Miracles in Retrospect

Our Chanukah story ends with two miracles.

• The Military Victory over the Greeks
• The discovery of the vial of pure olive oil

Chazal, our Sages, debate which of the two is most important. Both involved, required, "the hand" of G-d. The military victory concerns the "material" and the olive oil is for the "spiritual." Judaism is the synthesis of "kodesh" and "chol," material and spiritual.

Last Shabbat at our weekly Shiur Nashim, Women's Torah Class, the speaker told us that it was the finding of the olive oil, needed for Temple services, prayers and sacrifices in the Beit HaMikdash, which was most vital.

That made me think. Yes, it makes perfect sense, since without the spiritual victory, the military one isn't worth anything.

Yes, even in my lifetime, I've seen proof of it. All of us old enough to remember the tension and fear in May, 1967, before the outbreak of the Six Days War, should know what I'm referring to. Nasser's Egypt leading the other neighboring countries was forcefully and publicly threatening to throw the Jews into the sea. When he demanded that the UN Emergency Force (UNEF), stationed in the Sinai since 1956 as a buffer between Israeli and Egyptian forces after Israel's withdrawal following the Sinai Campaign, leave the area to give him the freedom to attack Israel, it was done. And Israel then had no choice other than attack, following the military precept that:

The best defense is a good offence.

How did Israel react after this great victory, when in Six Days, Israel defeated three nations and ended up with the territory needed to provide both defensive borders and our Historic Homeland?

In 1967, like in the Days of the Macabees, who defeated the Greeks when they declared Judaism to be illegal, we had the military victory over the three Arab armies, and we miraculously liberated our spiritual source, the Land, which G-d had promised us.

Unfortunately, the Israeli Government only accepted one of the miracles, and it credited the IDF, rather than G-d. To this day, Israel has revered the army for the military victory. And it rejects the spiritual victory, Our Biblical Homeland.

From the moment that Moshe Dayan gave authority of the Temple Mount to the Moslems, things have been going downhill. Israel is more and more in danger with every concession,with every withdrawal.

What if the Macabees had invited the Greeks for a sulha and used the pure oil as salad dressing?

We can't change the past, but we can stop the process of destruction!

The message of Chanukah is never to give up.
Don't be afraid of the "mighty" enemies.
We have G-d on our side.
Just like the small vial of oil was enough to keep the light going, we must use the little power and Land we have in our hands to bring us to true victory and only then will we enjoy peace, true peace.
B'Ezrat Hashem, With G-d's Help

WE WILL DEFEAT THE HELLENISTS OF OUR TIME!