The Secret Chanukah Weapon

A story for children 9-14 about Chanukah and bullies

Dec 12, 2025

Mason pushed his thick glasses up as he watched his father light the big oil chanukiah, but he wasn’t paying attention. His mind was full of the bullies at school. Now in fifth grade, he still had thick eyeglasses and walked with a limp. He had learned to ignore the ugly words, but the words didn’t stop until a substitute teacher told the principal. The next week at an assembly a man from the community spoke about losing his right eye and arm fighting in Afghanistan, and how stupid and cruel it was to tease people with disabilities. The nasty words stopped.

Instead, the boys found other ways to bother him. This week they were stealing his lunch. When Mason told the lunch teacher, the man had fingered the Palestinian flag pin on his shirt. “Toughen up. Boys will be boys.”

“Earth to Mason,” said Dad. “You lighting your menorah?”

Mason sighed, took one of the long Shabbat matches, lit his candles and said the blessings.

“What’s wrong?” Dad put his arm around Mason and led him to the sofa.

Mason recounted the week’s events. “What can I do? There are four of them, and they’re big sixth graders.”

“You have to fight smarter,” said Dad. “Did you hear about the beeper attack that Israel used against Hezbollah during the Hamas war?”

“Beeper?”

“Yes, like doctors wear. It’s much smaller than a smartphone. Someone calls it and it beeps. Its little screen shows the name or number of the caller. The owner of the beeper knows who needs them, and calls back.

“Hezbollah is a terror group in Lebanon. During the recent Hamas war in Israel, it sent countless rockets into northern Israel. Thousands of Israelis—Jews and Arabs alike—became refugees in their own country to escape the attacks.

“Israel named its army Israel Defense Force because it is a defensive army: it does not attack first. Its only purpose is to defend Israel. Most of the soldiers are reservists. That means they are former soldiers, up to around 45 years old, who serve in active duty when needed. The IDF is smaller and, if you count only full-time manpower, weaker than Hezbollah.

“The IDF wins by fighting smarter. It planned the beeper attack carefully. Somehow it sold beepers to Hezbollah —beepers that worked just fine. But they were programmed to explode when the right message was sent. One day, at the exact same time, all the beepers exploded. Between 12 and 45 people were killed and about 3,000 were injured, many seriously. Hezbollah was greatly weakened by this. Maybe more importantly, it scared other Arab soldiers and leaders.”

Mason scrunched up his face in thought, then shook his head..“I like that, it’s really smart. But what does it have to do with the Macabees?”

“The Macabees had only a small number of fighters with poor weapons when compared to the Syrian-Greek army. The enemy had a large army and plenty of weapons. They even had a bunch of elephants that they used in battle. But the Macabees had two secret weapons. Can you guess what they were?”

Picture of war elephants and fighters — Copper plate engraving by Bernard Picart around 1730, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“Hmmm.” Mason looked toward the ceiling as though the answer was written there. Then he said, “God was on their side, like in the Chanukah song Maoz Tzur.”

“Right,” said Dad. “The second is that they fought smart. They looked at what they could do, not what they couldn’t. They used the advantages of being small.

“The Macabees had an important secret weapon. They knew that they had to win. They were fighting for the right to practice Judaism and to return the Temple in Jerusalem to their hands. They knew they were fighting for God, and that He would help them. They were united and determined. But they also fought smart.

“First, they were local. They knew the land well. The army they were fighting didn’t. This gave them several advantages. I remember when I visited Israel, how close together the hills are. Some of the hills are very, very steep. Elephants can’t be used in these places.

Photo of steep, stony mountains on either side of a narrow wadi — Photo of Israeli mountains by Freepik

“Because they fought in small groups, they didn’t need much food or supplies. A large army needs a lot of food and weapons. Because the Macabees knew the land, they were able to ambush both the fighters and the supply convoys. They knew where they could hide before the attack and then disappear after it. They could do sneak attacks at night, too. All these things made their victory over the larger, powerful Syrian-Greek army possible.”

