Modern-Day Maccabees | Chanukah 5785

Having a state, sovereignty and an army, says Rav Kook, shifts and changes the way we view Jewish holiness.

For 2,000 years, during exile and statelessness, we had a particular view of what a holy person looks like. Somebody pious, perhaps a little ascetic, removed from the machinations of societal life, in order of intense personal piety.

In the time of having a state and being part of a people in a land, it is very different. Throughout Jewish history, the people of piety of righteousness were also champions of justice, not only personal piety, but also communal, national justice.

The Chashmona’im were exactly the same. The reason they are known today is because Matityahu and his sons brought the sanctity of the Kohanim and the closeness to G-d from the beit midrash to the battlefield. It wasn’t something that we want to do, to fight but bad happens in the world not only because of the perpetrators of evil but when the good are silent. Therefore, sometimes the only way to stand up for the things we believe in is to fight for them when we are being pressed.

The price that the Jewish people have paid, and the Religious Zionist community in particular have paid – people who are deeply committed to Torah values and at the same time absolute commitment to our people. Striving for personal piety while championing justice. That is the legacy, says Rav Kook, of the great sages of Tanach, and of the Chashmona’im, and what we are seeing in our generation.

As we light the Chanukah candles, may there be light in the darkness without any of the pain and difficulty of the darkness.