|
|
Article: VANTAGE POINT: The Holiday Of The Uneasy Peace
- Article from:
- The Jewish Week
- Article date:
- December 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightProvided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
Irving Greenberg
The Jewish Week
12-01-1994
VANTAGE POINT: The Holiday Of The Uneasy Peace.
Most people think of Chanukah as the holiday with the happy ending. But it is more accurate to describe Chanukah as the holiday of the uneasy peace.
What the Jews did with their hard-earned moratorium then can teach us a lot about what to do as we face an uncertain peace now.
In the popular conception, the Maccabees defeated the Greeks, and the Jews lived happily ever after. This erroneous image is strengthened by the simplistic focus on the oil that miraculously burned for eight days (in contrast to the prayer Al HaNissim -- for the miracles -- which stresses the realistic miracle in the Maccabean war ...