Chanukah is widely celebrated as a holiday of resistance, where the Jews refused to accept Syrian-Greek sovereignty. For proof, look no further than Al HaNissim, the prayer we insert into the Chanukah Tefillah. According to it:

You [Hashem] delivered the mighty into the hands of the week, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and the degenerates into the hands of those who cling to your Torah. And you made for yourself a great and holy name in your world, and performed a great salvation and miracle for your people Israel, as you do today. And afterward, your children came to the Holy of Holies in your House, and they cleansed your Palace and purified your Temple and they kindled lights in the courtyard of your Sanctuary and they established these eight days of Chanukah to give thanks and to praise your great name. (Translation from myjewishlearning.com)

All of this is true, but it is worth considering the history of this holiday and the people and empires surrounding it, which can hopefully bring us to a more nuanced understanding of it.

The conventional story of Chanukah has the Maccabees ridding the land of Hellenism and Seleucid control, re-establishing Jewish sovereignty, and instituting Chanukah as a celebration of the great miracles they experienced. This story can perhaps best be summarized by the Passuk, “Eit La’asot LaHashem Heifeiru Toratecha,” “It is time to act for Hashem, for they have desecrated Your Torah” (Tehillim 119:126). Dylan Thomas inadvertently described this viewpoint pretty well: “Do not go gentle into that good night,” the Maccabees said, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

The historical account is slightly more complicated. The beginning chronology generally follows the basic Chanukah story. Antiochus became king, persecuted the Jews, and desecrated the Beit HaMikdash. However, it becomes more complicated after that. The Maccabees did restore the Beit HaMikdash and gain religious freedom, but they were not sovereign: the Seleucids still had influence in Judaea. The Chashmonaim were forced to recognize the Seleucids as at least nominal rulers of Judaea, and were still subject to invasions by Antiochus’ successors. Full autonomy was gained only under Yochanan Hyrcanus, who himself was forced, at first, to accept Seleucid sovereignty over Judaea. This entire process [1] took over fifty years, and involved victories, setbacks, intrigue, and involvement from the major powers of the day, including the Roman Republic and Parthian Empire.

None of this is meant to minimize Chanukah. Far from that, it comes to show just how important of a holiday Chanukah really is. Of course, Chanukah is the holiday of Jewish resistance, and of course, it is the holiday of Jewish sovereignty, but it also shows that complete victories do not come in a day, and occasionally, a slow approach is best. The lesson of Chanukah is that achieving goals of peace and power may involve working with the enemy (and sometimes not). The end period of the Beit HaMikdash is full of events like these, where inviting too much foreign influence led to disaster, and rejecting it too harshly, likewise, led to disaster. Roman intervention in the Chashomana’i civil war between Hyrcanus and Aristobolus helped Judaea become a province of the nascent Roman Empire. But spurning the Roman Empire also proved disastrous: one need look no further than the three Jewish-Roman wars. Each situation presents its own challenges, Chanukah shows, and each challenge requires its own approach.

It also teaches a valuable lesson about gratitude. The miracle of the Menorah and the return to religious autonomy could have been obscured by the narrative of “Akati Avdei Achashveirosh Anan,” “We are still the slaves of Achashveirosh” (Megillah 14a). But we choose, not to be bogged down in the incomplete success of their initial rebellion. We focus instead on the miracles Hashem performed for us, allowing us to return to the Beit HaMikdash and to defeat, at least partially, an empire that was much stronger than us. Chanukah has a long and complicated history, but its essence is encapsulated in Al HaNissim: “LeHodot U’LeHallel LeShimcha HaGadol,” “to give thanks and to praise your great name,” remaining eternally grateful to Hashem for allowing us to worship Him.

[1] According to my limited knowledge and some help from Wikipedia (shhhh - don’t tell anyone I use Wikipedia).