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Sermon for Chanukah 2006
by Rabbi Geoffrey Hyman

Why did the Rabbis take the lights of the Menorah and use it as the symbol for Chanukah and its celebrations? Was it only because of the miracle of the oil in the Temple menorah that lasted eight days instead of one?

I believe there was much more to it than that.

Let me explain, but first, let’s travel through a bit of history.

The Jews had lost their independence over Eretz Yisroel from the time of the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians, 586B.C.E. The Persians then came and defeated the Babylonians in 539 B.C.E. A year later the Jews were permitted to return to Eretz Yisrael and rebuild the Temple. There was a declaration similar to that of more recent history, the Balfour Declaration.

Sadly only 42,360 people went back to our homeland and rebuilt the second Temple. Eretz Yisroel still remained under Persian rule which eventually resulted in persecution and unrest. Then with the rise of the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great, the Persian Empire was defeated. By 332 B.C.E. Israel was under Greece, but after Alexander’s death in 323 B.C.E. his Empire was sliced up between his generals causing unrest throughout the Greek Empire.

Eventually the Jews got used to the Greeks and assimilated. They enjoyed the standard of living that the Greek culture offered them and little by little their Jewish identity was eroded. Then along came a new Greek ruler, Antiochus, who took over Israel and changed the policy. He banned Jewish practices, intent on creating a homogeneous empire – one people and one religion.

On the 15th Kislev 168 B.C.E., a statue of their god was erected in the holy Temple and on the 25th, offerings to their idols. They went on to defile the Temple in the most obscene ways. The observance of the Shabbat and Brit Milah were banned and they burned Sifrei Torah. It was enough, a leader arose to resist, Matisyohu and his sons, led by Yehudah HaMaccabee. He gathered his brothers and men and set up a resistance movement. Three years later, on the 25th Kislev 165 B.C.E. he defeated the enemy and rededicated the Temple.

The miracle of the oil then took place and thus they instituted the memorial of the lighting of the of Chanukah lights. Why? Because the enemy had thought that it was the Temple that was the central spirit of the Jewish people. If the Temple was desecrated, then so too would the Jew cease to be. But no, as we read in Exodus (25:8) in the Sidra of Terumah: “Veassu li mikdash veshachanti besocham” – G-d tells Israel: “Make for me a temple and I will dwell amongst them”. We had survived as Jews not because of a temple, but because of our dedication to the Torah, through maintaining education and observance within the Jewish family. The menorah of the Temple, that symbolised the idea that G-d is among us, was then taken by the Rabbis and placed in the home to be kindled for eight nights; “Ner ish uveso” – “each person and his household”, in order that G-d’s presence would be with us in homes and within our lives, symbolising that the strength of the Jewish people is not in their temples, but in their homes.

A Synagogue is a place to pray to Hashem - it’s a place of the tzibbur, of the community and yes, it's like its greater model, the Temple, there to effect spiritual influence on us, but ultimately it is what we are outside the Shul that makes us into the Jewish people – G-d’s light unto the nations.

Let the great symbol of the Beis Hamikdash – G-d’s Holy Temple, shine forth within our homes – illuminating our Yiddishe souls in continuing the work of our fathers, to bring light into this world of darkness and may we always be a light unto the nations. Amen.