Why do we take it? How is it that a society chooses to sleep,
rather than wake up from their bad dream and fix things?
Sometimes it takes a 'the shock factor' to do what
'rationalization' smothers. The little known Chanukah story of
how the Hasmonean revolt started, was actually because of a very
brave woman! The background of the Chanukah story recalls the
struggle for religious freedom from the Hellenistic Syrian-
Greeks in the year, 165 B.C.E. Antiochus, who was the occupying
King at those times, sought to crush our Jewish identity and
passed decrees against the practice of Judaism. We were
forbidden from studying the Torah, we were forbidden to keep the
Shabbat (Sabbath) and we were forbidden from making a brit milah
(circumcision). To do so meant the death penalty. "Hellenistic
rituals and sacrifices were instituted in the Bet HaMikdash (the
holy Temple in Jerusalem), thus desecrating the sacred center of
Jewish ritual life. Many Jews were impressed by the culture and
power of their Greek conquerors and a