Chanukah, the “Festival of Lights,” actually means “dedication.”
It refers to the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in the Second Century B.C.E., after a successful three-year revolt by Jewish forces — the Maccabees — against the Seleucid Greeks, who attempted to suppress Judaism.
As the story goes, the victorious Maccabees only found enough oil to light the holy candelabra, the Menorah, for one night, but the oil miraculously lasted for eight nights.
The holiday (alternatively spelled “Hanukkah”) has many different themes, including the triumph of good over evil, even when at a disadvantage in strength and numbers.
As the traditional prayer says: “You delivered the strong into the hand of the weak, the many into the power of the few, the impure into the power of the pure, the wicked into the power of the righteous.”
The culmination of that victory was the restoration of the Temple to its true, holy purpose.
If the United States were to have its own “Holy Temple,” it would not be the Capitol, nor the White House, nor the Supreme Court, but rather the Constitution itself, which is not a building, but a text that lives throughout the body politic.
Though abstract, it, too, is subject to influence, interpretation — and desecration.
In the last few months, we have watched in horror as it has been desecrated by those who have abused it to serve a narrow political vendetta.
Democrats have not simply said: “We have the majority in the House; therefore we are impeaching the president.” That, at least, would have been honest.
Instead, they have claimed to be defending the Constitution. Worse, they have accused anyone who disagrees with them of disobeying it.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) recently asked, rhetorically, that if Republicans in the Senate refused to remove the president, “[W]hat does their oath of office really mean?”
Along the way, Democrats have ignored warnings — even from within their own ranks — that they are not obeying the Constitution, but abusing it.
George Washington University Professor Jonathan Turley, a Democrat, warned his party there was no evidence to sustain the House’s “abuse of power” charge against the president, adding: ‘[I]f you make a “high crime and misdemeanor’ out of going to the courts, it is an abuse of power. It’s your abuse of power.”
Nevertheless, Schiff and the Democrats not only mocked the Constitution’s separation of powers, but also violated the Bill of Rights.
They infringed the First and Fourth Amendments by spying on, and publishing, the phone records of a journalist, an opposition leader, and the president’s lawyer; they infringed the Fifth Amendment by denying the president due process; and they infringed the Sixth Amendment by denying him meaningful legal representation.
Then, when confronted with the weakness of their case, they insisted that they could not wait for the courts to rule, saying that it was urgently necessary to impeach and remove the president before he could cheat in the next election.
After passing their articles of impeachment, however, they decided not to deliver them to the Senate, claiming the power to stall the process — a final insult to the Constitution, which grants the Senate the sole power to try impeachments.
Critics of the president may be approaching the holidays with a sense of contentment that they have forever stained Donald Trump’s presidency. His supporters, however, should prepare for the political fight that is to come, to take vengeance at the ballot box.
The goal must be to defeat the Democrats so completely that they never attempt to do this again. The vision: to re-dedicate the Constitution to its original purpose and design.
Light the candles with that in mind.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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