By Rabbi Yosef Shemtov: Why do we celebrate Chanukah? Israel was captured by the Greeks around 200 years before the destruction of the second temple. The Greeks were not like other nations who killed Jews, but they were very interested in killing our religion. They started making decrees that Jews should not be allowed to keep Shabbat, Brit Mila and other mitsvot. They claimed we are all one and equal. For more than 50 years Jews were persecuted.
Everyone wondered why G-d brought this decree upon us which prevented Jews from performing mitsvot freely. Kohanim from the Maccabi family came up with the answer. It was because when we were free to do mitsvot, we were relaxed and didn’t do them with love and passion. So Hashem took them away from us. We failed to realize performing mitzvot is an advantage and not a burden.
So the Kohanim suggested if we show Hashem that we are ready to sacrifice ourselves for mitsvot and ready to go to war and give up our lives in order to be free to do mitsvot, then Hashem will be happy with us and the decree will be nullified. And that’s exactly what happened. This is also why we light candles on Chanukah. The light represents Hashem’s Shekhina which resides with every one of us. We celebrate Chanukah because we realized the worth of Hashem’s mitsvot and Hashem made peace with us again.
On behalf of the Yachad rabbis, I wish everyone a happy and meaningful Chanukah.