The eternal flame

“And the impure were defeated by the pure.”

Throughout Chanukah, this line rings out through our prayers three times a day. We remember how a small group of Kohanim, the Chashmonayim, took on the formidable Syrian-Greek army and won. Jews all over the world celebrate this festival. Even the most distant, assimilated Jew with his Christmas decorations in one corner of his home will still celebrate Chanukah and find a prominent place in his home to display his menorah.

This is perplexing. If one delves into the historical context and background of events that transpired leading up to Chanukah, one finds that Greek culture started entering Jewish life. There were no concentration camps or pogroms. The Greeks were “merely” trying to Hellenize the Jewish people. Trying to make them more modern and “civilised”. Exactly what our assimilated brethren with the Christmas trees are advocating in the Western World today.

To the bystander, the band of Kohanim who fought this wave of Hellenism must have appeared to be no more than a band of crazy, radical, ultra-Orthodox, “frummy-terrorists”. If that’s the case, then why do these same secular Jews today celebrate this holiday and the Maccabees’ victory? If these so-called modern Jews were around then, would they not have been on the opposing side? Would they not have gone to their liberal university campuses showing support for the “poor” Greeks who were being killed by the “fanatic” Kohanim? Yet here they are today proudly lighting their menorahs.

The answer lies in the concept of the pintele Yid (holy spark) that’s always alight in every Jew. No matter how far he falters, somewhere deep down in his psyche, there’s a calling. Many have tried to silence it, but it’s always there, a deep desire to connect to Hashem and His Torah.

Chanukah isn’t just about lighting little coloured candles, Chanukah represents that flame that threatens to die out very quickly but has lasted for thousands of years beyond all expectations. Chanukah has and always will represent the eternal flame in every Jewish soul. Hashem let the light burn miraculously in the Temple all those years ago because He is showing us that, even though we have been in exile for so long, the flame of hope and connection to something greater than ourselves still burns and will miraculously continue to burn within all of us, no matter how far we stray.