No nation felt the effects of this effort more than the Jews living in the small province of Judah.

Early on in his tenure, Antiochus, with the help of his personally appointed high priest, had a gymnasium erected in Jerusalem, within direct sight of the Temple. This gymnasium would serve as a center of hellenistic education and athletics, where nudity and immoral behavior was the norm. Pagan statues and altars were present as well; sacrifices were offered to Greek gods prior to the commencement of sporting events.

These changes attracted many Jews, particularly Jewish youth. Many priests were also influenced by this new culture and neglected their sacrificial duties in favor of the new diversions.

Most of the Jewish population, however, was stunned by the introduction of immoral Greek culture into their holy city and refused to embrace it in any way.

At approximately the mid-point of his reign, Antiochus intensified his efforts at hellenization. He outlawed, at the pain of death, such core Jewish practices as sacrifices, Sabbath observance, circumcision, and the study of Torah. Simultaneously, he introduced pagan activities and worship among the Jewish populace.

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The king sent agents with written orders to Jerusalem and the towns of Judea, introducing ways and customs foreign to the country.

Burnt-offerings, sacrifices, and libations in the Temple were forbidden; Sabbaths and feast-days were to be profaned. Altars, idols, and sacred precincts were to be established. Swine and other unclean animals were to be offered as sacrifices. They must leave their sons uncircumcised; they must make themselves in every way abominable, unclean, and profane, and so forget the law and change all their statutes. The penalty for disobedience was death. (I Maccabees 1:44-50)

When his edicts were violated, Antiochus responded with intense cruelty. Mothers who had their sons circumcised risked a cruel death for themselves and their children. On at least one occasion he had two mothers arrested after circumcisions were performed on their sons. They were paraded through the streets of Jerusalem, their sons clinging to them. All four were then thrown to their deaths from the city's walls.

The Seleucid-Greeks also took aim at defiling the purity of the Jewish home. They declared that all women who were about to be married must first be brought to the local governing officer, who would engage in intimate relations with them.

The profanity of this decree caused some Jews to marry on a day of the week when the Greeks were less vigilant. Others who were unable to circumvent the meddling officers abstained from marriage altogether, or wed in secret.

Most significantly, the Temple in Jerusalem was polluted and called after Zeus Olympus. On 15 Kislev, 168 BCE, an idol was erected in the Temple. Ten days later, exactly three years before the Chanukah miracle, swine was offered as a pagan sacrifice upon the altar. The House of the God of Israel was converted to a House of Zeus.

What is most compelling here is that paganism has historically been a tolerant, inclusive religious system. Polytheism by its very nature accepts that presence of other religious ideas and forces. Upon no other group did Antiochus impose such religious limitations. Clearly, he perceived that most Jews would continue to stubbornly resist any attempts at hellenization.

Throughout, the Jews responded with a tremendous resilience and strength of spirit, despite the threat of painful torture and death that hung over them. They resisted passively, preferring martyrdom to revolution.

Numerous instances of passive Jewish resistance are recorded. They include the story of Elazar, an elderly priest and leading sage, who refused to eat pork despite the torturous death that awaited him. (Under normal conditions, Jewish law permits consuming non-kosher food when the alternative is death. These were, however, far from normal conditions.)

They also include a Hellenistic Jew named Yoseph Meshisa, who was brutally murdered for refusing to enter the Temple at the behest of Greek soldiers.

Of course, no story better depicts the spirit of Jewish martyrdom than the account of Chana and her seven sons, which pits the demands of a maniacal tyrant against a noble, defenseless woman and her family.

One needs to understand the unique nature of these responses. Only the Jew died for his religion in the polytheistic world. Judaism maintains that without Torah, humanity is doomed - and that to preserve the Torah, self-sacrifice - sometimes even death - is often necessary.

The struggle finally boiled over in 166 BCE. Igniting the smoldering spark of Jewish resistance against the Seleucids was the elderly Matisyahu, from the priestly Hasmonean family. He, together with his five sons, would permanently change the face of Jewish history.

