The Maccabean Revolt, taking place from 167 to 160 BCE, was a critical period in Jewish history, characterized by a nationalist uprising against the Seleucid Empire's suppression of Jewish religious and cultural practices. This revolt had deep historical roots and significant political implications.
Historical Background:
- Post-Alexander the Great: After Alexander the Great's death, his empire was divided. The Ptolemies in Egypt allowed Judaism in Jerusalem to flourish with little interference. However, the Seleucid Empire, which eventually gained control over Judea, began to enforce Hellenism more forcefully.
- The Second Temple of Jerusalem: Central to Jewish life, the Second Temple was not only a religious and social hub but also a symbol of God's presence among the Jewish people, forming a core part of their self-identity.
Political Context and Antiochus IV Epiphanes:
- Seleucid Control: The Seleucid Empire, under Antiochus III, initially expanded its influence by forcibly converting many to Greek culture and religion. This policy continued more aggressively under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who sought to completely Hellenize the Jewish community and assimilate it into the wider Greek cultural milieu.
- Antiochus IV's Policies: Antiochus IV's ambition to enforce universal Hellenization involved building a gymnasium near the Temple, promoting Greek customs contrary to Jewish laws, and eventually defiling the Holy Temple, outlawing Jewish practices like circumcision and Sabbath observance, and enforcing the worship of Greek gods.
The Revolt:
- Mattathias and the Outbreak: Mattathias, a Jewish priest, incited the revolt in 167 BC by refusing to sacrifice to the Greek gods and killing a Hellenized Jew and a Seleucid official who were enforcing Antiochus's decrees. This act of defiance in Modi'in marked the beginning of the revolt.
- The Maccabees: Mattathias and his sons, known as the Maccabees, led the rebellion. They initially used guerrilla warfare tactics, gradually gaining strength and support from those opposed to Hellenization and the Seleucid policies.
- Military Successes and Temple Rededication: Despite being outnumbered, the Maccabees successfully fought the Seleucid forces, culminating in the recapture of Jerusalem and the rededication of the desecrated Temple, which is the origin of the Hanukkah celebration.
Aftermath and Significance:
- Establishment of Hasmonean Dynasty: The revolt led to the formation of an independent Jewish state under the Hasmonean dynasty. While the revolt initially centered on religious freedom, it eventually also sought political independence.
- Diverse Interpretations: The nature of the revolt has been subject to various interpretations. Some view it as a civil war between Hellenized Jews and religious traditionalists, while others see it as a broader struggle against oppression and for autonomy.
The Maccabean Revolt thus represents a pivotal moment in Jewish history, signifying not only a fight for religious freedom but also the formation of a Jewish political entity in the face of foreign domination and cultural assimilation.
Shabbat 21b:
What is [the reason of] Chanuka? For our Rabbis taught: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev [commence] the days of Chanukah, which are eight on which a lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden. For when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the High Priest, but which contained sufficient for one day’s lighting only; yet a miracle was wrought therein and they lit [the lamp] therewith for eight days. The following year these [days] were appointed a Festival with [the recital of] Hallel and thanksgiving.
1 Maccabees 4:52-59
Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Kislev, in the one hundred forty-eighth year, they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of the burn offering that they had built. At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals… So they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and joyfully offered burnt offerings… Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev.
2 Maccabees 10:5-9
It happened that on the same day on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners, the purification of the sanctuary took place, that is, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month, which was Kislev. They celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing….therefore, carrying ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place. They decreed by public edict, ratified by vote, that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year
Antiquities of the Jews 12.7.323-326
Now Judas celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the temple for eight days; and omitted no sort of pleasures thereon: but he feasted them upon very rich and splendid sacrifices; and he honored God, and delighted them, by hymns and psalms. Nay, they were so very glad at the revival of their customs, when after a long time of intermission, they unexpectedly had regained the freedom of their worship, that they made it a law for their posterity, that they should keep a festival, on account of the restoration of their temple worship, for eight days. And from that time to this we celebrate this festival, and call it Lights. I suppose the reason was, because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us; and that thence was the name given to that festival
The Second Book of Maccabees 1:1-9 and 10:1-8]
The Jewish brethren in Jerusalem and those in the land of Judea, to their Jewish brethren in Egypt: Greeting and good peace.
