Chanukah

בס״ד

 Chanukah

One tiny bit of shemen,

Was found in one small pach,

But the long war leading up to that,

Is nowhere in Tanach.

For 30 years the Maccabees,

Led a war against Antiochus,

But Chazal decided not to preserve,

That war as the main focus.

Yet defeating the Seleucid Greeks,

Was just as big a nes,

As lighting the Menorah,

And cleaning up the mess.

The Maccabees made the error,

Of mixing Kahuna with the Melech,

And perhaps that contributed to,

Their going off the derech.

But other sefarim in Tanach,

Speak frankly of our leaders,

Bad errors, mistakes, and attitudes,

But they’re included for the readers.

It may be good to read both Maccabees,

And consider them with pride,

And though indeed they made mistakes,

There’s nothing there to hide.

They became as Hellenistic,

As the Greeks that they defeated,

But perhaps that is the error,

That we should not see repeated.