Gratitude Monday: Myrtle wreaths and roses twine

It has been said that the entirety of Jewish holidays can be distilled down to this triad: they tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat. Yesterday marked the last night of Hanukkah, the eight-day commemoration of the successful conclusion of the Jewish revolt against the Seleucids in 165 BCE. A lot of latkes have been consumed over the past week in homes around the world, accompanied by the sound of dreidels being spun.

The revolt was led by Judah, known as Judah Maccabee, “Judah the Hammer”, a brilliant military leader who employed the kinds of tactics later used by Thomas J. Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. Victory included rededicating the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated under the occupation forces. In order to perform the cleansing ritual, the Jews needed to burn pure, unadulterated olive oil in the Temple’s menorah every night. After all the turmoil of revolution, there was only enough of the kosher oil to last a single night, and it would take much longer than a day to lay in a supply to fulfill this requirement.

However, the lamp was lighted and the oil lasted for eight nights, until new oil could be brought in. Hanukkah is the celebration of this event, combining joy at the overthrow of tyranny with delight at the miracle of the oil. Eight nights of light in the temple, eight candles (and the shamash, the servant candle that lights all the others) on the hanukkiyah. Plus latkes and the dreidel. It’s another of those holidays that rejoices at the triumph of light over darkness (freedom over oppression, good over evil), and I don’t think we can have too many of these.

For today’s music, let’s have a piece from Georg Friedrich Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus. Rather unfortunately, the oratorio was written to honor the triumph of the Duke of Cumberland over the rebellious Scots at Culloden in 1746. (Seriously—Cumberland’s single win in a long and uninspiring military career hardly equates to an upset David/Goliath victory like the Maccabees. But Handel was sucking up to Cumberland’s father, George II, so a composer’s gotta do what a composer’s gotta do.) But let’s not hold that against the music.

“See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes” has a chorus of ecstatic Judeans welcoming the victorious Judah, who has paved the way to peace and earned their heartfelt thanks. Note that emphasis is on female voices. That’s because the score calls for youths and virgins to lead the crowd in proclaiming their joy. Only at the end do you get all the Israelites chiming in.

Seems perfectly legit to be contemplating an actual victory over oppression and a return to peace for this week in Advent and this Gratitude Monday. That I found a concert performance of it by Voces para la Paz is just a little bit of that miraculous oil.