 |
| Judah Maccabee was a Kohen and a son of the Jewish priest Mattathias. He
led the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire and is acclaimed
as one of the greatest warriors in Jewish history alongside Joshua,
Gideon and David. |
The story of Chanukkah begins in the reign of Alexander the Great. Alexander
conquered Syria, Egypt and Palestine, but allowed the lands under his control
to continue observing their own religions and retain a certain degree of
autonomy. Under this relatively benevolent rule, many Jews assimilated much of
Hellenistic culture, adopting the language, the customs and the dress of the
Greeks, in much the same way that Jews in America today blend into the secular
American society.
More than a century later, a successor of Alexander, Antiochus IV was in
control of the region. He began to oppress the Jews severely, placing a
Hellenistic priest in the
Temple, massacring
Jews, prohibiting the practice of the Jewish religion, and desecrating the
Temple by requiring the sacrifice of pigs (a
non-
kosher animal) on the altar. Two groups
opposed Antiochus: a basically nationalistic group led by Mattathias the
Hasmonean and his son
Judah Maccabee, and a religious traditionalist group
known as the Chasidim, the forerunners of the
Pharisees (no direct connection to the modern
movement known as
Chasidism). They joined
forces in a revolt against both the assimilation of the Hellenistic Jews and
oppression by the Seleucid Greek government. The revolution succeeded and the
Temple was rededicated.
According to tradition as recorded in the
Talmud,
at the time of the rededication, there was very little oil left that had not
been defiled by the Greeks. Oil was needed for the
menorah (candelabrum) in the Temple, which was
supposed to burn throughout the night every night. There was only enough oil to
burn for one day, yet miraculously, it burned for eight days, the time needed
to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah. An eight day festival was
declared to commemorate this miracle. Note that the holiday commemorates the
miracle of the oil, not the military victory.
Happy Chanukah...the Festival of Lights!!
