Hanukah

Hanukah is coming.  I tell the children the story of tiny ancient Israel vanquishing the Hellenized Syrians.

Yosef and Daniel understand it like this:  Against all odds, Ethiopia defeated Italy in the immortal Battle of Adwa of 1896, the first military victory of an African nation against a European one in modern times.  Ethiopia, alone among African nations, remained uncolonized during the “Scramble for Africa.” Similarly, against all odds, the Jews of Ancient Israel resisted the Empire of Alexander the Great and saw victory, after years of guerilla warfare, in 164 B.C.E., after which they reclaimed Jerusalem and re-sanctified The Temple.

In short: a small country fighting for freedom succeeded against a more heavily armed European colonizer.  

This is clearly something to celebrate!

BUT: why the Maccabean Revolt against Syrian Emperor Antiochus Epiphanes more than 2,000 years ago inspired me to drop off the children at the Dollar Store at North DeKalb Mall yesterday afternoon to buy gifts for each other and their siblings is beyond my ability to explain. 

And what any of this has to do with potato pancakes will have to remain one of the great mysteries of modern religion. 

The immediate result was that Jesse, Daniel, and Fisseha took a moment, while heading out for school this morning, to jam mud (from the bald front yard) into new tiny plastic rifles and shoot mud pellets at each other.  

I knew without having to ask:  what they brought home in their bags from the Dollar Store, instead of Hanukah gifts for their siblings, were tiny cheap air rifles for themselves.

In case we’re attacked.

By Italy or Syria or Ancient Greece or whoever the hell will be after us next.