The Modern Maccabees and the Hand of God

I still haven’t finished my post about Annapolis, but I did promise myself to blog more frequently so here’s a little seasonal story for your amusement.

Last night was the first night of Chanukah, the festival of the lights. The full historical background of this festival is here.

For those who don’t feel like clicking on links: Briefly, we celebrate the successful armed revolt of Judah and his Maccabees against the Seleucids (Greeks), who ruled Judea around 200 B.C., led by King Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

Judah the Maccabee in modern-day kitsch

Under Antiochus, the formerly benign Seleucid rule of Judea became hostile. Antiochus committed a few massacres of Jews, outlawed Judaism and – most infamously – looted and desecrated the temple in Jerusalem, which he re-established as a temple to Zeus.

Hence the revolt of the Maccabee clan, led by the heroic warrior Judah.

According to the story, when the Maccabees re-conquered the temple they discovered that nearly all the holy oil had been profaned and there was only enough to keep the eternal light burning for one day. But MIRACULOUSLY, the oil burned for eight days – which was sufficient time to prepare more holy olive oil. And thus, to celebrate the miracle, we light candles, eat oily food (in Israel, 800 calorie doughnuts) and sing songs about the miracle for eight nights.

800 calorie doughnuts.

Last night Channel 10, in a tongue-in-cheek sports news report (it must have been a slow news day), revealed that Tel Aviv’s Maccabi Elite Basketball Team somehow ends up playing against the Greek team in the Euroleague nearly every Chanukah. Surely this could not be mere coincidence. Does Shimon Mizrahi, the famous head of Maccabi Elite, have a hand in this modern-day miracle? Could this be The Hand of God?

Greek Euroleague basketball player.

One sports commentator responds to the question in typical Jewish fashion – with a question of his own: is there a difference between God and Shimon Mizrahi?

Shimon Mizrahi

Watch the report (Hebrew only) here. Sorry fellow Firefox users: it only works in Explorer.

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20 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

Ummm… That’s Pini Gershon (as reported to me by a certain Englishman with whom we are both acquainted).

1. Liza
on December 5th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Oy, so it is. Trust A. to notice. All those middle-aged Israeli sports loudmouths looks the same to me.

Anyway, replaced the photo.

2. lisagoldman
on December 5th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
I reckon you’ve been on the sufganyot, Lisa
Should I suggest one of my Present Simple 3rd person singular refresher courses as a Hanukkah prezzie, or perhaps early Christmas prezzie?

Yalla, viva las sufganyot!

3. as
on December 5th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Looks to me like ol’ Judah is a serious practitioner of Tai Chi.

4. Jennifer
on December 5th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
The Seleucids were Macedonians and ruled from Syria. They were about as Greek as I would be Mexican because I also speak Spanish, live near the border and like flautas. Alexander’s succesors became Greek when the Greeks realized that it was better to claim him as one of their own then admit how quickly they were conquered.

Now if Maccabi Elite coincidentally played Macedonia at this time each year then that would be a story.

5. Pat Patterson
on December 6th, 2007 at 3:27 am
“All those middle-aged Israeli sports loudmouths looks the same to me.” Oh Lisa, what an apt description. Perfect. And where are those decadent soufganiyot from? Wishing you a “chag sameach” from down under.

6. Fay
on December 6th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Faye, “chag sameach” to you, too. Wish you were here to celebrate with the gang.

I took the photo of the decadent doughnuts at the Roladin branch at Dizengoff Center. At the time, there was a 52 kilo, 172 cm blonde, buying two dozen to take away. MOST annoying.

7. lisagoldman
on December 6th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Is it awful to think they’ll end up on her hips one day?

Yes, I’d love to be there with the gang. Say hi to all from me in the meantime, please.

