Ahaliba StudioIn the fourth decade of the second century BCE, when the political fate of the Mediterranean world was being sealed by the Roman Republic’s victory over Macedonia at the Battle of Pidene and its political intervention in Egypt, major events occurred in Judea, the results of which were to determine the spiritual character of the Near East and Europe. The events in Judea were exceptional in the history of the ancient world. They involved a comprehensive religious persecution of an entire nation, which quickly turned into a religious war and an ideological conflict without any connection to its original purpose. It was seen in this light by those who were active during the crisis, and its significance was thus understood by Jews and Gentiles affected by the experiences of the persecution and the rebellion that followed.
The edicts of Antiochus IV Epiphanes against the Jewish religion were issued when the prestige of the Seleucid dynasty was at its lowest ebb. They had already sunk to a great extent. The defeat of Epiphanes’ father, Antiochus III, at the hands of the Romans and the peace treaty that ended the war limited the kingdom’s territory and reduced its military capacity. When Antiochus IV, after a struggle, secured his rule over Antioch, he found himself king of a power that, although still strong, was smaller in size than before.
Given the geographical position of the Land of Israel as a buffer between the Seleucid Kingdom and Ptolemaic Egypt and as a major military base for Antiochus’ military campaigns in the Nile Valley, and bearing in mind the fact that the Land of Israel was then at the height of the process of Hellenization, which found expression in the development of Hellenistic patterns in the life of the city, it is not surprising that the situation in that land was a matter of great importance to the king. The Hellenization of the East did not spare the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel or the Land of Judah itself. The prolonged Greek rule in Judea, the patterns of Ptolemaic and Seleucid rule, and the material achievements of Hellenistic culture in finance, agriculture, and city building all combined to create far-reaching changes in Judea. It should be noted that the Jewish settlement in Judea and elsewhere was surrounded by a gentile population, which, despite being ethnically diverse, was paired with a unified leadership of a Hellenistic nature during the period of Greek rule.
Whereas the Jewish settlement had previously excelled in its unity, now an upper class began to take shape, Hellenistic in its way of life, which gradually absorbed the layers of leadership and culture throughout the Land of Israel until only the most subtle differences remained between its various ethnic components. The most danger that threatened Judaism during this period of widespread Hellenization, before the persecutions initiated by Antiochus, was not the complete elimination of the Jewish way of life in the land, for even in other places in the East and among populations less united and with a less profound spiritual consciousness than the Jewish nation at that time, Hellenism had not succeeded in completely assimilating the rural masses but remained, in fact, the property of only a minority. The real danger that lurked for Judah, as for other countries, was that here, too, the same rift would occur between the ruling upper classes and the masses of the population, a rift that would cause a fusion between the ruling classes and the Greek upper class and condemn the others to a long period of relative stagnation and spiritual and cultural sterility.
Antiochus Versus Judaism
Antiochus’ military campaigns in Egypt were closely linked to what was happening in Judah. On his return from one of his campaigns against Egypt, the king’s demon, with the support of Menelaus, stole the great treasures of the Temple and aroused the wrath of the Jews, who saw this as a serious violation of their rights and a malicious attack on everything sacred to them. In 168 BC, during Antiochus’ last campaign in Egypt, rumors of his death spread throughout Judea. Jerusalem rebelled, and Jason, the deposed high priest, returned to the city and temporarily took power. After Antiochus’ return from Egypt, Jerusalem was reconquered by the Seleucid army. It was decided to punish the Jews for their rebellion and to secure undisputed rule over the city for the future. Foreign settlers were brought into the city and joined by the extremist settlers from the Melian faction. No decrees had yet been issued against the Jewish religion at this stage. However, the very fact that the city was controlled by pagan settlers and extremist apostates who differed very little from them destroyed the Jewish character of the holy city. It gave it the appearance of a pagan city infested with idolatry. Of course, the current settlers brought their idols with them. Many Jews who were faithful to the faith and their works and accustomed to seeing Judah as a land that could not be defiled by idolatry, could not accept the new situation that prevailed in Jerusalem. They abandoned their city and fled to the deserts south and southeast of Jerusalem or the field cities northwest and west of the city.
The decisive step was taken in 167 BCE when the Jewish religion was outlawed, and the observance of its commandments was strictly prohibited. Even if the king’s decrees were originally intended only for the inhabitants of the Land of Judah, the expansion of the area of the population that suffered from the decrees naturally resulted from the large Jewish population in the regions adjacent to the borders of the Land of Judah. The sources indicate that the decrees were enforced outside the Land of Judah. Even in Modi’in, the location of the beginning of the revolt and the birthplace of the Hasmoneans, an attempt was made to enforce the king’s decree.
There were several decrees of King Antiochus against Judaism: the observance of the commandments was forbidden, the circumcision commandment was forbidden, the sanctification of the month was forbidden, and the people were commanded to burn the Torah scrolls. In addition, Jews were required to participate in the worship of Greek idols, offer sacrifices, and eat forbidden foods, especially pork. Altars for idolatry were erected in various cities in the land of Judah, and pigs and forbidden animals were sacrificed on them. Furthermore, the Temple in Jerusalem was desecrated and turned into a temple of the Greek Olympian god Zeus. The Jews were forced to participate in a procession in honor of God, adorned with cypress branches. Every month, on the king’s birthday, Jews were dragged to participate in the sacrifices.
