We are now, at the time of writing, approaching Day Three of the Jewish channuka festival. For those who do not know Channuka or hannuka or however you choose to spell it, is today seen by many as a festival of lights. The key point taught to many about Channuka today is the story of the miracle of the oil. This story tells us how following a big war between the Jews and the Greeks who were ruling and oppressing what is now Israel, a war the Greeks lost, only one bottle of oil for the holy lamp was found when the Temple was retaken, everything else had been despoiled by the Greek invaders. This oil was enough for only one day and it would take time to prepare and refine more oil for a lamp that was supposed to never go out. However there was a miracle and that one day’s oil lasted for a whole eight days which gave enough time for the Jews to produce more oil. The significance of the oil is why Jews chow down on copious quantities of potato latkes, doughnuts and other deep fried stuff at this time of year.
However in my view at least, the miracle of the oil is not all we should take away from the Channuka story. This is because what led up to the miracle of the oil and the battle against the invading Greeks was the actions of a man who decided that he would say no to his oppressors, even though this was difficult and risky to do so. One man and his family refused to bow down to or sacrifice to an idol of the Greeks and that was one of the incidents that kicked off a war that ultimately resulted in the Jews regaining control of their own homeland from the Greek overlords.
Despite being surrounded by those who were quite happy to go along with the Greek ways and with Greek mastery, some people decided that this way, the way of collaboration and grudging or enthusiastic acceptance of the Greek religious culture, was not the way for their people to live. They wanted their people to live as they should live, which is under their own religion and to be in control of their own nation. These people who stood up to the Greeks became, like the candles on the Channukia candlestick, a light that cast away the darkness.
Without the rebellion of those who fought back against the Greeks, the Maccabees, I doubt that Judaism as a religious path would have survived the governance of the Greeks. It is likely that many in Judea at the time might have embraced fully Greek religion and Greek culture which was dominant in that part of the world at the time. If Judaism had been subsumed into Greek culture then there would not have been a Jewish culture for Jesus of Nazareth to be born into and operate in. Therefore the actions of those who said ‘no’ to the Greeks and their religion 2,184 years ago not only preserved Judaism as a faith and a national movement, but also created the conditions in which Christianity could also be created.
Remember it was ultimately because one man decided to say ‘no’ to his oppressors that the Greeks were kicked out of what is now Israel and Judaism survived. It was just one man who did this by kicking off and saying ‘no’ to his oppressors. So the next time you are faced with a situation that appears impossible or are being oppressed by your government for believing for example that women do not have penises or you are faced with any one of the other lunacies that are being inflicted on the long suffering subjects of places like the United Kingdom, remember just how much can come from merely saying ‘no’.
If you say ‘no’ to such beliefs as people can change sex or that violent religions are really peaceful or that ‘all cultures are equal’ or to centrally planned economies or refuse to follow narratives such as ‘diversity is a strength’ then you are doing what the Maccabees did. What you are doing at heart by saying ‘no’ to bullshit narratives and the ‘luxury beliefs’ of the wealthy, is little different from what one man did when he refused to compromise on his religious beliefs and take part in the religious practises of his oppressors. A whole empire was removed from Israel ultimately because first one man and then another said ‘no’ to what the Greeks were offering them and look how that turned out. It ended with Israel ruling itself again at least for a while. Maybe us saying no to the false narratives and bullshit that we are fed will also have the result of restoring that which has been lost in Western nations.
Saying ‘no’ to stuff that feels wrong and might well be objectively wrong is difficult and scary especially the first time that you do it but sometimes saying ‘no’ is the only way to proceed, to get things done and hopefully ultimately change things for the better. So try saying ‘no’ sometimes because if you do, you are doing something similar to what the Maccabees did.