This week’s Torah portion, Beshallach, describes the reaction of b’nai yisrael when the confrontation with Pharaoh and his army becomes a reality. The Torah says, “… the people were frightened, the Children of Israel cried out to Hashem. They said to Moshe, ‘were there no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness?!’” (Shemot 14: 10-11) How could they suddenly complain and question Moshe’s motives? We must also ask ourselves, if we were there, how would we have reacted?

Parshat Bo, this week’s Torah portion, records the final dialogues between Moshe and Pharaoh. The ensuing last three plagues of destruction, brought on the Egyptian nation as a consequence to Pharaoh’s stubbornness, resulted in the liberation of the Jewish people. What is remarkable, and almost unnoticed, in the parsha, is the reaction the Jewish people had toward their tormentors. Equally attention grabbing is the reaction the Egyptian populace had toward the Jews.

How did the sages and rabbis at that time know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Maccabee’s victory was divinely assisted? What allowed them to create an annual eight-day commemoration with Rabbinic mitzvot? A close look at the על הנסים”,” “For the miracles,” the special insert into our daily prayers during Chanukah, will shed some light on this question.