Did the Maccabees use their brains?

A woman goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Chanukah cards. She says to the clerk, “May I have 50 Chanukah stamps?”

The clerk asks, “What denomination?”

“Oh my G-d,” the woman says, “has it come to this? Give me 6 Orthodox, 12 Conservative, and 32 Reform.”

***

You’re a loner.

Friends have deserted you.

The world you knew is totally upside-down.

Morality is lost.

Religion is prohibited.

Everything you stand for is crumbling before your very own eyes.

What do you do?

You sit down with a few loyal followers to devise a plan of action. Ideas are being thrown around the table:

“Just give up; it’s a lost cause!”

“We should go into hiding, so that at least we and our families will stay loyal and devout.”

“Let’s open an underground resistance movement, and slowly build it into a huge force. Eventually, when we will be large enough, we will fight back.”

“Pray! And cry to G-d for help!”

What do you do?

You are the leader and everyone looks at you, waiting for your decision.

In your mind there is a vision of a day when freedom will ring through out the world, when democracy will replace tyranny. Flashbacks of mighty Samson, Abraham and Joseph float through your memory.

You look at the discouraged faces of your family and followers, despair painted all over their faces. What will become of them?

You reach a decision:

Fight back!!!

Are you out of your mind?

That is suicide!

What’s the rush?

Moreover: if you lose, there will be no one left to teach the people!

Where is your responsibility?

Fight back!!!

You close your eyes, and you share a dream:

“Dear friends, I can see the future. I see a place called America, a country similar to our sophisticated Greece, full of culture and secularism. It is a land where religion is unpopular and out of style.

“Yet look! There is a Menorah at the White House, at the mall, in Manhattan, and in the windows of millions of people’s homes.

“See the smiles on the faces of Jewish children; look at the determination in the faces of their parents! Listen how they tell the story of our heroism, and promise to keep up our legacy.

“We have responsibility for the future generations! We must not be afraid! The future of Judaism is in our hands!”

They smile at you. They understand.

Moshiach now!

Happy Chanukah!