Chanukah Happened Right Here!

A Different View! Jew against Jew
Rabbi Lee Diamond

from “Venues and Values—Atarim v'Arachim” © 2007

It being Chanukah season, I believe it is appropriate to discuss the Macabees and the Hasmoneans.


Close to today’s new city of Modiin, halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, are the ruins of what may be a Hasmonean burial site. While it is not archeologically established that this is indeed an authentic Hasmonean site, this was the area in which much of the activity of the Macabean rebellion took place during the Greek period [C 166 BCE.]

The Greek Hellenistic period in Israel is one of the most challenging that we experienced in our history. Many Jews assimilated or were deeply influenced by this major and enticing world culture. The Hasmoneans, or Macabees, represent an attempt to reclaim control over the land and Jewish culture from the Greeks, Hellenistic culture and Jewish assimilation.


Here in this region, in site of what may be the graves of the Macabees, we retell the story of Hellenism and Israel in the second century BCE and the attempt on the part of this group to stem the tide of assimilation. All too often we relate to Chanukah as a holiday celebrating Jews defeating the Greek empire in Eretz Yisrael and the freedom that comes for this. In fact the real story of Chanukah is the struggle of Jewish culture in Israel against rampant Greek Hellenistic influence.


One definition of Jewish identity is that in order to stay within the Jewish culture, Jews must maintain three things: their language, their names and their national dress. If we think about the influence of Greek Hellenistic culture in Israel in this period it was exactly these very cultural symbols which were changing and being lost. Greek became a dominant language among the aristocratic Jew; They began to prefer Greek names to Hebrew names and they began to dress similarly to the Hellenists.

Thus Chanukah was a struggle of Jew against Jew. It was an attempt to prevent Jews from assimilating into their surroundings and celebrates the rededication of the Temple following Judah Macabee's victory over the Seleucids.


After Antiochus issued his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practice, a rural Jewish priest from Modiin, Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods. Mattathias killed a Hellenistic Jew who stepped forward to offer a sacrifice to an idol in Mattathias' place. He and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judea. After Mattathias' death about a year later in 166 BCE, his son Judah Macabee led an army of Jewish dissidents in a guerrilla warfare victory over the Seleucid dynasty, which at first was directed against Jewish collaborators, of whom there were many. The Macabees destroyed pagan altars in the villages and circumcised children. The term Macabees as used to describe the Jewish army, is taken from its actual use as Judah's surname.


The revolt itself involved many individual battles, in which the Macabean forces gained infamy among the Syrian army for their use of guerrilla tactics. After the victory, the Macabees entered Jerusalem in triumph and ritually cleansed the Temple, reestablishing traditional Jewish worship there and installing Jonathan Macabee as high priest. A large Syrian army was sent to quash the revolt, but returned to Syria on the death of Antiochus IV. Its commander Lysias, preoccupied with internal Syrian affairs, agreed to a political compromise that restored religious freedom.


The story of a powerful culture such as Hellenism and its struggle with Judaism is a story for all time and all generations The “Kulturkamph” (struggle of cultures) that ensues and the subsequent “miracle of the few against the many, the strong against the weak” is the theme of our discussion. Here we have the opportunity to relate to the symbolic meaning of the “Chanukiah” and the way in which Chanukah is celebrated today as well.


The issues that arise in this period and at this site, foreshadow many future discussions during this period and continue as issues of our own day. Chanukah and dedication to Jewish continuity, are a key catalyst for this discussion.


The victory of preserving Jewish culture in an enormously enticing environment of Hellenistic culture was the primary victory of Chanukah. Each candle is a symbol of Jewish pride and appreciation of our own inner Jewish flame.


Have you ever considered experiencing this narrative on the very site of Modiin where the struggle began? Discussing this story "on site" kindles the inner Jewish light and pride that we all need for our Jewish souls.


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