Tension was high in the Jewishcommunity in the second century before the Common Era, some 2200 years ago, asMax Dimont describes in chapter 5 of “Jews, God and History.”
 The tensions were between those who favoredparticipation in the prevailing Hellenistic beliefs and practices of theirGreek conquerors, and those who wished to maintain the Jewish community’sinternal integrity.
Dimont points to the Hellenisticculture as being based on the philosophy of Epicurus. The Greek PhilosopherEpicurus believed that while God did create the world, in doing so he createdboth man and nature, and then stepped back to watch. Man was allowed to seekpleasure and to pursue happiness as a means of dealing with anxiety and thereality of death.  
In our contemporary usage, anepicurean describes someone who seeks pleasure in fine food or good wine.  But that is as much of a distortion of Epicurus’teaching as was the popular Hellenism itself.
As Dimont describes, such adistortion existed in the time of the origin of Hanukah: “immorality andlicentiousness replaced the traditional values of chastity and faithfulness. ‘
With this succinct description,Dimont highlights the threat that such distorted interpretation of epicureanphilosophy posed to Jewish life: “Greek games with nude wrestling wascommonplace among Jewish males. In the theater the younger set came intocontact with the urbane sophistication of the Greeks and from here the door ledto the cabaret and to the couch of the concubine.”
While the pleasure of the flesh onlycould corrupt the body, Jewish leaders were more concerned with the Hellenisticdenial of the role of God in the world and the revealed Torah and its evolvingJewish legal system of moral and ritual behavior.
While Jews of the time adopted Greeknames, spoke Greek, adopted Greek clothing, and brought Greek words into Jewishtexts, and even built synagogues to resemble Grecian temples, it was theincursion into the Templethat pushed the Jews to the breaking point. With Greek statues in the temple,pigs running around the grounds and slaughtered on the altars, there arose astrong impetus to rebel and restore Jewish practice.
Hanukah is described not in Torah butin a collection of writings that did not make the anthology we know as HebrewScriptures. This collection is called the Apocrypha, and it is the books of theMacabees that contain the oldest account of Hanukkah. There is also mention ofthe festival in the Talmud, but more on that later.
In the books of the Macabees we findvivid descriptions of the torture to which individual Jews were put as theGreek tormentors attempted to force them to eat pork in violation of Jewish lawand practice. The accounts tell of Hannah and her seven sons who were each putto the test and each refused, each suffering a more painful end that the onebefore.
It is Judas, who was called Maccabeus,who arose to lead the rebellion.  Heurged his followers to overcome their fear of their opponents as he cried out:“For they trust in arms and daring, but we trust in the almighty God, for he isable with a mere nod to strike down not only our enemies but the whole world.”With the slogan “The Help of God,” Judas Maccabeus led the resistance and thenvictory against the oppressors.
Listen to these descriptions from theSecond book of Macabees: “they regained the temple and the city, tore down thealtars of the Greeks. They purified the sanctuary, built another altar ofsacrifice, offered sacrifices after an interval of two years; they fell ontheir faces and besought the Lord that they never again encounter suchmisfortunes. And it came about that on the very same day on which the sanctuaryhad been profaned by the aliens; the purification of the sanctuary took place,on the 25th of Chislev. And they celebrated it for eight days andpassed a public ordinance and decree that the whole Jewish nation shouldobserve these days every year.”
So now you will be asking--- whatabout the miracle of the oil that was only to last for 24 hours and miracle ofmiracles, lasted for 8 days!
It is in the Talmud where we learn ofthis great miracle. In typical Talmudic fashion, a discussion of Shabbatcandles leads to a mentioning of the Maccabean discovery of the profane stateof the pure olive oil needed for the temple lights. They found only one vial ofpure olive oil still sealed by the high priest. Rather than lasting for oneday, the small amount of oil lasted for 8 days.
Tonight as we begin our celebrationof Hanukah, We benefit from the account in the books of the Macabees, the legendfrom the Talmud and all the customs that have arisen over the centuries of ourpeople’s history. We celebrate the victory over the forces that have arisen todestroy our traditions; we celebrate the stubbornness of our people who mayadopt the surrounding cultures fashions, and much of their way of life, but yethave managed to keep the core of Jewish life alive.
We are grateful to our ancestorswhose courage has kept our people alive even as we are grateful to the foundersof this congregation who have dedicated their efforts to build this synagogue.And we are especially grateful for those who come into this sanctuary aswitnesses to the belief that Jewish tradition provides meaning to our lives.