Ahaliba StudioWhy Do We Celebrate the Holiday of Hanukkah?
Most of our sages may have their memories blessed, and it is also customary among the public to associate the holiday of Hanukkah with the miracle of the cruse of oil. However, Rambam (Maimonides), in his introduction to the laws of Hanukkah, emphasizes that the restoration of sovereignty to Israel for over 200 years holds immense value, viewing the return of kingship to Israel as a matter of great significance. Although this sovereignty was not ideal—despite the frequent wars and tensions between different segments of the Jewish people, despite the rulers not always being righteous, and despite the High Priesthood not always being what we would expect to see—despite all these things, the mere restoration of sovereignty to Israel is of great value.
The Hasmonean period did not receive great honor or a significant place in the consciousness of Israel throughout the generations. Mattathias himself is mentioned several times, but his sons (John, Jonathan, Simon, Judah, and Eleazar), on the other hand, are not mentioned by name in Talmudic literature or the literature of the Tannaim. For example, one of Judah’s battles, mentioned in Megillat Taanit, refers to it only as “and one from the house of the Hasmoneans went out,” even though this refers to the victory of Judah Maccabee, who would become the leader and military commander. This raises a great question: why are the Hasmoneans and this entire period not described extensively by the sages (Chazal), to the point that there was a significant debate among researchers and thinkers around the question of whether the nation and its sages deliberately forgot the Hasmoneans (as discussed in an article by Gedaliahu Alon specifically addressing this point). This is indeed very puzzling.
Gedaliahu Alon, in his article, argues that the prevailing opinion that the sages and the people forgot the Hasmoneans is incorrect. He shows that the sages did not attempt to erase their memory but preserved it through traditions, legends, and the holiday of Hanukkah. Alon rejects claims that the Books of the Maccabees were forgotten or that the sages opposed their rule for religious or political reasons. He points to evidence such as the continued observance of Hanukkah, praise for the Hasmonean leaders in Chazal sources, and the absence of “internal censorship,” as other scholars had claimed. According to Alon, the Hasmoneans were not forgotten. Still, they remained an important part of the national and religious memory of the Jewish people despite the criticism of some of their actions.
By their very nature, the Talmudic treasures were not intended to serve as a continuous historical record in the narrow sense. They did not immortalize feats of war or eulogize individuals in the political arena, nor did they chronicle the history of a nation in a complete, logical sequence. Their scarcity does not justify cynical skepticism or far-fetched conclusions. The imprint of the Hasmoneans in this tradition is not inferior, and their share is not diminished compared to the leaders of the Pharisees of their generation. The glory of the House of Hasmonean has not faded; their praise echoes in every generation and branch of Talmudic literature. John Hyrcanus is enveloped in affection and esteem, crowned with holy glory, for a heavenly voice announced the victory of his sons, and only his deviation in his later years casts a shadow on his image. Rebukes are directed at Yannai alone, while the House of Hasmonean is mentioned only in the language of praise and gratitude.
The framing of Hanukkah around the miracle of the cruse of oil began to change with the onset of Zionism and the issue of Jewish nationalism and the Jewish army. At that time, the Hasmonean period and its war-filled history gained a great resurgence and took on a significant place.
Which books in Jewish literature were written about the Hanukkah and Hasmonean periods?
The Jewish study material in this period is very limited. The main books are the Books of the Maccabees (Maccabees A and Maccabees B), the works of Josephus Flavius, Megillat Antiochus (written much later, during the Geonic period), and we also have references by our sages, such as in Megillat Taanit.
