Hanukkah, a Question of Assimilation

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Our 8 day celebration of Hanukkah falls on December 18th this year (Kislev 25-Tevet 3) that commemorates the victory of Judah the Maccabee over Antiochus Epiphanes and the rededication of the abused 2nd Temple and altar, an event that happened about 23 centuries ago or 2,197 years ago.  This was a war and an occupation that made the greatest difference in our belief of Judaism and whether or not it would continue.  That's why we remember it with celebration.  

 Judah died in 160 BCE and was the oldest of Mattathias the Hasmonean's sons.  They had led a revolt against the Greeks led by Antiochus Epiphanes IV in 167-166 BCE.  

Antiochus Epiphanes was a Greek king from the House of Seleucus who ruled Syria in the Hellenistic period.  There had been 13 of these kings.  The first, Antiochus III, reigned from 223 to 187 BCE and had transferred 2,000 Jewish families from Babylon to Lydia and Phrgia.  He had captured Jerusalem in 198 BCE but had treated the Jews with some understanding.

Antiochius IV Epiphanes, our man in the Hanukkah history, reigned from 175 to 163 BCE and was turned back by Rome on his 2nd expedition against Egypt in 168 BCE so he occupied Jerusalem, plundered the Temple treasure, and endeavored to Hellenize Judea by force in order to convert it into a reliable frontier province.  This is how he is involved in our history of Hannukah.  By occupying Jerusalem and ordering their new Greek laws or else, people were being assimilated;  Hellenized.  

This was too much for Judah the Maccabee who was on the right-a religious man. He was not about to let the Greeks defame their 2nd Temple.  The Jews had recently returned to Israel from their forced kidnapping and removing to Babylon Exile and had just rebuilt the Holy Temple.  They had been the subjects to the domination of imperial powers--the Persian Empire (Iran), then the conquering armies of Alexander the Great. When Alexander died, his huge kingdom was divided up among his generals.  Israel found itself under the rule   of the Seleucid Dynasty---Greek kings who reigned from Syria.  

Over the years of Greek domination, many Jews had begun to embrace the Greek culture and its hedonistic, pagan way of life.  these Jewish Hellenists became willing pawns in Antiochus' scheme to obliterate every trace of the Jewish religion and especially their belief in One G-d which went against their whole panacea of gods and half-gods in Olympus. 

The Holy Temple was invaded, desecrated and robbed of all its treasures.  Many innocent  people  were massacred, and the survivors were heavily taxed.  

Antiochus placed an idol of Zeus on the holy altar, and forced the Jews to bow before it under penalty of death.  He forbade the Jewish people to observe their most sacred traditions, such as the Sabbath, and the rite of circumcision.   Then he proclaimed himself a god, taking the name "Antiochus Epiphanes which means, the Divine.  At that point, even his own followers mocked him as Antiochus Epimanes,---the madman.  

That wasn't all.  In every city and town, altars were erected with statues of the Greek gods and goddesses.  Soldiers rounded up the Jews and forcibly compelled them to make offerings and engage in other immoral acts customary to the Greeks.  The Jews felt incapable of resistance.  

However, in a small village called Modin that was a few miles away east of Jerusalem, Mattityahu, patriarch of the priestly Hasmonean clan, stepped forward to challenge the Greek soldiers and those who acquiesced to their demands.  Backed by his 5 sons, he attacked the troops, slew the idolators, and destroyed the idol.  Their cry was "All who are with G-d, follow me!"Then he and a courageous circle of partisans retreated to the hills, where they gathered forces to overthrow the oppression of Antiochus and his soldiers.  

This turned into an army of men, now under the command of his son, Yehuda (Judah) Maccabee, which grew daily in numbers and strength.  They had on their shields the biblical slogan, "Who is like unto Thee, O G-d," and they would swoop down upon the Syrian troops under cover of darkness and scatter their enemy, then return to their encampments in the hills.  This was the first known practice of Guerilla Warfare.   Only 6,000 men, but they defeated a heavily armed battalion of 47,000 Syrians.  

Enraged, Antiochus sent an even larger army against them, and in the miraculous, decisive battle at Bet Tzur, the Jewish forces emerged victorious.  From there, they proceeded onto Jerusalem, where they liberated the city and reclaimed the Holy Temple.   They cleared the Sanctuary of the idols, rebuilt the altar, and prepared to resume the Divine Service.                     

