Chanukah & the Zionist Government by DIN

 

The Rambam writes as follows:

ש'גברו בני חשמונאי הכהנים הגדולים [על היוונים] והרגום והושיעו ישראל מידם והעמידו מלך מן הכהנים וחזרה מלכות לישראל יתר על מאתים שנה עד חרבן השני ,,,ומפני זה התקינו חכמים שבאותו הדור שיהיו שמונת הימים האלו שתחילתן מליל חמשה ועשרים בכסלו ימי שמחה והלל

"The Chashmonaim, the High Priests, defeated the Greeks, and saved the Jews, they then crowned a King from the Priests, and returned Jewish sovereignty to the Jewish people that lasted over 200 years and lasted up to the destruction of the Second Temple, and it was because of this, that the Rabbis decreed in that generation that Jews should celebrate 8 days of Simcha and Hallel and this should begin on the 25th day of Kislev"

Interesting Rambam...

Let's look back in history and see who those Jewish kings were during those 206 years.

In the beginning, for about 40 years, everything was rosy because the rulers were the sons of Mattisyahu Hakohein. But immediately after this very short reign, everything went down to the abys faster than you can pronounce the word "Chanukah"

King Alexander Yannai from the Chashmonaim, instigated the tzedoikim against the rabbanim, and caused a bloody civil war. Yannai, slaughtered without mercy hundreds of the Chazal, and murdered many of those who went up to the Har Habayis.

His children, Hyrcanus  and Aristobulus, fought over who should be king, and they were the ones who brought the Romans to Eretz Yisrael.

In the year 63BC, the Romans appointed Herod as the ruler of Judea, and he tortured and murdered all those who he thought opposed him and he obliterated the entire remnants of the Chashmonaim. 

The Romans strengthened their hold on Eretz Yisrael, and appointed similar despots, until the great  rebellion and the destruction of the Second Bais Hamikdash.

What do we see here? That a great part of those 206 years, the Jewish people, although they were ruled by Jews, were ruled by the most evil and cruel people in Jewish history.

And yet we celebrate Chanuka for thousands of years. We say the entire Hallel on each of those 8 days, something we don't even do on Pesach. 

Chazal had a lot of time, in fact hundreds of years to look back and reflect at those 206 years and see that those years were years of mayhem, torture and death, and yet because Jews were under Jewish rule, they decreed that those 206 years warranted an 8 day holiday. That's what the Rambam says.

To teach us that no matter how cruel and evil a Jewish leader was, he was still better than us have a goy rule over us.

Alexander Yannai the murderer was still better than Nevuchadnezer. Herod, an insane sadistically monarch a bastard,was still better than Titus.

What should we say today?

 Having Jewish sovereignty even if the leader is Ben Gurion or Bennet or even Lapid is still better than  a Czar Nicholas, Hitler or a Stalin.

But there are those who choose to look at the cup half full. And it is precisely about these people that the Gemarrah (Berachos 61:a) compares to a fly..the gemarrah says that the Yetzer Hara is like  a fly. The Gra explains, that a fly will be drawn to a tiny piece of garbage on a plate  even if 98% of the plate is clean, and that is how the yetzer hara works. He is  drawn and attracted to evil. These people seek and are drawn to only fault when there is so much to be thankful for.

There is a Hebrew pamphlet distributed in Israel called "Karov Eilecha." In this weeks edition someone asks Harav Yehoshua Shapira, the Rosh Yeshiva in Ramat Gan the following question:

"The Rambam writes that the miracle of Chanuka includes the fact that the Chamonaim returned Jewish Sovereignty for over 200 years to the Jewish people, but how can that be as they murdered members of Chazal in a civil war?"

Rabbi Shapirah answers:

"A Jew even if he sins is holy and his soul is a part of Hashem. All the sins that he does can contaminate his outside, but his essence cannot be touched. If this is said about a solitary Jew, how much more when we speak about the Jewish nation as a whole, as it's written that "chelek Hashem Amo" Of course this person who sinned should repent.

And so this is what we merited on Chanuka, that the Chashmonaim returned sovereignty to the Jewish people, and even though there was a tremendous downturn in spirituality in their reign, nevertheless it was still a Jewish government."