Maccabees A is a book likely written in Hebrew by a Jew who lived close to this period in Israel. Some say he was even the official scribe of the Hasmonean kingdom. He is very knowledgeable about the geography of the land and has highly reliable internal information about various processes. His writing style is biblical in spirit, reflecting a militant and zealous piety:
Before going out to battle, they purify themselves, spread out Torah scrolls, collect first fruits and tithes, appoint Nazirites, strictly observe the laws of the Torah, and pray to the One who dwells on high: “Behold, nations have risen against us… How can we stand against them if You do not save us?” They trust in their Rock of Refuge and constantly justify the judgment: “As it is His will in heaven, so it shall be done” (from Maccabees A, Chapter 3). Judah Maccabee encourages his soldiers: “It is easy for many to be delivered into the hands of a few, and there is no hindrance before heaven to save by many or by few, for victory in war does not depend on the multitude of soldiers but on strength from heaven. They come against us with great pride and sin, to destroy us… but we fight for our lives and our Torah,” drawing strength and comfort from past miracles like the splitting of the Red Sea, the heroism of David and Jonathan, and the plague in Sennacherib’s camp. They look to signs and heavenly mercies, for without them, there is no redemption or revival. Before going to war, they pray, and after their victory, they sing psalms and give thanks: “And upon their return, they sang and praised to the heavens, for His mercy endures forever.”
Mattathias expresses their burning faith in his testament: “And now, my sons, be zealous for the Torah and give your lives for the covenant of your fathers. Observe the deeds of the fathers, as they did in their generations… Was not Abraham faithful in the test… Joseph, in his distress, kept the commandment… Our father, Phinehas, in his zeal, received the covenant of eternal priesthood. Elijah, in his zeal, was taken up to heaven. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who trusted, were saved from the flame. Daniel, in his innocence, was saved from the lions. And so it is from generation to generation, all who hope in Him will not be disappointed… Be strong, my sons, and be strengthened in the Torah.” The Hasmoneans repelled enemies and achieved victories, but not by their strength and wisdom; rather, divine providence delivered the salvation of Israel into their hands. Maccabees A was considered for many years to be the most reliable book regarding this period.
Maccabees B was written in Egypt after this period and is an abridgment of five books by Jason of Cyrene, who received the information secondhand and is not knowledgeable about the geography of the land. He tends to describe things very vividly, but in terms of details, it is considered less reliable over the generations. The author’s personality is presented to the reader, and his purpose is stated up front. He intends to provide only a summary of previous history, which was compiled extensively by Jason of Cyrene. It omits displays of militant zeal, such as the destruction of altars, the smashing of idolatrous altars, and the enforcement of Torah laws. The descriptions in the second book are further removed from the Talmudic tradition, and it attributes the crown of heroism and salvation solely to Judah Maccabee, completely overshadowing his brothers. Recently, however, it has gained more credibility, and there are some areas, the information it provides and describes seems even more reliable than what is found in Maccabees A.
Read About The War of the Brothers: The End of the Hasmonean Kingdom Here
When Does the Story of Hanukkah Begin?
The dated Hebrew Bible ends with the period of Nehemiah, in the fifth century BCE, and this is the last picture we have—a portrait of Nehemiah, appointed as the “Pehah” (governor) of Judea in the Persian kingdom, which then ruled the entire Middle East and beyond, “from India to Ethiopia” (as we know from the Book of Esther). The Persian kingdom was organized and divided into satrapies (provinces covering entire regions), within which were states. The satraps were at the head of the satrapies, and the entire kingdom paid taxes to the king. Religiously, there was autonomy, and people were allowed to conduct themselves according to their religion and customs.
Then, we have about 113 years (from 445 BCE, the end of Nehemiah’s activities, to 332 BCE, when Alexander the Great conquered Eretz Israel) with scant and discontinuous Jewish historical documentation. During this time, Judea was a quiet province under Persian rule, emphasizing religious and economic preservation. The Persian kings, such as Darius and Artaxerxes, supported the Jews, and the community focused on the Temple and the Torah. The period was stable, with no dramatic events, until the decline of the Persian Empire began in 332 BCE when Alexander the Great conquered the region.
How Did Alexander the Great, a Young Conqueror, Become the King of an Entire World? And How Is This Connected to Hanukkah?
Alexander the Great ascended to power in Macedonia following the assassination of his father in 336 BCE, and he gradually began to take control of Greece and the East. Eventually, in 332 BCE, he conquered the Persian kingdom, defeating the Persian king and taking him and his family captive. Afterward, he married the daughter of Darius III, king of Persia, and gradually began to dominate the ancient world, reaching as far as India. Along the way, he conquered Israel and Egypt.
