“Dear God, How come you did all those miracles in the old days and don’t do any now?” - from Children’s Letters to God: The New Collection compiled by Stuart Hample and Eric Marshall, NY: Workman Publishing, 1991.

Miracle: 1: an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs 2: an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment

– Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The Torah is full of miracles. Jewish history is dependent on miracles. Miracles surround us today, it just takes a well attuned eye to see them. The Chanukah story is replete with miracles. There’s much debate about which miracle is the true miracle, but ultimately, for young children, finding the true miracle is not the most important quest.

Chanukah is the only major Jewish holiday rooted firmly in history, and not in the Hebrew Bible. Chanukah (literally “dedication”) is celebrated for eight days beginning on the 25th day of Kislev – usually corresponding to sometime in December. We learn the history of Chanukah from I Maccabees and II Maccabees, written in the second century B.C.E., which are found in the Apocrypha (writings excluded from the Tanach – the Hebrew Bible). An historian named Josephus who wrote towards the end of the first century C.E., about 200 years later, also wrote about the events of Chanukah. The Rabbis wrote about Chanukah in the Gemara (late rabbinic material which, along with the Mishnah, is part of the Talmud), in the fourth or fifth century C.E., but their version differs sharply from earlier tellings.

The Books of Maccabees and the writings of Josephus detail the struggle between Antiochus, the Greek ruler of Syria, and the Maccabees – Jews dedicated to God and to the preservation of Jewish life and institutions. In168 B.C.E., Antiochus decreed that all of the peoples under his rule must Hellenize, that is, adopt the culture of the Greeks. Because Israel was at that time under Greek rule, this meant that all Jewish practices, such as circumcision and the public celebration of the festivals, were outlawed. Some Jews willingly exchanged Judaism for the excesses of Greek culture; others resisted Hellenism and were killed by Antiochus’ army.

The soldiers of Antiochus eventually came to the town of Modin, in Israel, and set up an altar in the Jewish temple. They commanded the Jews to sacrifice a pig on the altar, to demonstrate their loyalty to Antiochus and the Greek god Zeus. Mattathias, the elder priest of Modin, became so enraged when he saw a fellow Jew about to follow the command that he killed him. Mattathias and his five sons retreated to the hills with their supporters and commenced a guerrilla war against the Greeks. Mattathias turned the leadership over to his son, Judah the Maccabee (literally, “hammer”). Using superb strategy, quick maneuvers, and with a supreme faith in God, Judah and the Maccabees defeated the Greek army. While they were fighting, they had missed the eight-day holiday of Sukkot. When they defeated the Greeks, they cleaned and sanctified the temple, and declared a better-late-than-never celebration of Sukkot. We read of this in II Maccabees, “The Jews celebrated joyfully for eight days as on the Feast of Booths (Sukkot). By public edict and decree they prescribed that the whole Jewish nation should celebrate these days every year.” (II Maccabees, 10: 6, 8)

The Rabbis, writing in the Gemara some 500 years later, barely mention the battle between the Maccabees (later known as Hasmoneans) and the Greeks. Instead, the rabbis focus on the sanctification, and rededication of the Temple. The rabbis tell how when the Hasmoneans entered the defiled temple, they found only one small cruse of oil which had not been desecrated. The oil was enough to last only one day. It was required that the seven-branch menorah in the temple stay lit at all times, but it would take seven days to make more holy oil. “A miracle occurred, and [the little bit of oil] burned for eight days. The next year they ordained these days a holiday with songs and praises” (Shabbat 21b). Perhaps the rabbis did not want to encourage the celebration of a military battle. They may have wanted to stress the role of God over the strength of people. They may have played down the victory of the Maccabees because the victory lasted lass than a hundred years. Or, they may have not wanted the Jewish people, who at that time were living under Roman rule, to be inspired to revolt by a “few over the many” story. In any case, the miracle of the oil story has persevered to the present day, and many modern versions simply combine the story of the battle with the miracle of the oil.

Finding the truth is not the most important quest of Chanukah. Finding the miracles certainly is. Young children are beings of wonder. To a young child, so many things throughout the day are awesome, incredible, even miraculous. Teachers of young children can help foster this wonder, and support the discovery of daily miracles. Rabbi David Wolpe writes about the concept of being a normal mystic: “A normal mystic is one who better sees, or feels, the shaping and guiding hand of Divinity in all things.” (Floating Takes Faith: Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World, Behrman House, 2004. p. 39) Teachers of young children have opportunities every day to help children see the miracles all around them. By helping children become normal mystics, teachers can help children acknowledge all of the miracles in their lives. Using blessings for daily events instead of just saying “oh wow” helps us see the world as normal mystics, by recognizing the hand of God in each blessing-worthy moment.

Miracles are “born in the eyes [of those] who look [at] the world with a certain inspiration and faith.” (Judith Golimstok, personal communication). Certainly, some miracles are those events which demonstrate divine intervention in the normal state of human affairs, visible interruptions of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention. But when we broaden our definition to see miracles in the extremely outstanding events around us, then miracles can become an almost daily occurance, and children can become the greatest miracle seekers of all. Children see things grown-ups don’t see. Consider the Little Prince:
Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.

      In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion." 
      I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked like this:

      I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them. 
      But they answered: "Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?" 
      My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. (The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

Hanukkah can set the tone for the rest of the year, training children to be miracle seekers. Once a class has learned about the miracles of Hanukkah, the question, “Are there any miracles today?” can be the provocation for discovery the rest of the year. Eliciting definitions from the children of what a miracle actually is will guide the discovery. And then the search is on! From the birth of a new sibling, to the creation of a new friendship, to the leaves on the tree outside the classroom door all bursting into a bright red on the same day, the children will recognize miracles in their daily lives. And their personal miracles will take their place alongside all those miracles of the old days, like the creation of the world and the crossing of the Sea of Reeds. And no one will be concerned with which of the Hanukkah miracles is the true miracle. For truly, the more miracles, the better!