There are many similarities between the socio-political climate of the original Chanukah and the third Jewish commonwealth. In those days, the government was secular with the majority of the population in favor of secular and even anti Torah legislation. In spite of that, there were still a few hard-core supporters of a Torah lifestyle. The Jewish nation has always been a nation of quality not quantity and the time of the Macabees was no different. Unfortunately in spite of the fact that the Zionist Israeli government is infinitely more religious with all Torah holidays being legal holidays and all government buildings having mezzuzot and an army that keeps all the religious holidays all too many allegedly religious Jews refuse to take advantage of their free airline ticket home. (The Israeli government will give all returning Jews a free ticket to G-ds beloved garden. There are also numerous other benefits for new immigrants.)
Rav Mordechei Machlis from Jerusalem asks why is the story of Purim only one day but the holiday of Chanukah 8 days? He states that answering it took 8 days to kill the enemies in Chanukah but only one day at the time of Purim too simplistic. The proposed solution of Rav Machlis is at the time of Purim it was very simple to know who were the enemies of the Jews but at the time of Chanukah the enemies were part of the Jewish people. As a result, the Jews needed more time to sort out the enemies from the friends. This problem of the enemy being among us unfortunately is the problem today rather than the Purim problem of being persecuted from without. As written in the introduction all the Jewish heroes in the Torah, from Avrohom until Rabbi Akiba not only valued G-ds beloved garden but also went to war to defend it. Furthermore, all the Jewish holidays and prayers focus on only one aspect of Judaism. Coming back to G-ds beloved garden. Regarding those that say, “but there are certain great leaders of the Jewish world that say one does not have to make aliya or serve in Tzahal (Israeli army)” are great Jewish reminded of the “Emperors New Clothes” Just because everyone said the emperor was fully clothed everyone was embarrassed to say otherwise. Likewise, any leader saying Israel and Tzahal (Israeli army) is not important is just as naked of Jewish values as the emperor was of clothing.
There is another variant on this famous question of why is Chanukah 8 days? It takes 8 days to make the oil but they had found a jug of oil sufficient for one day. Therefore, the miracle and holiday should only be 7 days. One of the answers is that the Jewish people had the faith in lighting the menorah immediately and not waiting until conditions were perfect i.e. with a continuous uninterrupted supply of oil to light the menorah. Likewise, we should learn to have faith in G-d and not worry about any eventual potential problems in making aliya or performing the mitzvah of joining the Israeli army. This need to have faith becomes even more acute when one begins to think about all the miracles G-d has done for His beloved people in returning them to His beloved garden. As the gemorah in Shabbat page 53 writes, “G-d hates to do miracles and only does so when absolutely necessary. Again in our case G-d has done more miracles than we can count in returning us home. See the chapter entitled “Needless Hatred” in this book.
Rav Nachman from Jerusalem has a parable on this refusal of the Jewish people to return to G-ds beloved garden and enlist in Tzahal (Israeli army). (NOTE: Women while forbidden to serve in Tzahal can still do other things such as ride on busses and go through Arab neighborhoods such as Damascus gate.) Once upon a time, there was a very religious community in Poland. After several years, unfortunately the town’s Rabbi passed away. The townsfolk being generous decided to support the widow of their deceased Rav. Not wanting to simply give her charity, they gave her a job to wake up the citizens for their morning prayers. Since this was Poland winter season was very cold. To make matters even worse as chance would have it the first house she arrived at was Yankele the heretic. As this was a very religious town the townsfolk forever after shunned Yankele for his scandalous behavior. Yankele in spite of being the heretic he was, still had a warm Jewish heart. As a result, upon being awakened by the Rabbis widow at 4 am on a cold wintry day told the widow, “Return home and I will wake up the townsfolk.” Yankele was also an ethical person and kept his word. At the first door however, he knocked on the residents asked, “Who is it?” When informed it was Yankele the all so religious Jews living there became livid with righteous anger at the audacity of such a heretic to dare wake them up for morning prayers to G-d Almighty. And so it went. At every house the same scene occurred. What audacity that someone on such a low level as Yankele should dare wake up such distinguished persons. The final predictable result being that the only one making it to prayers was Yankele the heretic.
Likewise, our Zionistic Hellenistic leaders are still waking us up to do the mitzvah of settling the land. One should know that fully 1/3 of the Torah is only applicable in G-ds beloved garden. This includes even such basic mitzvot as teffillin and mezuzah. See Rashi Parsha Ekev Perek 11 Posuk 18. NOTE WHILE THE MITZVAH ITSELF IS ONLY VALID IN ISRAEL WE STILLL HAVE TO PERFORM THEM FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. Rav Kook would say if someone does not like the way Israel or Tzahal (Israeli army) is being run let them come and change it.
This tolerant attitude to the non-religious and even anti-Torah founders also applied to such anti Zionist leaders as Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld who also took such an attitude and even defended the likes of Eliezer Ben-Yehudah. One Chanukah season when G-ds beloved garden was still controlled by the Turks, Eliezer Ben-Yehudah wrote an article that the Jews should learn from the Macabees and revolt. Needless to say, the Turks did not take kindly to this idea and considered it to be treasonous to such an extent that they wanted to evict all the Jews from G-ds beloved garden and execute Eliezer Ben-Yehudah. When persons therefore said to Rav Sonnenfeld about him, “May his name be erased” (the most serious curse imaginable) Rav Sonnenfeld would get extremely angry and say, “How do you know what his merit is for reviving the Jewish language?”