In those days, and today as well
Jewish sources do not look charitably upon the incident that took place 2,180 years ago in Modi'in, the one that prompted local high priest Mattathias to cry out, "Who is on God's side? Let him come to me," dragging the nation into a bloody war that lasted for decades. The legacy of that war was later adorned with legends about miracles, but its achievement in reality was to re-establish Jewish independence.
Those who researched and studied these acts learned lessons from them, but never managed to agree: Was this revolt religious or political in nature? Or was it motivated by religious nationalism? The revolutionaries were religious zealots who fought off the enemy unlike their ultra-Orthodox kin who forbade the nation from taking its fate into its own hands.
There are many such legends about determination. Take Hannah and her seven sons. That story has parallels in the modern era, like Rivka Gover, known as the "Mother of Sons," who within a short time lost her two sons on the front lines of the War of Independence. It also says something about political wisdom. Judah the Maccabee sought an alliance with Rome behind the Greeks' back, an approach Israel has continually taken to offset its enemies forging ties with Turkey and Iran in the 1950s and '60s, and with nearby countries scattered west of the Bosporus and deep in Africa in 2011.
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The dramatic revolt of the Hasmoneans has always been a guiding light for Zionist miracles. Its modern incarnation can be seen in the revolt against an anti-Semitic world and the passivity of the ultra-Orthodox awaiting the messiah. One of Zionism's key components is the secular vision expressed in the Hanukkah song "We Carry Torches," and its verse "No miracle happened to us/We found no jug of oil."
However, that revolt was corrupted by civil war and the persecution of the "good life," and was marked by the renunciation of our unique heritage in favor of imitating virtues of the "other." It was tarnished by internal hostilities something that is always detrimental to the Jews. When they bring the outside world into their battles, as Aristobulus did in 63 BC, they relinquish their sovereignty and independence to foreigners.
Do the Jews of 2011 understand this? Does the shocking attack that recently took place at the Ephraim Division army base attest to that? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz lit the first Hanukkah candle in a ceremony at that very same base. In a sign of goodwill, minister without portfolio, Benny Begin, and Yesha Council head Danny Dayan reached a compromise on the Ramat Gilad outpost. Do these acts signal that the Jews have finally understood the commandment of their warrior forefather Menachem Begin, who commanded, "There will be no war between brothers!" It is too soon to tell. But hope has been kindled. In those days, and at this time as well.
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