The royal policy and its cruel enforcement caused a reaction contrary to the king’s and his advisors’ expectations. Contrary to their hopes, the great majority of the nation remained faithful to the religion of its ancestors, and the members of the various classes showed a firm determination to endure whatever was decreed upon them, provided that they did not obey the king’s order. The fervent devotion of the Jews to their faith was a phenomenon with deep roots. The sanctification of the Lord is deeply ingrained in the Jew, but now, for the first time in the history of humanity, we witness the sanctification of the Lord on a mass scale and the resistance of the saints and Hasidim during the times of persecution served as an example to Jews and Gentiles alike for all future generations.
Although the Jewish religion had found itself in dire situations before, it had never been in greater danger of extinction than during the cruel persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. At the time of the persecution, the bulk of the Jewish population was concentrated in the territory ruled by the Slovaks, both in the Land of Israel and abroad. The Hasmonean struggle and the resistance shown by the inhabitants of Judah in this fateful decade of the second century BCE secured the later development of the Jewish nation and its consequences for world history. Various external and internal factors determined the outcome of the struggle between the Seleucid kingdom and the Jews. However, the main role of circumcision is the spiritual development that shaped the image of Jewish society in the Land of Israel in the generations after the return from Babylon. The ideals that had taken shape in Jerusalem and Judah in the centuries preceding the edicts of Antiochus penetrated the broad strata of the nation. The Torah was absorbed into the daily life of tens of thousands of Judean farmers, who perceived it as indispensable for their existence. This spirit, which was not limited to the priests or other closed circles, inspired enthusiasm and confidence in the rebel armies.
Step by step, Judah, led by the Hasmoneans, advanced towards freedom. Judah Maccabee managed to repel A series of attacks launched by Antiochus’ generals. The Temple was purified, and the Seleucid government, even in the days of Antiochus, recognized the right of the Jews to maintain their religious practices. Judah’s successors, Jonathan and Simon, followed in his footsteps and included various parts of the Land of Israel in their political and military sphere of action. Demetrius II, King of Syria, officially recognized the independence of the Land of Judea in 142 BCE, and the Great Council that convened in Jerusalem two years later recognized the Hasmoneans as high priests and military leaders in Judah. Now, the entire Land of Israel has begun transforming into the state of Judah, which includes the islands of Jewish settlement throughout the Land of Israel within the Hasmonean state of Judah.
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The Hasmonean revolt did not break out due to a pre-arranged plan. The Hasmoneans raised the banner of revolt in Modi’in, and many of the Hasidim and other loyal Jews joined them because the situation had become unbearable, and it seemed that there was no other way to ensure the survival of Judaism. Only after their initial successes did the Jews begin to fulfill their ancient ambition to sever all ties with the pagan government and to introduce changes in Judah and the Land of Israel. The great achievement of the revolt was the salvation of the Jewish nation. However, the changes in the political situation and the conditions that prevailed in Judah led to the social and religious systems, which ended the trends that had previously dominated Hellenistic Jerusalem, strengthened other tendencies, and gave rise to new ideas.
One common feature was shared by all the sects that played any role in the socio-religious development between the Hasmonean revolt and the destruction of the Temple: the deep loyalty of all parts of the Jewish nation in the Land of Israel to monotheism, as expressed in the Jewish religion and the Torah. After the failure of the radical settlers in their attempt to adapt to the beliefs and rituals of the outside world, no one challenged the exclusive dominance of the religion of Israel among the Jewish nation. The Jewry of the Land of Israel remained unwaveringly faithful to the faith of its ancestors, and idolatry was no longer one of the sins that could be dealt with.
Not a single Hellenistic king after Antiochus Epiphanes dared to renew edicts of the kind he had imposed on the Jews. The Roman authorities also acted with the utmost caution in most cases regarding the Jewish religion, knowing full well that any significant religious harm to Judaism could ignite a serious conflagration in the Land of Israel and even in Jewish settlements in other parts of the empire. The willingness of the Jews to sacrifice their lives, provided they did not violate the commandments of the Torah, became in itself a historical factor of the first order. From the time of the persecution of Antiochus, the death penalty for the sanctification of God was one of the hallmarks of Judaism, and it was taken from Judaism by the other religions that drew from its source. The stories about the sanctuaries of God from the time of Antiochus, the story of Eleazar, the priest, and the story of the mother and her seven sons, which were told and practiced in many forms, served as inspiration for the various branches of Hellenistic Judaism, just as they encouraged Christians in later generations.
The Hasmonean Revolt was, in fact, the only Jewish revolt under Greco-Roman rule that ended in Jewish victory, the overthrow of the foreign yoke, and the restoration of Judea’s independence. This fact and the recognition that these events saved the Jewish religion from destruction helped preserve the memory of these events in Jewish tradition for generations. They are commemorated in Hanukkah, the most important of the non-scriptural Jewish holidays, and in the prayers associated with it, which celebrate the victory of the few over the many.