“Latkes are served,” called Mom from the kitchen, ending the conversation. Dad and Mason joined the family at the table. Mom brought over a big platter of hot, crispy latkes and sat down.

Dad said the blessing over food and everyone began to eat. Dad swallowed and put his fork down. “Ummm, did you forget something?”

Mom swallowed, then slapped her cheek lightly.. “Oh no! I forgot to add salt and pepper! Mason, could you get them?”

Mason pushed away from the table and went to the counter. “Mom, the pepper shaker is empty,” he called.

“Just bring the can of black pepper from the spice shelf instead.”

Mason looked at the spice shelf. A jar of brown powder next to the large can of black pepper caught his eye. “Cayenne,” said the label. “Is cayenne a kind of pepper?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Mom. “It’s very hot. Why do you ask?”

Mason looked at Dad and then at Mom. “Those boys found a new way to bother me at school,” he said. “They stole my lunch every day this week. I was thinking about the Macabees fighting smarter.”

He brought both peppers over to the table and sat down.

“I want to make chocolate chip cookies,” he began slowly.

“Cookies! Cookies!” shouted little Naomi.

“We made cookie dough after school,” said Aviva. “The dough has to be cold before we can cut out the cookies. Can we finish them tonight?”

“Sure, as soon as we clean the kitchen from dinner.” Mom stood up and started clearing the table. “They won’t be chocolate chip, but we can decorate them so they’re really pretty.” She scrunched her forehead. “But why did you suddenly decide you wanted to make cookies?”

“I want to put the hot pepper in the stars of David.”

Chanukah cookies with blue and white frosting and sprinkles — Photo by Sheri Silver from MyJewishLearning.com

The finished cookies were great, Mason thought. All eight blue Star of David cookies were spiked with hot cayenne pepper. Mason had tasted a crumb. It made his mouth burn. He grinned what he hoped was an evil grin. “This should stop them!”

The next day, every class seemed twice as long as normal. Mason squirmed, doodled, and pushed his pencil around all morning. Finally the lunch bell rang. Mason hurried to the lunchroom and set his lunch bag down on the table. He turned to talk to another kid—slowly, to give the bullies time to act. When he turned back, his lunch was gone. The ringleader, Liam carried the bag, and the others swaggered towards the other end of the lunchroom. Liam turned back, looked at Mason, and wiggled his fingers in a sort of “hi there” motion.

Mason reached into his jacket pocket and took out a sandwich. Out of the other pocket he took a packet of the regular Chanukah cookies. Then he waited.

In just a few minutes, Liam and Amir jumped to their feet. “Ah, ah, ah,” they screamed, waving at their mouths.

Then Patrick stood up “Mason! What did you do? You poisoned them!” Moh joined in. “Mason’s a poisoner! Mason’s a poisoner!” The lunchroom erupted with noise.

The lunch teacher ran to Liam and spoke with him and Amir. Mason saw him break a piece off one of the cookies and taste it. Then the teacher strode over to Mason. “Why did you give them cookies with hot pepper in them?”

“Me?” Mason struggled to look surprised. “I didn’t give them the cookies. They stole them. Serves them right for stealing, if you ask me.”

The next day was Friday. It passed without any problems for Mason. All Shabbat and Sunday he worried about what the bullies would do next. He tried to think of other ways to stop them. But Monday he learned that Liam, Patrick and the other two boys had been suspended. Mr. Prather, the principal, called Mason into the office. “I cannot condone your prank. Someone could have had a real problem with that hot pepper. But since then we have had complaints from several other families about those boys. I have one question: where did you get the idea?”

“It was the Macabees,” Mason smiled. “They are the heroes of the Chanukah story. They won an important war against a much bigger, better trained army with lots more weapons and even some elephants. They won by fighting smarter. And of course, having God on their side didn’t hurt.”