The Real History Of Hanukkah Is More Complicated Than You Thought

I thought this link below that was on Huffington was so interesting. It gives what I think is a true historical account of the rationale of Hanukah over and above the religious myth that is perpetrated and surrounds ALL religious holidays. It gives one an intellectual perspective and the ability to discern fact from fiction.

One can surely do the same for Christianity and all other religious faiths. Faith means that one must accept stories handed down from generation to generation that have absolutely no proof of their veracity. I cannot do that and it is why though I love my own Jewish culture and its symbols I am a cultural and secular Jew but not a ritualistically religious one.

I cannot accept things without proof simply because one "authority" says one has to. I say no I do not have to. Faith obviates ones quest for truth by alleviating the perpetrator of faith the burden of proving what he says exists because he, of course, cannot prove it.

I link the history around Hanukah which is to me much more fascinating than merely the traditional celebration of the Hanukah story and involves Hellenistic or Greek culture spreading its influence into Jerusalem. It had a profound affect on many Jews of that age much like assimilation has done to Jews in our era. We absorb the culture in which we live, we intermarry and the faith becomes diluted. We can see from this account that is exactly what ultimately the more traditional Jews of that age feared and why they went to war over it with those Jews in their community who took on Greek culture and even its deities. It is, I think, a historically truer and realistic explanation of the holiday celebrated today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/real-history-of-hanukkah_us_585ea38ae4b0d9a594587fd3