The Story of Hanukah

בס"ד

There is a sense of timing in telling the stories of well-known events. If told too frequently they become hackneyed, risk actually being forgotten, and their lessons rejected. Judaism is very cyclical and as such this is a major concern. It's been a while since I told the story of Hanukkah so I thought this would be a good year to do it.

The date of the rebellion by the Maccabees is generally fixed at 3621 on the Jewish calendar. This corresponds to 140 BC which would make it a contemporary of the Roman destruction of the city of Carthage. It would be 173 years after the death of Ezra which is the end of the period of prophecy. This is also the time that Alexander the great seized Judea from Persia. The second Temple had been standing for 213 years.

A prelude to the story of Hanukah is with the account by Josephus about Antiochus the Great and how he praised the Jews for their piety to G-d, gave large gifts to the temple, and strove to make it even more glorious (Jewish Antiquities book 12 chapter 3 paragraph 3). In addition they were given permission to live according to their own laws. Things turned very bad when he was succeeded by his brother Antiochus Epiphanes. Epiphanes means "God Manifest" in Greek, but because of his often eccentric behavior and capricious actions many called him Epimanes meaning "The Mad One".

There were internal quarrels among the Jews and a group of them approached Antiochus Epiphanes and told him that they wished to leave the Jewish lifestyle, adopt the Greek lifestyle, build a gymnasium in Jerusalem, and generally follow the king's laws (Ibid 12.5.1). This was the beginning of the Hellenist movement among the Jews. Conceptually though, it was not much different from the turning to the gods of Tyre, Baal and Ashtoreth, during Biblical times, or to assimilation today.

The Scroll of the Hasmoneans (מְגִלַת הַחַמוֹנָאִים) starts by calling Antiochus a very powerful Greek king. He made a decision to attack Jerusalem and destroy the Jews because they did not observe the customs of Greece and the king's laws, rather they kept their own. They hoped for the crushing of foreign kings, the establishment of a king of their own, and that they should rule over the entire world. Antiochus desired to uproot the Biblical covenant and focuses on the mitzvahs of Shabbos, declaring the new month, and circumcision.

He then sent his governor, Nicanor, with a large body of troops which massacred many people. After their victory they sacrificed a pig in the Temple. This enraged Yohanan the son of Mattathias who proceeded to assassinate Nicanor. Antiochus then sent a small army who invaded Jerusalem killing many people. He in turn was driven out and his forces routed by the five sons of Mattathias: Judah, Shimon, Yohanan, Yohonatan, and Elazar, and their band which was called the Maccabees.

Bagris invaded Jerusalem a second time with a large professional army. Soldiers were drafted from throughout the empire. They also brought armored elephants which were the most powerful weapon of the day. The Jews engaged them in a battle in which Judah killed. The Maccabees, though, remained high spirited and continued the fight.

Religious Jewish literature does not credit the Maccabees with the final victory over the Greeks. Rather, it brings the legend of Judith, the daughter of the high priest. She was very beautiful and the Greek governor demanded to sleep with her on her wedding night. She feigned cooperation and tricked him into drinking wine until he passed out. She then chopped off his head and brought it to Jerusalem. The enemy army was terrified and fled, ending the war. 

When the war was finally over the Maccabees cleaned up the Temple and wanted to perform the mitzvah of lighting the menorah. They only found one days supply of olive oil and it would take eight days for them to produce oil that was ritually pure. Nevertheless they lit the menorah with the oil they had. Miraculously it lasted eight days. This was understood as a sign that the real miracle was that they won the war. The lesson was that they did not win because of their military prowess, rather it was because they were good people and it showed up in battle.

לע"נ  האמא מלכה בת חיים ז"ל נלב"ע טז ניסן תשנ"ח

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