Judah the Maccabee was a cruel religious zealot and lust for power. His successors were no better than him

Similar to the myths of Masada and Bar Kochba, the stories of the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans also received a special infusion from the end of the 19th century, when they were unilaterally mobilized in favor of Zionist romanticism and its righteousness in the Land of Israel.

Yahyam whistles

Bloodthirsty fanatics

One of the most exciting and encouraging holidays in the Israel Holidays Gallery is Hanukkah, a holiday about which the number of songs and stories that have been told over the generations is unprecedented. At the center of the myth of the holiday are the heroic episodes of Matthew and his sons from Meza and of Hannah and her seven sons from Meza and the generations of the Hasmoneans from Meza; standing and feeding children and adults alike. I would like to set the pieces of this myth straight.

Similar to the myths of Masada and Bar Kochba, the stories of the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans also received a special infusion from the end of the 19th century, when they were unilaterally mobilized in favor of Zionist romanticism and its righteousness in the Land of Israel.

They looked for heroes as was customary in every national idea and movement, looked for, found, created a myth and awakened it to the veins of the people through the formal and casual education systems. But the examiner of the plots of the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans will find himself wanting to distance himself from any moral attachment to them, if he is a humanist.

It all started with the Modiim (Modi'in), when Matthew - a pseudo-sleepy extremist fanatic - decided to drag the people into rebellion against the Hellenistic rule and its symbols, and all this in the act of slitting the throat of a Jewish Greek, who "dared" to publicly express his theological opinion.

Judah the Maccabee, who succeeded him (and not without manipulation against his older brothers), attracted jealous, passionate, action-seeking young men to fight the forces of the Hellenistic army, leaving behind on the battlefield martyrs and many bereaved families.

He rejected the Hellenistic peace proposals because the forces and the smell of blood spiked his adrenaline and in his heart a kind of magical mantra of "conquer, conquer and conquer". He behaved cruelly towards the civilian Hellenistic population and sought, for pragmatic and personal reasons, to impose Judaism on them or to transfer them.

In the last battle, in Elasha, he decided, in a sort of act of suicide, to break into the Hellenistic formation with hundreds of warriors, every last one of them fell. His successors were no better than him. On the contrary: Judah's policy, which originated from a lust for rule and lordship mixed with religious fanaticism (a kind of deadly recipe), was for his successors a kind of sacred mantra. Jonathan, Judah's successor, kicked off the traditional priestly ritual, was appointed by the Syrian-Hellenists as high priest, and set out to expand the borders of Judah with the "holy" sword. His brother Shimon acted similarly to him.

The trend of expanding the territory through wars that claimed victims, wounded and disabled, financial expenses and money worth (service work), corruption and more, was deeply internalized in the hearts of the Hasmonean heirs, who did not struggle at all with the issues of transfer, eliminations (also of their Jewish opponents), forced conversion, deportation , cruelty in general, when everything is sanctified in the name of the religious and ritual message (they were all high priests).

And let's not forget, from the time of Mattathias' grandson, Yohanan Hyrcanus, the Hellenistic influence in the courts of the Hasmoneans and their aristocratic allies, including from the high priesthood, increased. These often intervene in the Syrian-Hellenistic policy, intervene, get corrupted and "burn". The grandchildren therefore forgot (and perhaps it is good) the grandfather's fanatical mantra, but as mentioned persisted in their cruel and anti-humanitarian policy.

And it is worth knowing: the leaders of the people after the destruction of the Temple, the Pharisees, the Sages, firmly refused to include Hanukkah in all of Israel's festivals (see Seder Moed in the Mishnah, the Tosefta and the Talmud), and did not even mention Matthew and the Maccabees, as well as the zealots of the Great Rebellion. These feared, and rightly so, that in the light of the Maccabees a rebellious generation might grow up, which would challenge the Romans and degenerate the nation into another disaster.

Ben Kusba (Bar Kochba), it seems, did not listen to their voice, and it is interesting that according to one of the sage traditions he was executed by the sages.

Dr. Shurk is a historian who teaches at Beit Berel College

The Reformers: There was no Hanukkah miracle

One of the leaders of the movement offers a different explanation for the candle lighting tradition

No miracle happened on Hanukkah, and there was not and was not created any kind of oil. This is how Reform Rabbi Yehoram Mazor, father of the Reform movement's court and secretary of the highest halachic body of the Reform movement in Israel, states.

"The story, as beautiful and interesting as it is, is surely as far from the historical truth as the miracle is from reality," wrote the rabbi in Bataun of the Reform movement. "The earliest source of Hanukkah stories appears in the books of the Maccabees, which were written close to the events themselves. The book of the Maccabees states that the celebration of the resumption of work in the temple lasted for eight days. Therefore, it was determined that from now on this special event should be celebrated in a holiday that will be celebrated every year for eight days... the day of the dedication of the temple in the days of Yehuda the Maccabee and his brothers," added the rabbi. According to him, "the fact that the historian Josephus ben Mattathias (Josephus Flavius), a member of the family of Hasmonean priests, does not mention the miracle of the fat mouth, certainly emphasizes that a miracle did not happen here."

So why do you light candles on Hanukkah? According to the rabbi, the reason for this is because they replaced the menorah that was looted from the Temple with torches.

(Shlomo Cezna, Maariv, 1/12/2002)