Philip, Alexander’s father, had taken the philosopher Aristotle as his tutor, who shaped his worldview until he was 16 and entered the army. Thus, Alexander was educated to believe in multiculturalism. He sought to learn much from the cultures he conquered along the way. He believed that allowing people to continue their cultures was possible while gradually connecting them to the Hellenistic culture he spread throughout his kingdom.
Alexander the Great’s attitude toward the Jews was positive and respectful. Initially, when he sought the help of the Jews, he faced refusal, as the Jews remained loyal to the Persian king and were unwilling to betray him. Later, during his campaigns, Alexander passed through Eretz Israel on his way back after conquering Egypt. During his stay, he went up to Jerusalem. On the 25th of Tevet, a day associated with Mount Gerizim, the Samaritans approached Alexander the Great and asked him to destroy the Temple, and he agreed to their request. When Simon the Just, one of the last High Priests and leaders of the Great Assembly, heard of this, he met Alexander.
Upon Simon’s arrival, when Alexander saw Simon the Just, he descended from his chariot and bowed to him. His men were astonished: “A great king like you bows to this Jew?” Alexander replied, “The image of this man appears victorious before me in battle.” Alexander asked Simon why he had come, and Simon explained that the Samaritans were seeking to destroy the Temple. In response, Alexander permitted the Jews to act against the Samaritans and protected their status and the sanctity of their place.
What Happened After Alexander’s Death, and Did His Kingdom Collapse?
After Alexander the Great’s death at age 33 (some say from poisoning), he left behind an heir who was born only a few months after his death. This led to a full-scale struggle within the Greek world, known as the Wars of the Diadochi, among Alexander’s army generals in Macedonia. At the end of this process, the main generals divided the Greek kingdom among themselves, with the two most prominent being Ptolemy and Seleucus.
Ptolemy took Egypt for himself and settled there, while Seleucus I became ruler of the regions of Syria (Babylon). Between them raged the great wars, with Eretz Israel caught in the middle between the powerful northern Seleucid kingdom and Ptolemaic Egypt. For most of the period, the Jews sided with the house of Ptolemy, who was the de facto ruler of Eretz Israel. His attitude toward the Jews was positive, and they enjoyed autonomy and some relief from the tax burden.
After great struggles, Antiochus III went to war with Ptolemy and defeated him. The Jews assisted Antiochus III in his struggle against the house of Ptolemy because the tax burden had gradually become too heavy for them, so they supported and aided Antiochus III in his conquest campaign. Antiochus III rewarded them for this, giving a positive attitude to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, exempting them from taxes, enacting laws allowing them to practice their ancestral customs, and additionally legislating that impure animals forbidden by Jewish law were not to be brought into Jerusalem and that the Jewish religion was the dominant religion.
The Jews fared well under the rule of Antiochus III for a time until the Roman kingdom entered the picture. After a great victory over the Carthaginian kingdom across the sea, Rome began to eye the East and the Greek kingdom, engaging in battles with them. In 190 BCE, the Romans defeated Antiochus, and a peace treaty—more of a surrender—was signed, requiring Antiochus to pay money and cede part of the Seleucid kingdom to the Romans. Restrictions were imposed on his movements between certain places, and Antiochus III returned to his land defeated, humiliated, and burdened with huge financial debts.
Dealing with financial debts in the ancient world was done through banks, and the banks of the ancient world were the temples. Temples were considered safe and secure places where people deposited their money and also gave treasures as gifts to the temples. Antiochus III set his sights on these temples and tried to take money from them to pay his debts. During one of these temple plundering expeditions, Antiochus met his death.
