Modern-Day Maccabees
What is Chanukah?
No, it's not the "Jewish Christmas."
The story of Chanukah is one of freedom from state-sponsored religion. In the early 2nd century BCE, a man named Antiochus came to power in Syria. At the time, Israel and her Jews were part of the Syrian Empire.
Antiochus tried to force the Jews under his rule to accept the Greek Hellenist religion, the official creed of his empire. He ordered Torah scrolls to be burned, and forbade Jews from observing Shabbat, from practicing ritual circumcision, from observing the rules of kashrut.
Religious freedom was obliterated, and all subjects of the empire were forced to Hellenism. Many Jews chose to be martyred rather than accept a new religion.
Under the leadership of a man named Judah, a group called the Maccabees (from the Hebrew for "hammer") was formed. Heavily outnumbered, the Maccabees still managed to beat back the Syrians in a series of battles and regained control of Jerusalem.
And so, religious freedom was saved.
In Alabama this year, we've won two battles for religious freedom without firing a shot.
In November, a federal judge ruled that Roy Moore's 2.5-ton Ten Commandments monolith was unconstitutionally displayed in the rotunda of our state judicial building. A week later, state workers moved it to a storage closet, out of sight, where it remains.
Later that week, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary removed Roy Moore from office, for disobeying that federal court order.
We have to celebrate even the smallest victories for religious freedom in Alabama, and these were two big ones. We've kicked out a chief justice who believed he was on some kind of mission from God and refused to acknowledge the federal judicial system's superiority. And, we've removed his golden calf as well.
The Maccabees would be proud.
No, it's not the "Jewish Christmas."
The story of Chanukah is one of freedom from state-sponsored religion. In the early 2nd century BCE, a man named Antiochus came to power in Syria. At the time, Israel and her Jews were part of the Syrian Empire.
Antiochus tried to force the Jews under his rule to accept the Greek Hellenist religion, the official creed of his empire. He ordered Torah scrolls to be burned, and forbade Jews from observing Shabbat, from practicing ritual circumcision, from observing the rules of kashrut.
Religious freedom was obliterated, and all subjects of the empire were forced to Hellenism. Many Jews chose to be martyred rather than accept a new religion.
Under the leadership of a man named Judah, a group called the Maccabees (from the Hebrew for "hammer") was formed. Heavily outnumbered, the Maccabees still managed to beat back the Syrians in a series of battles and regained control of Jerusalem.
And so, religious freedom was saved.
In Alabama this year, we've won two battles for religious freedom without firing a shot.
In November, a federal judge ruled that Roy Moore's 2.5-ton Ten Commandments monolith was unconstitutionally displayed in the rotunda of our state judicial building. A week later, state workers moved it to a storage closet, out of sight, where it remains.
Later that week, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary removed Roy Moore from office, for disobeying that federal court order.
We have to celebrate even the smallest victories for religious freedom in Alabama, and these were two big ones. We've kicked out a chief justice who believed he was on some kind of mission from God and refused to acknowledge the federal judicial system's superiority. And, we've removed his golden calf as well.
The Maccabees would be proud.
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