Happy Hanukkah! The Jewish holiday commemorates a military victory over the Greeks achieved in 164 B.C., after a four-year guerrilla war. Four years prior, in 168 B.C., a Greek army seized the great Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to Zeus. The Jews accepted that insult, but could not accept an imperial edict ordering the death of any Jew who observed Jewish rituals, and a further order that Jews actively worship the Greek gods. Loyalty oaths are still a thing today, of course. (Anti-racism, anyone? Of course we’re all against …

‘Why, thou owest God a death’: Falstaff, Prince Hal, Henry IV, and Hanukkah Read More »