In the second century before the common era, the Land of Israel was ruled by the Seleucid Greeks, the cultural and political heirs of Alexander the Great. Under King Antiochus IV, who took the epithet Epiphanes — "God Made Manifest" — the Jews of Judea faced a campaign of forced Hellenization. The Temple in Jerusalem was defiled, Torah study outlawed, and the practice of Judaism made punishable by death.
The revolt began with one man's refusal. In the village of Modi'in, an aging priest named Mattathias the Hasmonean would not sacrifice to a Greek god. He and his five sons fled to the hills and gathered an army of farmers, shepherds, and faithful — vastly outnumbered, vastly outarmed.
Mattathias died early. His son Judah, called Maccabee — "the Hammer" — took command. Through three years of impossible victories, the Maccabees pushed the Seleucid armies out of Jerusalem. On the 25th of Kislev, 164 BCE, they entered the Temple, cleared the altar, and prepared to rededicate the sanctuary.
The Talmud (Shabbat 21b) tells what happened next. In the looted Temple, only one small cruse of consecrated oil remained sealed — enough to light the menorah for a single day. It would take eight days to press and consecrate more. They lit it anyway. And it burned for eight nights.
That is the miracle we remember. Not only that the few defeated the many — but that a small light, lit in faith, was made to last.