Ḥanukka is the festival on which Jews celebrate their victory in the fight for religious freedom more than two thousand years ago. In 165 BCE Antiochus IV, ruler of the Syrian branch of the Alexandrian empire, began to impose Greek culture on the Jews of the land of Israel. He placed a statue of Zeus in Jerusalem and banned Jewish religious rituals such as circumcision and Shabbat. Those who continued to observe them were persecuted. This was an existential threat to Judaism as a religious civilisation.
A group of Jewish warriors rose in rebellion. Led by a priest, Mattityahu of Modi’in, and his son Yehuda the Maccabee, they began the fight for liberty. Outnumbered, they suffered heavy initial casualties, but within three years they had secured a momentous victory. Jerusalem was restored to Jewish hands and the Beit HaMikdash was rededicated. The Rabbis tell us there was only one cruse of pure oil found in the wreckage of the Temple, enough to light the Menora for one day. But the oil miraculously lasted for eight, enough time to make more. Ḥanukka (which means “rededication”) is the eight-day festival established to celebrate the miracles of those days.