Persecution had forced Matisyahu to Modi'in, a small, inconspicuous hamlet situated to the northwest of Jerusalem. There, he and his sons hoped to be spared the brunt of the hellenistic efforts that were previously concentrated in Jerusalem. Their hopes would soon be dashed.

Before long, Greek troops arrived at Modi'in. They instructed the Jews to meet in the town square where the pagan ritual, which included the sacrifice of a pig to Zeus, would take place. As the town elder and a priest, Matisyahu was called upon to perform the sacrifice. If the Greeks could win him over, the rest of the town would certainly follow.

Matisyahu glanced at the swine, the animal most abhorred by Jews. It was then, amidst the fearful anticipation of the local villagers and under the watchful glare of the Greek soldiers, that he uttered his firm refusal.

Defying Matisyahu's heroic stance, a hellenized Jew came forward to sacrifice the pig. At that moment, the elderly priest stabbed him and killed the Greek commander as well. After tearing down the altar, he faced the crowd. Echoing the words spoken by Moshe following the sin of the Golden Calf some 1,500 years prior, he challenged them: "Mi L'Hashem, ai'li!" - "All who are for God should follow me!" (I Maccabees 2:27)

Local inhabitants immediately pounced upon the Greek garrison, killing them. The war had officially begun.

Matisyahu would not live long enough to see the full consequences of his actions. Within a year of launching the revolt, he died. Before his passing in 165 BCE, Matisyahu left instructions that his militarily gifted son Yehuda become his successor.

Yehuda was the practical leader and military strategist behind the eventual success of the Jewish revolt. He inspired thousands to take up arms in the battle for the preservation of Judaism, and devised strategies for the Jewish forces to outmaneuver and defeat the larger, more sophisticated Greek army.

Yehuda Maccabee (an acronym for "mi komocho b'ailim Hashem" - "Who is like You among the powers, O God" - Exodus 15:11) is one of the great heroes in Jewish history. He is typically viewed as a brave warrior and military genius who led his men to victory against seemingly insurmountable odds. His true greatness, however, stemmed from the fact that he never lost sight of the real source of his successes:

Yehuda's heroism was rooted in the purest of all sources, a zealous love of his religion. He fought not for his own selfish end, nor from a passion for victory on the battlefield. Rather, a spirit of self-sacrifice guided him. He understood that God was calling to him. He could not decline his historic mission.

Judaism has always utilized different criteria when identifying its heroes. Rarely are they men of tremendous physical strength or military prowess. More often, they are "ordinary" people who summon up extraordinary strength of character at pivotal, trying moments.

The reign of Antiochus marks a turning point in Jewish and world history. Unlike the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians, whose persecution of the Jewish people was aimed primarily at our political strength, Antiochus took aim at the Jewish religion.

Had he been successful in his attempts at hellenizing the Jews of Judah, all of Jewish and world history would have been permanently altered. Only the brave resistance of the Hasmoneans and their followers, who risked their lives for the sake of preserving their religion, would ensure the future of the Jewish people.

In light of the above discussion, it becomes difficult to ignore the intense irony presented by the Olympic-styled Maccabiah Games sponsored by the Maccabi World Union.

Is it not both awkward and inappropriate to name the games after the very individuals who risked their lives in resistance of Greek ideology and culture?

How painful it would be for Yehuda Maccabee and his followers to know that the very culture they fought so hard to eradicate from Judean soil, with its gymnasiums, Olympic games, and glorification of physical pursuits, would be embraced by Jews in subsequent generations - in their name! - as the basis of Jewish strength, independence, cultural identity and pride.

While we certainly acknowledge the Maccabees' strength, courage and fortitude, it would be disgraceful to reduce their legacy to the fleeting glory of physical prowess and military might. Had Chanukah been about that alone, it would have soon faded far into our distant past, together with many other military successes in Jewish history.

What has secured Chanukah's eternal place among our people is its emphasis on the Jews' indomitable spirit.

More than anything else, Yehuda and his followers were "saints of the most high, without whom the Torah would have been forgotten from Israel" (Ramban, commentary to Genesis 49:10). It was through such people that God would ultimately deliver His people.