The following is a lightly abridged version of my essay in the American Thinker Digest, a weekly subscriber-only email that contains unique content from American Thinker’s editors. (If you’re a subscriber and haven’t received your Digest, check your spam folder.) If you’d like to receive the Digest, along with an ad-free experience and the ability to comment, you can subscribe here.

For the first time in 20 years, the first night of Hanukkah coincides with Christmas. Christmas is one of the two most profoundly significant occasions in the Christian calendar, with Hanukkah a minor holiday, but for the American imperative of giving Jewish children a winter holiday, too. Both holidays have valuable messages as we head into 2025, a time of great hope and a victory in the battle for America’s soul—although, in Churchillian fashion, “Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Christmas, of course, commemorates Christ’s birth and its promise of redemption and eternal life for mankind, a promise that reached its fulfillment with Christ’s resurrection. This promise is what makes Christmas so special. Not only is it a beautiful holiday, but it tells us that mankind is heading down the right path, something that inspires great hope and true happiness in believers.

On a decidedly secular level, the coming Trump presidency also inspires hope and happiness. Trump, a very human man, is still special, rather like Washington, Lincoln, or Churchill. Each was there when that nation needed him, guiding his people to a better, brighter future. Trump, for all his imperfections, holds out that promise for America, so much so that even Democrats are feeling hope again.

Hanukkah tells of a different hope—and it also carries a warning going into 2025.

Alexander the Great won Judea as part of his conquest of the Persian empire in 334 B.C. After Alexander’s death, one of his generals, Ptolemy, claimed Egypt and Judea.

For the next 100 years, the Greeks left Judea alone politically. However, Greek culture—easy sex (including homosexuality), nudity, and freedom from the Bible’s stringent ritual demands—led many Jews to abandon their faith and embrace pagan philosophies antithetical to the Jew’s ethically based monotheistic beliefs, setting up a conflict with traditional believers.

This tension within Judea came to a head in 198 B.C., when Antiochus III, a Seleucid Greek, wrested Judea from Ptolemaic control. To offset the rising Roman Empire, Antiochus initiated a Hellenzing campaign across his empire. The Hasidean Jews, though, resisted.

Antiochus III backed down, but his successor, Antiochus Epiphanes, was made of sterner stuff. He appointed Jason, a Hellenized Jewish priest, as Judea’s High Priest.

Jason was a Jew-in-name-only. He brought pagan rituals to the Temple, defiled the sanctuary, and had priests officiate at Greek games. When a rumor spread that Antiochus Epiphanes had died, the traditionalists brutally deposed the Hellenizers, including Jason. In fact, Antiochus Epiphanes was alive and wanted revenge.

In this brutal era, had Antiochus merely slaughtered the bad actors, the rebellion might have ended. Instead, Antiochus attacked the Jewish faith, outlawing the Sabbath and circumcision (the first covenant with God).

Matters came to a head when a Greek official tried to force a priest named Mattathias to sacrifice to the Greek gods. Instead, Mattathias killed the official.

When Antiochus ordered mass reprisals, the Jews, including the less religious ones, rebelled. Mattathias and his five sons (now known as the Maccabees, from the Hebrew word for “hammer”) became the Jews’ leaders. They and their soldiers did something new: They willingly fought and died for ideas, not land or material things.

Amazingly, this rag-tag bunch of soldiers and civilians defeated Antiochus’s armies in 164 B.C. and retook Jerusalem.

The Temple needed to be re-sanctified, a process lasting eight days. The victory and sanctification were the original Hanukkah miracle. Jewish tradition added another miracle: the sacred oil, although only enough to last for one day, burned brightly for all eight.

We Americans who value the Constitution, our borders, and our values, have seen Biden’s administration as a Seleucid desecration, trampling the Constitution, erasing the border, and balkanizing our people. Trump’s miraculous election shook off that anti-American, anti-religious, statist yoke.

However, it’s important to remember that what started with so much promise for the Jews in 164 B.C. ended 237 years later when Rome conquered Jerusalem. The problem, as always for the Jews, was that infighting weakened them, making them vulnerable to external enemies. It took almost 1,800 years for the Jewish nation to rise again.

Trump resoundingly won the Electoral College and the popular vote but barely holds Congress. The Continuing Resolution battle shows that Republicans are not unified behind him. Unless that changes, we face a repeat of his first term, ending with a Democrat victory in 2028 (whether by fair means or foul). That administration will finish what Obama and Biden started.

As we celebrate the last holidays of 2024, we must carry into 2025 both the hope of Christmas and the miracle and the warning of Hanukkah.

To all of you, our dear and loyal subscribers, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah (חג חנוכה שמח - Chag Hanukkah sameach)!

Image by AI.