8. Fay
on December 6th, 2007 at 10:54 am
???
JERUSALEM, Dec 6, 2007 (AFP) – Israeli police said on Thursday that they will recommend charges be brought against three journalists who travelled without state permission to “enemy
states”, Lebanon and Syria.
“We intend to ask prosecutors to indict the three journalists as with their illegal acts they not only put their lives in danger, but also the security of Israel,” the officer in charge of the case, Alon Sharabani, told public radio.
He named the reporters as Ron Ben Yishai of the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily who in September travelled to Syria, and two
journalists who travelled to Lebanon — Lisa Goldman of the private Channel 10 television and Tzur Shizaf of a geographic magazine.
The three reporters hold both Israeli and foreign passports, on which they entered the “enemy states” — countries with which Israel is technically at war.
Israeli legislation prohibits the citizens of the Jewish state, even those who hold multiple nationalities, from travelling to “enemy states” without permission from the interior ministry — an offence that can be punishable with up to four years in prison.
Israel has been in a technical state of war with Lebanon and Syria since 1948, when the Jewish state was created.

9. Anonymous
on December 6th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Lisa is in the news. Hope the cops don’t give her too much crap.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/931968.html

10. Anon
on December 6th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Yo Lisa what the hell?? I just read the article in Ha’aretz and nearly fell over. What the hell are they doing?!

11. Yaeli
on December 6th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Are they really 800 calories? Tell me you’re just jerking our chains. Good thing I have not had any yet, though am waiting to pig out on my husband’s grandmother’s ones. Last year I think I ate 4 in one go. Ouch!

12. katherine
on December 6th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Lisa, I just heard on the radio that everyone who has been to ‘hostile’ countries is going to be persecuted. Did you hear anything about this?

13. tsedek
on December 6th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
I always wonder why do Israeli teams or singers take part in (and why are they invited to) EUROPEAN competitions such as UEFA, Euroleague and Eurovision?

Israel is not in Europe, but in Asia! Aye, the Asian part of the so called “Middle East”. (Middle East of what?)

Has anyone a reasonable explanation? Aye, it must be politics…

14. Xaun
on December 6th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Xaun. Yes, it’s politics. Israel cannot participate in Asian sporting events because Arab/Muslim countries don’t acknowledge the state. As there is a considerable number of countries who participate with that criteria, it’s not going to change anytime soon. The Iranians tried carrying this politics over in the last Olympics when their judo athlete refused to compete against the Israeli one. It’s ridiculous. I certainly don’t believe this type of nonsense should be carried over in apolitical events.

15. Anon
on December 7th, 2007 at 1:59 am
tsedek -

Why did you put quote marks around `hostile’?

I’d say Syria and Lebanon are pretty hostile as countries go, with the majority of the population strongly disliking Israel, and the rest wanting to erase it from the face of the earth.

16. Edgar
on December 7th, 2007 at 2:38 am
We read the Haaretz article like others. Hope you are ok. We just wanted to let you know howe much your writing means to many folk so far away.

17. Rabbi Landsberg
on December 7th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Debra, thank you so much. Everything is fine – really! – but I’m happy to hear from you no matter what the reason.

18. lisagoldman
on December 7th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Edgar, you know why? Because since I got to be in DIRECT contact with so many Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian PEOPLE, I found so little “hostility” – at least so little more than the description ‘country’ generalizes them under.

Do you understand?

19. tsedek
on December 7th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
tsedek -

If you go to a souk in any town in Syria, Lebanon or the Palestinian territories and ask a few ordinary, working-class people what they think about Israel you will find almost unanimous dislike, if not hatred.

There are small pockets of neutral or even pro-Israel sentiment in these countries, but these are very small. I’m sure you can find 10,000 people in Syria–plenty of PEOPLE you can contact DIRECTLY– that like Israelis or want to meet them. But the vast majority don’t.

It’s depressing to realize this, and I understand why people want to believe the hatred is a really an illusion, but it’s very real. No point closing your eyes to it.

On the whole, these are hostile countries, both in terms of government policy and popular opinion.

20. Edgar
on December 10th, 2007 at 5:56 pm