May God do good to you, and may God remember his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, his faithful servants. May he give you all a heart to worship him and to do his will with a strong heart and a willing spirit. May he open your heart to his law and his commandments, and may he bring peace. May he hear your prayers and be reconciled to you, and may he not forsake you in time of evil. We are now praying for you here.
In the reign of Demetrius, in the 169th year, we Jews wrote to you in the critical distress which came upon us in those years after Jason and his company revolted from the holy land and the kingdom and burned the gate and shed innocent blood. We besought the Lord and we were heard, we offered sacrifice and cereal offering and we lit the lamps and we set out the loaves. Now see that you keep the Feast of Booths in the month of Kislev, in the 188th year...
Now Maccabeus and his followers, the Lord leading them on, recovered the Temple and the city and they tore down the altars which had been built in the public square by the foreigners, and also destroyed the sacred precincts. They purified the sanctuary and made another altar of sacfifice. Then striking fire out of flint, they offered sacrifices, after a lapse of two years, and they burned incense and lit lamps and set out the bread of the Presence. When they had done this, they fell prostrate and besought the Lord that they might never again fall into such misfortunes, but that if they should ever sin, they might be disciplined by him with forbearance and not be handed over to blasphemous and barbarous nations. It happened that on the same day on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners, the purification of the sanctuary took place, that is, on the 25th day of Kislev. They celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the Feast of Booths, remembering how not long before, during the Feast of Booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals. Therefore bearing ivy-wreathered wands and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place. They decreed by public ordinance and vote that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year.
Rabbi Sacks The Festival of Lights that signifies an inextinguishable faith.
Even militarily, the victory over the Greeks proved to be only a temporary respite. Within a century Pompey invaded Jerusalem and Israel came under Roman rule. Then came the disastrous rebellion against Rome (66-73), as a result of which Israel was defeated and the Temple destroyed. The work of the Maccabees now lay in ruins.
Some rabbis at the time believed that the festival of Chanukah should be abolished. Why celebrate a freedom that had been lost? Others disagreed, and their view prevailed. Freedom may have been lost but not hope.
That was when another story came to the fore, about how the Maccabees, in purifying the Temple, found a single cruse of oil, its seal still intact, from which they relit the Menorah, the great candelabrum in the Temple. Miraculously the light lasted eight days and that became the central narrative of Chanukah. It became a festival of light within the Jewish home symbolising a faith that could not be extinguished. Its message was captured in a phrase from the prophet Zekhariah: “Not by might nor by power but by My spirit, says the Lord Almighty.”
I have often wondered whether that is not the human story, not just the Jewish one. We celebrate military victories. We tell stories about the heroes of the past. We commemorate those who gave their lives in defence of freedom. That is as it should be. Yet the real victories that determine the fate of nations are not so much military as cultural, moral and spiritual.
In Rome the Arch of Titus was erected by Titus’s brother Domitian to commemorate the victorious Roman siege of Jerusalem in the year 70. It shows Roman soldiers carrying away the spoils of war, most famously the seven-branched Menorah. Rome won that military conflict. Yet its civilisation declined and fell, while Jews and Judaism survived.
They did so not least because of Chanukah itself. That simple act of families coming together to light the lights, tell the story and sing the songs, proved more powerful than armies and longer-lived than empires. What endured was not the historical narrative as told in the books of Maccabees but the simpler, stronger story that spoke of a single cruse of oil that survived the wreckage and desecration, and the light it shed that kept on burning.
Something in the human spirit survives even the worst of tragedies, allowing us to rebuild shattered lives, broken institutions and injured nations. That to me is the Jewish story. Jews survived all the defeats, expulsions, persecutions and pogroms, even the Holocaust itself, because they never gave up the faith that one day they would be free to live as Jews without fear. Whenever I visit a Jewish school today I see on the smiling faces of the children the ever-renewed power of that faith whose symbol is Chanukah and its light of inextinguishable hope.