WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN A MACCABEE?

Part one

During the Second Temple period, when the Hellenic kings decreed decrees upon Israel, and sought to nullify their religion, and they did not allow them to immerse in Torah and in commandments. And they reached out their hands against their money and their daughters, and they entered the shrine, and put in there idols, and defiled that which was pure. And was Israel was distressed because of them, and oppressed them greatly until the God of their ancestors had compassion on them, and saved them from their hands, and rescued them, and the Hasmoneans, the High Priests, overcame and killed them, and saved Israel from their hand, and set up a king from among the Priests, and brought back kingship to Israel for more than two hundred years until the destruction of the Second Temple. - Maimonides

When the Jews overcame their enemies and won the military battle on the 25th day of Kislev, they entered the sanctuary of the Temple and found only one flask of pure oil. That flask only contained enough oil to burn for one day but it remained lit for eight full days, until fresh olives were crushed into pure oil. Because of this, the Sages of that same generation established that these eight days which begin on the 25th of Kislev [would be] days of joy, and singing-praise, and would light lights on them in the evening at the entrances of their houses every night of the eight nights, to show and reveal the miracle. And these days are called Hanukkah (lit. Dedication), and on then it is forbidden to eulogize, and to fast, like the days of Purim.

part two

history

• 422 BCE - First Temple is Destroyed - Jews exiled to Babylon
• 350 BCE - Ezra and Nechemya build the Second Temple
• 336 BCE - Alexander the Great comes to power

Selucids and Ptolemies

• Seleucid conquest of the Land of Israel under Antiochus III in 198 B.C.E.
• Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 B.C.E.) succeeded to the throne, his brother Jason then bought the high priesthood from Antiochus.
• Jason brings Hellenism to Jerusalem, names it Antioch named for Antiochus IV and rescinds Jewish rights.

Striking a balance?

• Hellenized aristocracy of Judea is happy: commercial benefits, culture, language arts etc..
• Jason maintained the Temple and its rituals according to the tradition, even if he compromised with the Hellenistic way of life in other spheres

TOBIADS (Pro-selucids)

• Menelaus buys the office from Antiochus in 171 B.C.E., as Jason himself had done only a few years earlier. After an armed battle, Jason was forced to flee Jerusalem. Now in control, Menelaus appropriated funds from the Temple treasury to present gifts to Antiochus.
• Violence broke out in Jerusalem

False Gods

• At this time that foreign deities were introduced into the Temple. The Jewish Hellenizers, Menelaus and his party, saw these gods as equivalent to the God of Israel, and thus in their view this was not really foreign worship.

Rebellion

• Rebellion was mounting; determined to stem it, Antiochus conceived of the infamous persecutions, which, far from being the beginning of our story, came after years of struggle and insurrection fueled by the attempt of Hellenistic Jews to force their way of life on the entire nation of Israel.
• Winter 167/66 B.C.E

Evil DECREES

• Foreign idolatrous worship and cultic prostitution were introduced into the Temple. In addition, Shabbat and festivals were to be violated, alters were built where unclean animals were to be offered, circumcision was outlawed, and the dietary laws could not be observed. The penalty for violating these ordinances was death.

REVOLUTION

• Mattathias, the priest of Modiin, and men and women like him bravely refused to submit to the persecution and repaired to the forests. Several thousand soon coalesced around the Hasmonean family, led by Judah the Maccabee (“hammer”), and his brothers.
• By Mattathias’ death in 166/65 B.C.E. they had taken control of Judea.

Restored rights

• Judah the Maccabee and the Jewish army defeated a series of Seleucid generals who attempted to put down the uprising.
• October 15, 164 B.C.E. Selucid government restored the rights of the Jews as granted by Antiochus III and provided amnesty to the fighters.

Rededication

• December of that year Judah and his men captured Jerusalem. On the 25th ofthe Hebrew month of Kislev Judah purified the Temple, relit the Menorah, and reorganized the Priesthood.
• The main objective of the revolt, ending the persecutions and restoring Judaism, had been achieved.

Would you have been a maccabee?

CHanuka Sameach!