I always thought the Chanukah story was that the Greeks destroyed all the oil in the Jewish temple, the Jews found one day’s supply left, and there was a miracle where that one pot lasted for eight days (until they were able to make more).

I found out this weekend that that’s not actually the story.

The Greeks didn’t destroy any oil. There was plenty!

The Greeks knew that it was important to the Jews to use spiritually pure oil in the temple (meaning the high priest had made and sealed it). This war was religious, not physical: the Greeks saw no need to destroy the oil itself, instead knowing that merely destroying the seals was enough to ruin the Jews’ ritual.

The Jews could’ve decided to use the impure oil, but instead searched high and low for any remaining pure oil.

This totally changes the meaning of the story for me.

Before, it was just “God performs miracles”.

Now, it’s so much more actionable: “If you do what you believe is right, not what’s easy, miraculous things will happen.”

You can frame this as divine intervention… but if you’re less spiritually inclined it’s also true through a scientific, psychological lens: act in alignment with your internal compass—what you believe is right, not what’s easy—and your subconscious will ensure you’re led to externalities that may well be seen as ‘miraculous’ from the outside.