In his account of the story of Chanukah, Rambam (Laws of Megillah and Chanukah 3:1) chooses to highlight an element of the triumph over the Greeks, namely, the restoration of Jewish sovereignty not previously noted in the Talmud’s account of the story: “The sons of the Hasmoneans, the High Priests, overcame [them], slew them, and saved the Jews from their hand. They appointed a king from the priests, and sovereignty returned to Israel for more than 200 years, until the destruction of the Second Temple.”
That period of Jewish sovereignty was not all that Jewish and not all that sovereign. Many in the parade of kings that led us during that period were violent and unfaithful to Torah tradition, one of them going so far as to slaughter virtually all the members of the Sanhedrin. Additionally, they were often client kings and even puppets of the Greeks and then of the Romans. Yet, Rambam considers even this diminished and distorted form of Jewish sovereignty a cause for celebration. Why?
Concurrent with the reign of these kings, a different challenge was brewing, one that Rambam (Laws of Prayer 2:1) characterizes as our most critical issue, the emergence within the Jewish people of heretical movements. These were the years of the rise within the Jewish community of the growing movements of the Sadducees, the Boethusians (a Jewish sect related to the Sadducees that descended from the high-priestly family of Boethus), and eventually the Christians, all of whom rejected core faith principles of Judaism, including the divine origin and eternal truth of both the written and oral Torah. It was in this context of general religious decline that Rambam celebrated the restoration of even a diminished Jewish sovereignty. Why?
Rambam (Book of Mitzvos, Positive Mitzvah 173) saw the unification of the nation as the principal task of the king. While the king was commanded to constantly carry a Torah scroll and abide by all the instructions of the Torah and the prophets, setting the people on the path of faith and virtue, he primarily served as the rallying force of national identity. As Rambam noted elsewhere (Laws of Teshuva 3:11), side-by-side with faith and religious observance, there is a critical importance [for the king] in identifying with the nation and the fate of the Jewish people.
In that two-hundred-year period of religious weakness during which the unifying power of faith and observance was in retreat, the emergence of even a diminished form of Jewish sovereignty was a saving grace for our people. While before the Chanukah triumph the Hellenized Jews were abandoning their faith, their observance, and their Jewish identity, the divine miracle of the restoration of Jewish sovereignty allowed the next generations of the religiously disconnected to at least retain their national identity as Jews.
Bayamim haheim bazman hazeh. This miracle has repeated itself in our times. The weakened commitment of wide swaths of the Jewish people to faith and observance has led to widespread Jewish disaffiliation. Just as in the days of the Chanukah miracle, G-d in His ultimate kindness and eternal mercy to our people gave us a pathway to a solution. In the void created by weakened religious connection, G-d placed a new and riveting anchor of Jewish identity, the reborn sovereign Jewish State of Israel. Millions of Israelis with little knowledge and observance of Torah identify completely with the nation and the fate of the Jewish people.
The State of Israel has played a similarly critical role for the wide swaths of diaspora Jewry disconnected from Torah. Concern for Israel and pride in its accomplishments have united and galvanized American Jews and served as the most effective anchor for broad Jewish connection. Though there is a growing trend of American Jews to whom Israel has tragically and misguidedly become a source of embarrassment, modern Israel continues to be an effective tool of engagement for synagogues, federations, schools, and camps. Birthright Israel and Masa Israel Journey have developed the Israel experience as the ultimate vehicle to inspire a journey to fuller Jewish identity for the young.
All of this has only increased since Simchat Torah/October 7, and has not only strengthened national identity, but has gone further to fuel a surge in interest in Torah learning and observance. Thus, once again, in a modern-day version of the Chanukah miracle, the restoration of Jewish sovereignty has served as a critical anchor for Jewish identity for Jews everywhere. n
Rabbi Moshe Hauer is executive vice president of the Orthodox Union (OU), the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization.
