The Miracle of the Maccabim Lyrics

There are warriors, there are tzadikim, and there are legends

My father Matisyahu and my brothers the Maccabees, they were all of these things

For without them, who knows where we the Jewish people would be

Years ago, Yisrael was under the rule of the evil Greek king, Antiochus

Who hated the Torah and wanted to destroy the Jewish spirit in us all

I have had enough of these Jews and their burdensome Torah

I have given them every chance to embrace Greek culture and ritual, yet many of them still refuse

Yisrael is under Greek rule and its citizens shall live as such, all of them

Scribe, write me this decree and see that it is sent across the land to all of the Jews

No more Torah, no more Mitzvot, and no more Judaism

The Jews must become Greek or die

And the king's decrees were sent across Eretz Yisroel

The Jews can no longer keep the Shabbos

You Jews are hereby banned from observing the Shabbos

Any sign of you keeping the Shabbos and you shall die

Please, please don't kill me

I'll never keep Shabbos again

Jews could not learn Torah

The Greeks burned our Torah scrolls across Jewish communities

Your Torah makes much better firewood than it does reading

Those Greeks, they converted our holy temple into a place of idolatry

Placing idols inside our holy temple, offering up pigs in a beis hamikdash

Ah, looking much better

Now this place is starting to feel much more like home

He he he! Greeks Rule!

Worst of all, so many of our Jewish brothers and sisters buckled under the pressure of the Greeks

Changing their dress and even their names

Embracing the Greek way of life

Abandoning the Torah and our Mesorah

Welcome to the Greek life

You made the right choice

My father Matisyahu was disgusted and horrified at what had happened to our people

Look what they have done

We can no longer stay here in Yerushalayim

It is not safe for us here

He gathered my brothers and I to leave Yerushalayim

So we fled and settled in Modiin

In the beginning, things were settling perfectectly in Modiin

However, there was not as much of a presence of Greek soldiers to enforce the evil king's decrees

Unfortunately, Modiin did not remain safe for long

What is the status of the Jews

Have they all abandoned their silly Torah and ridiculous rituals

Are they all now upstanding Greek citizens loyal to my empire

Your Majesty, many have embraced Greek life

But there still remains a small minority of Jews who are still loyal and committed to their beliefs

This will not do

Bribe the local community leaders to embrace Greek culture

Bribe them greatly, and if they don't listen, kill them in front of their pathetic followers

Then I'm sure they will change their minds

It wasn't long before the Greek soldiers arrived in Modiin with a caravan filled with pigs

They were there to erect an altar in the name of their false god

They sought out my father to inaugurate the newly formed Greek altar

Are you the community leader, the great Matisyahu

Yes, I am Matisyahu

King Antiochus has ordered me here to ask of you to be the first Jew to bring a sacrifice to the Greek altar of Modiin

The king offers you this gift in return for accepting this honor and encouraging your fellow Jews to do the same

We've brought plenty of pigs for you all to sacrifice to the greatest of Greek gods, the great and mighty Zeus

Listen, they want us to abandon the Torah and mitzvahs

I say never stay true to the Torah

Oh, enough of your preaching, Rabbi

Get with the times. The Greeks are here to stay

Sacrifice to their gods, I say

My father Matisyahu, witnessing this betrayal, became filled with a holy rage

You traitor

The events of Modiin reached King Antiochus, and soon we knew we'd find ourselves in an ongoing conflict with the Greeks

Other loyal Jews began to join us

We had formed an army of 6,000 men strong

Our rebellion had begun, and we were achieving victories

However, my father would not see this rebellion to its conclusion

My sons, my time has come

This war has only just begun

Strengthen yourselves, my sons, and listen to your brothers, Shimon and Yehuda

Stay true to the Torah and be loyal to Hashem no matter what it takes

I love you, my sons

Shema Yisrael

I have had enough of these renegade Jews

It's time we squash those Jews like the little bugs that they are

I want those Maccabees' heads on a spit

Brothers, Antiochus is sending an army of Greek soldiers our way right now

We must make a plan

What do we do

Do you have faith, Shimon

Yes, in this life and the next

Then all we have to do is hold our swords up high

Hashem will do the rest

Gather our men at once

We will strike the Greeks at their camp first before they ever reach ours

Do not fear that we are outnumbered by the enemy

It makes no difference in the eyes of Hashem

The enemy is fighting for their arrogant pagan ways of life

But we are fighting for Hashem

Have faith and fight, fight, fight

You see, men, you see this victory here tonight

Remember, this is Hashem's war

We are merely His warriors

Stay loyal to Him and His Torah, and you shall always prevail

Now, let us reclaim the Beis Hamikdash

My brother Yehuda mightily led us to the Beis Hamikdash to reclaim it

It was worse than we ever could have imagined, but we didn't waste any time

We rid the Beis Hamikdash of the blasphemous avoda zara

Our holy menorah was nowhere to be found

So we quickly fashioned one from iron and plated it with tin

We still needed oil to light the menorah

However, all the oil we found had been contaminated by the Greeks

So we searched desperately until finally we found something

A flask of oil untouched with the seal of the Kohen Gadol

We knew it was only enough oil for one night, but we couldn't wait any longer

We were determined to show Hashem our dedication that night

So we prepared ourselves to light the menorah

We returned the next evening to find the menorah miraculously still burning

The flask of oil, which was only enough to last one night

Continued to burn for eight whole nights

We saw this as a sign from Hashem

And we knew a great miracle had happened there

There are warriors, there are tzadikim, and there are legends

My father Matisyahu and my brothers the Maccabees

They were all of these things