Dec. 16, 2025

Twelve Against Ten Million (Lessons From the Chanukah Story & Miracle)

Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
Amazon Music podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon Amazon Music podcast player icon
Season 8

A single van’s worth of fighters against a sprawling empire isn’t the setup for a myth—it’s the spine of a moral challenge. We take a hard look at the Maccabean revolt and strip it of sentimental glow: twelve or so members of a rabbinic family stood against a Greek world packed with soldiers, arms, elephants, and millions of citizens. The numbers weren’t close, and that’s the point. The heart of Hanukkah is not cute; it’s costly. It asks what happens when conviction refuses to make peace with pressure.

We walk through the scale of the mismatch and then lean into how tradition remembers the turning point. Midrashic portraits—eagle-fast, deer-light, lion-strong—read like battlefield poetry. Whether you name it providence or metaphor, the message lands: determination aligned with a sacred purpose can push beyond what spreadsheets predict. That alignment is captured in the idea of Moser Nefesh, the willingness to give of oneself for what is right. It’s less about headline heroism and more about steady fidelity when numbers, peers, and fear all argue for surrender.

From there, we bring the story home. Most of us won’t face elephants, but we do face corners: workplaces that pressure us to mute our values, communities that normalize what our conscience can’t. We talk about what it means to stand your ground without theatrics, how small acts of courage create new options, and why “having Hashem on your side” is about integrity as much as outcomes. Candles become more than décor—they’re a discipline of memory, sparks that ask what we will stake for what we claim to love.

If you’re ready for a Hanukkah story that honors the risk and the grit—and helps you find your footing when the odds look unforgiving—press play, share this with someone who needs courage tonight, and leave a review to tell us where you’re choosing to stand.

Support the show


Join The Motivation Congregation WhatsApp community for daily motivational Torah content!

----------------

----------------
Questions or Comments? Please email me @ michaelbrooke97@gmail.com



00:00 - Rethinking The Hanukkah Story

00:26 - Twelve Versus A Vast Empire

01:13 - Faith, Sacrifice, And Supernatural Help

02:22 - Courage When Cornered

WEBVTT

00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:18.160
Unless you're well acquainted with the writings of Titus Flavius Josephus's works, well then it may shock you to hear just how one-sided this Maccabean revolt really was.

00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:25.600
The story of Hanukkah sometimes gets told as a children's story, an old folk tale.

00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:31.760
The truth is that the Maccabees were an army of no more than twelve.

00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:43.759
And the Greeks, with all of their arsenals, artillery, elephants, armor, muscles, biceps, six packs.

00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:51.600
They had more than 10 million citizens in the Greek population then.

00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:56.799
Larger than the size of the entire population of the city of Manhattan right now.

00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.520
Up against a little Kolo family.

00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:03.200
They barely fit inside of that white van, but they all go in one car.

00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:07.280
The Maccabees, a dad, a couple sons, and maybe some others.

00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:11.519
And oh, just how one-sided the war was.

00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:26.480
That the Jewish people, this rabbinic family, invoked their will against this army with magical and sacred strength.

00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:29.920
I call this Baruch who literally carrying them to victory.

00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:46.879
The Midrashim tell the stories how they moved at super speed, like the lightness and swiftness of an eagle, a deer, with the strength of a lion, of a jaguar, of a leopard, slaughtering Greek after Greek.

00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:54.400
Because while the Greeks had so many reasons to win the war, it'd be more than 10 million.

00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:57.200
The Jewish people had the only one that counted.

00:01:58.239 --> 00:02:00.959
It was these 12 people that came together.

00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:13.199
After some had been His rash lubod, in their service and said, This is what needs to be done, so me, La Hashem Ela, it doesn't matter at what cost, they were Moser Nefesh.

00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:18.479
They gave up of themselves for Hashem, and so Hashem was on their side.

00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:21.360
When Hashem's on your side, you cannot lose.

00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:25.199
Let the story be real to us this year.

00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:35.520
And that when we do get squished into a corner, forced into places that it's now impossible to do Hashem's will, don't be afraid to stand up for the omnipresent.

00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:38.240
Don't be afraid to stand up for what is right.

00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:44.560
Because when you do that, often you have Hashem on your side, if not always, you have Hashem on your side.

00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:47.919
And miraculous things begin to happen.