 Our menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome that the Romans took away in 70 CE.  Titus, commander of the forces of the Roman Empire who sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the 2nd Temple carried off the Menorah as part of the spoils of his conquest.  It was used as a symbol of his subjugation of the Jews.  The Arch seemed to be built before he returned to Rome, and the Menorah was therefore inaccurately depicted.  Notice  below is our 8-branched menorah used for Hanukkah.  

A central part of the daily service in the Temple had been the kindling of the brilliant lights of the Menorah.  Now, with the Temple about to be rededicated, only one small cruse of the pure, sacred olive oil was found.  It was only one day's supply, and they know it would take more than a week for the special process required to prepare more oil.  

The Maccabees, full of joy and thanksgiving, lit the lamps of the Menorah with the small amount of oil anyway and dedicated the Holy Temple anew .  A miracle happened in that as if in confirmation of the power of their faith, the oil did not burn out---and the flames shone brightly  for 8 full days--thus the days we celebrate.  

By the next year, our Sages officially proclaimed the festival lasting 8 days in perpetual commemoration of this victory over religious persecution.  Judaism wasn't harming anyone.  Circumcision has proven to be beneficial medically.  It was a practice started in Egypt with the pharaohs.  Judaism believed in the importance of a life.  If the religious group hadn't put a stop to this Hellenization that was going on, Jews and Christians would be behaving like the Greeks today believing in the gods of Olympus.  

Judah Maccabee was called The Hammerer.  His brothers did not fare as well later on.  The 5 were Judah the Maccabee, Jonathan, Simon, John and Eleazar.  They had held a series of raids to rescue the Jewish populations of Ammon, Idumea (Edom), Gilead, and Galilee.  They were defeated in  163 BCE at Bet Zechariah where Eleazar was killed.  The Hasmoneans were able owing to dynastic distractions in Syria, to get terms securing Jewish religious freedom, but Judah and his party, also aspiring for political freedom too, continued to fight and Judah fell at Elasa in 160 BCE.  

John was murdered shortly after that and 

Jonathan took over the leadership.  Jonathan was able to secure the  high priesthood position in 152 BCE (for Cohens only- so the family were a line of Cohens-descended from Aaron, brother of Moses).  He also became the governor of Judah in 150 BCE. 

Simon succeeded in gaining exemption from tribute by 147BCE.  He was confirmed by the people as hereditary high priest, ethnarch, and  general in 142BCE.  Then he was murdered by 135BCE.  

    His son, John Hyrcanus, succeed his father, Simon. was defeated badly by Antiochus VII Sidetes.  Jerusalem was taken by the Syrians after a prolonged siege and Judea once more became a Seleucid province.  After the defeat of Antiochus in his war against Parthia, John launched a successful offensive against Transjordan, Samaria and Idumea (Edom), marking the transition of the Hamsoneans to a semi-hellenized secular military dynasty.  

This led to his repudiation of the Pharisees and John's adherence to the aristocratic Sadducee Party.  He was succeeded by his sons, Judah Aristobulus (105-104 BCE) and Alexander Yannai (104-76 BCE) one of whom was the 1st to adopt the royal title. Yannai set up a standing mercenary army and conquered Transjordan,, Idumea, and the coastal plain.  His antagonism to the Pharisees, who opposed his war policy, led to civil war in which he was victorious after a bloody struggle, but the Pharisees were in the ascendant during the reign of his widow, Salome Alexandra (76-69 BCE).

                               Herod I (73 BCE-4 BCE).  His father, Antipater, was an Idumean (Edomite) and his mother was Cypros, a Nabatean.

I note that if we Jews weren't always in danger of assimilating into conquerors' cultures, our neighbors assimilated into ours and made their affects on us as well, like Herod who gained his own power.

 With her death, the Hasmoneans declined.  The strife between her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II led to the intervention and eventual domination of Antipater and his son Herod, with Roman assistance.  

Pompey drastically reduced the country's territory in 63 BCE.  Hyrcanus remained a puppet while the efforts of Aristobulus II and his sons, Alexander and Antigonus Mattathias to regain power failed.

    Hyrcanus' granddaughter, Mariamne, married Herod but was put to death by him in 29 BCE as were the surviving Hasmoneans in 30 BCE, and Mariamn's sons, Alexander and Aristobulus in 7 BCE.  

And so, though Judas Maccabee, the Hammerer,  thought his success was forever, died before he saw what would happen to his family line. Hellenizing did have a disastrous lingering affect. Had it not been for his bravery, though, that event stayed in his descendants' minds, and remained somehow, to fight another day to keep Judaism alive.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Chabad-Your Chanukah Guide, Dec 5-13, 1996, Lubavitch