In his place, Seleucus IV ascended to the Seleucid throne. Initially, he followed in his father’s footsteps, inheriting a kingdom in a very severe economic and political crisis, and the one who came to his aid was a Jew named Simon. There are discussions in Maccabees B about who this Simon was; most traditions say he was from the tribe of Benjamin, though some scholars believe he was a priest from the family of Bilgah. This claim makes geopolitical sense because the priestly division of the house of Bilgah was closed by the Jewish leadership and criticized due to the behavior of one of the family members who married a Greek officer. Either way, Simon was frustrated; he had a role in the Temple, but it wasn’t enough for him—he wanted a different position. He wanted to be in charge of the weights and measures in the market, a role considered important economically and influential in the local economy. The problem was that the High Priest at the time, who was also the leader of the people—Onias III, a descendant of Simon the Just—did not want to give him this position.
Simon turned to the regional commander in the kingdom. He told him there were enormous treasures and a lot of money in the Temple, far more than needed for the sacrificial service—money just waiting to be taken. The commander did not keep what he heard from Simon to himself and passed it on to King Seleucus IV. The king sent his most trusted deputy, Heliodorus, to take the Temple treasures. Archaeological findings show that Heliodorus was responsible for collecting funds from the regions of Syria and Eretz Israel.
Heliodorus arrived at the Temple and approached the High Priest Onias III, who refused to cooperate in plundering the Temple. Heliodorus forcibly entered the Temple, and then a miracle occurred, as described in Maccabees B: When Heliodorus reached the treasury with his soldiers, a terrifying horseman appeared before him, fully armored, and his horse struck Heliodorus with its front hooves. The rider appeared armed with golden weapons, and two young men standing on either side of him beat Heliodorus relentlessly until he fell to the ground unconscious, and they threw him out of the treasury. Heliodorus’s soldiers and men begged the High Priest Onias to pray for Heliodorus to recover and not die. Onias complied and prayed to God to help Heliodorus survive, and Heliodorus rose from his wounds, leaving Jerusalem defeated and frightened. Heliodorus reported everything that happened to Seleucus IV, and the king asked him whom he should send there to take the treasure. Heliodorus replied, “If you have an enemy, send him there, for there is divine power in that place.”
Seleucus realized he could not take the Temple treasures, and this left him with resentment toward the Jews. Parallel to these events, struggles were taking place in Eretz Israel. Simon, who wanted the Temple treasures plundered, did not give up; he tried several times to incite the Greeks to come for the Temple treasures until Onias III realized he had no choice but to travel to Seleucus IV and present his case so that the king would not listen to Simon. The High Priest, Onias, traveled to the king and was arrested and imprisoned.
Jason, the brother of the High Priest Onias, approached the Greek king and offered him a large sum of money—440 talents of silver—so that he would appoint him as High Priest. In addition, Jason promised to give another 150 talents of silver every year, on condition that he be allowed to turn Jerusalem into a Hellenistic city, one of the central cities in the Hellenistic kingdom of the king. Seleucus agreed and appointed him, allowing him to do as he pleased in Jerusalem.
Jason developed Jerusalem into a Hellenistic city, establishing two institutions essential to any Hellenistic city—a gymnasium and an ephebeion. The gymnasium was a place for studying Hellenistic culture, and the ephebe was for practicing sports culture, such as combat sports and athletic games. Jason established these two institutions near the Temple Mount and persuaded the public to participate in competitions and games, to the extent that it harmed the conduct of the Temple service: “until the priests ceased to be zealous for the service of the altar, and abandoning the Temple and the sacrifices, they hurried to the wrestling square, led by sin, at the call of the discus, and the honor of their fathers was considered as nothing” (as quoted in Maccabees). Thus, Jason introduced Hellenistic culture to the Jewish public.
Jason transformed the High Priest into a Hellenistic figure, marking the first time the High Priesthood was taken from a living person through bribery and money. Then came Simon’s brother, Menelaus, who also wanted to be a high priest, so he approached the Greek king, offered even more money, and proposed making Jerusalem even more Hellenistic. The king agreed, and Menelaus bought the High Priesthood from the king. Jason fled from Jerusalem, and Menelaus took control in an even worse manner, accusing Maccabees B of harming Jews, murdering, and plundering Jewish property.
Credit: Written and edited from the series of lessons by Rabbi Zvi Haber, “Azi Bami Hashmanim.”
