The Maccabeats - Hasmonean - A Hamilton Chanukkah

Lyrics by Spencer Garfield
Additional lyrics by the Maccabeats
Arranged by Julian Horowitz
Recorded by Colin Egan, Alex Green, Doug Staiman, and Ami Kozak
Edited by Alex Green for Plaid Productions
Mixed by Ed Boyer
Mastered by Dave Sperandio for Vocal Mastering

Director of photography: Giovanni Ferlito
Choreography: Reina Potaznik
Body double: Yoni Lewis

Click Here For The Lyrics

How does a Hasmonean son of a priest

And a Hebrew, raised in a village with his four brothers,
In a Judean province ruled by pompous king Antiochus,
Under pressure, grow up to be a hero and commander?
When the king came around, we said “this decree’s insane, man
We could not observe our laws while living in our own land!
Fight back like your father, don't forget from whence you came,
And we’ll call you by a brand new name
What’s your name, sir?
Call him Judah Maccabee
The hammer whose aim is true
And we’re ready to show the king
We don’t owe him a single thing
The world will never be the same!

You’ll be Greek
Soon you’ll see
You will pray to Zeus the same as me
You’ll be Greek
No need to fight
Our Hellenism serves you right
You won’t miss your Shabbat
Or circumcision for your tots
And if you don’t comply
I will send my great Selucid army and you’ll tell history goodbye

We are not gonna betray our God
We are not gonna betray our God
Hey yo, we don’t need permission
To keep our great traditions
And we’re not gonna betray our God
We been here since Abraham and mom Sarah
And now we’d never vow to bow to a statue of Hera
Our teacher Moses passed down the book that is good
It said we pray just to one God
And not an effigy of stone or of wood
Two thousand years and while the world’s still turnin’
Traditions givin’ us the teachin’ and learnin’
We keep (on) readin’ ‘n yearnin’
We want to keep the Sabbath and the days that are holy
Can we uphold our Temple ceremony?
We’re past patiently waitin’. we’re passionately
Smashin the invasion
Taking action on rededication!
And though this story has its fair share of sorrow
Today we’re gonna fight for tomorrow
And we are not betray our God!

Although we may not live forever
We can be glad we won the fight
When our descendants come together
They’ll tell our story for eight nights
Celebrate our freedom
Something they can never take a way
No matter what they tell you
(Let’s have a festival of light)
Celebrate our victory
And how we changed history
And tell the story of eight nights
They’ll the story of the lights
They’ll tell the story for eight nights