Temples) a new era dawned. The Temple Menorah, so to speak, was 'installed' in each Jewish home (in miniature) in the form of the Hanukkah menorahs. From then on and into the future until the present, Torah tradition had to be borne aloft by inspired Jewish individuals.
This is how Jewry prepared for 2,000 years of exile following the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple 2,000 years ago by the Romans. Each Jewish home was transformed into a ('miniature') Jewish Temple; like the ancient Maccabees individual Jews demonstrated martyrdom and heroism throughout the ages. Holiness could no longer be obtained from the Jewish Biblical Prophets and the fallen Jewish Temples, now it had to glow from within each individual Jew and each Jewish home wherever they may exist and be found.
Simultaneously on the other hand, the Jewish People had also become equipped with the wherewithal to provide that glow of the Hanukkah lights that represented the glow of Torah."
From "Hidden Lights: Hanukkah and the Jewish/Greek Conflict" (David Dov Publications, 2005, pp. 41-3) by Rabbi Pinchas Stolper (1931-2022) based on a lecture by Rav Yitzchok Hutner (1906-1980) in 1978.
Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin was born to Holocaust survivor parents in Israel, grew up in South Africa, and lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is an alumnus of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and of Teachers College-Columbia University. He heads the Jewish Professionals Institute dedicated to Jewish Adult Education and Outreach - Kiruv Rechokim. He was the Director of the Belzer Chasidim's Sinai Heritage Center of Manhattan 1988-1995, a Trustee of AJOP 1994-1997 and founder of American Friends of South African Jewish Education 1995-2015. From 2017-2024 he was a docent and tour guide at The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Downtown Manhattan, New York.He is the author of The Second World War and Jewish Education in America: The Fall and Rise of Orthodoxy. Contact Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin at izakrudomin@gmail.com