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Decemeber 6, 2002, 11:20 a.m. “In Those Days, at This Time” Hanukkah 2002. By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

t has been Hanukkah this week. For traditional Jews, that means lighting the menorah (holiday candelabra), perhaps playing with the symbolic Hanukkah spinning top (dreidel) and eating a holiday food, be it Polish latkes or Egyptian zalabia. In Israel, it also means vacation from school for the kids, Hanukkah-theme advertising on radio and television, Hanukkah parties for all ages, and public menorah lightings at every opportunity. In fact, with the elections approaching, almost any political gathering in the Jewish sector this week opened with a candle lighting ceremony. And in my hometown of Modiin, it means something else, as well. It reaffirms the continuum linking the modern Jewish state, Israel, with the ancient Jewish state, Judea. Ancient Modiin, the ruins of which have been found in excavations in the region, was the hometown of the Maccabees, heroes of the Hanukkah story.

In 168 B.C., under the rule of the Hellenist Syrian king Antiochus, the situation in Israel was oppressive. The ruling power tried to force pagan Hellenism on the Jews through the persuasive powers of the sword. Mattathias, son of Johanan, eventual leader of the Modiin rebels, bemoaned the state of affairs, saying, "Alas! Why was I born to see this, the ruin of my people, the ruin of the holy city... her infants have been killed in her streets, her youth by the sword of the foe." (I Maccabees, 2:7-9)

Subsequently, Mattathias, his sons and bands of loyal Jewish guerrillas took to the hills to fight for their freedom, eventually restoring the Land of Israel to the Children of Israel. The Maccabees wrenched Jewish sovereignty back from murderous Syrian oppressors, who sought to impose their religion on all peoples in their empire.

Today, Judah is free, but our infants are still being killed in the streets. We have a world-renowned army, but our youth are still dying by the sword of cowards. The Islamist enemy we face in Israel, as the world must now recognize, is trying to create a global empire where their cultural norms are enforced by the sword. The PLO and its terrorist allies are merely the frontline troops in a battle with the Islamic-Arab empire that once ruled the region and is trying to expand its frontiers wherever it can. "Arrogance and scorn have now become strong; it is a time of ruin and furious anger," said Mattathias on his deathbed (ibid., 2:49). And, after warning his sons to stay on the path of truth and justice, he said, "You shall rally around you all who observe the law, and avenge the wrong done to your people. Pay [the enemy] back in full, and obey the commands of the law" (ibid., 2:67-68). Like the Jews of ancient Judea, we in Israel, and the world at large, are in need of leaders like Mattathias and his son Judah, who reminded his people what they faced, saying, "They come against us in great insolence and lawlessness to destroy us and our wives and our children, and to despoil us; but we fight for our lives and our laws" (ibid., 3:20-21).

As the West, led primarily by the United States, fights for its laws — its way of life — against a worldwide organism seeking empire, it is imperative that it not falter due to fear. No matter how many Islamist actors there are, no matter how widespread they are, no matter how numerous or influential are their apologists, the West must take to heart the message of Hanukkah, the message that good people must be willing to fight, not for the sake of fighting, but for the sake of life, liberty and the law. As United States President George W. Bush has wisely pointed out, there are "evildoers" in the world, and the heartless enemy faced today in Mombasa, Jerusalem, New York, Bali, Moscow, Delhi, and a myriad of other places, would impose his empire on the world, if given the chance.

And, as I light my own Hanukkah menorah here in Modiin and contemplate Israel's part in the global war against the latest King Antiochus, I am encouraged. More than 2,100 years have passed since the Maccabees first took up arms to defeat — the "evil empire" of their day; yet, here I am, a descendant of the Judeans — a Jew — living free in the Maccabees' hometown. Yet, the "invincible" Hellenist empire is no more.

The traditional text added to the daily prayers on Hanukkah should, like a candle lit in darkness, give us courage and confidence that God will "in His great mercy... turn over evildoers into the hands of the righteous...."

— Nissan Ratzlav-Katz is opinion editor at www.IsraelNationalNews.com