BACKGROUND
Hanukkah commemorates the Maccabean (Hasmonean) victories over the forces of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (reigned 175–164 bce) and the rededication of the Temple on Kislev 25, 164 bce. Led by Mattityahu and his son Judah Maccabee.
From a Jewish perspective this was the time period of the Sadducees , in Hebrew Tzedukim, who were the ruling dynasty from the high priest Tzadok and a new group called the Pharisees, essentially the new Rabbinic movement, were challenging the Sadducees for power.
The Sadduccees followed the period of Prophets, the King dynasty, and so forth. During the early period of Judaism it was a static religion with very specific holidays, at specific times, and celebrated in very specific locations. Also one’s father’s social station determined the station that his son could achieve but not exceed. The Pharisees pursued a different philosophy where one could study and improve one’s education and skills and there was no limits to what they could achieve. So the Pharisees were not true to the original Judaism in its practices but with the Roman Exile this transformation from a static religion to a mobile religion where one could take their Bible and Prayer Book anywhere most likely saved Judaism from extinction as Jews were scattered across all the countries of the world with our fall to the Romans.
THE WAR BETWEEN THE MACCABEES AND THE SELUCIDS (i.e. Greeks)
The Sadducces and Pharisees hated each other more than the Democrats and Republicans hate each other today.
The Maccabean Revolt (Hebrew: מרד החשמונאים) was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and against Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. The main phase of the revolt lasted from 167 to 160 BCE and ended with the Seleucids in control of Judea, but conflict between the Maccabees, Hellenized Jews, and the Seleucids continued until 134 BCE, with the Maccabees eventually attaining independence.
Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes launched a massive campaign of repression against the Jewish religion in 168 BCE. The reason he did so is not entirely clear, but it seems to have been related to the King mistaking an internal conflict among the Jewish priesthood as a full-scale rebellion. Jewish practices were banned, Jerusalem was placed under direct Seleucid control, and the Second Temple in Jerusalem was made the site of a syncretic Pagan-Jewish cult. This repression triggered exactly the revolt that Antiochus IV had feared, with a group of Jewish fighters led by Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) and his family rebelling in 167 BCE and seeking independence. The rebels as a whole would come to be known as the Maccabees, and their actions would be chronicled later in the books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees.
The rebellion started as a guerrilla movement in the Judean countryside, raiding towns and terrorizing Greek officials far from direct Seleucid control, but it eventually developed a proper army capable of attacking the fortified Seleucid cities. In 164 BCE, the Maccabees captured Jerusalem, a significant early victory. The subsequent cleansing of the temple and rededication of the altar on 25 Kislev is the source of the festival of Hanukkah. The Seleucids eventually relented and unbanned Judaism, but the more radical Maccabees, not content with merely reestablishing Jewish practices under Seleucid rule, continued to fight, pushing for a more direct break with the Seleucids. Judas Maccabeus died in 160 BCE at the Battle of Elasa against the Greek general Bacchides, and the Seleucids reestablished direct control for a time, but remnants of the Maccabees under Judas’s brother Jonathan Apphus continued to resist from the countryside. Eventually, internal division among the Seleucids and problems elsewhere in their empire would give the Maccabees their chance for proper independence. In 141 BCE, Simon Thassi succeeded in expelling the Greeks from their citadel in Jerusalem. An alliance with the Roman Republic helped guarantee their independence. Simon would go on to establish an independent Hasmonean kingdom.
The revolt had a great impact on Jewish nationalism, as an example of a successful campaign to establish political independence and resist governmental anti-Jewish suppression.
CTHE WAR BETWEEN THE MACCABEES AND THE
The Sadducces and Pharisees hated each other more than the Democrats and Republicans hate each other today.
CONFLICT BETWEEN THE SADDUCCEES AND THE PHARISEES
The Sadducces and Pharisees hated each other more than the Democrats and Republicans hate each other today.
The Pharisees did not want to give the Maccabees the credit for defeating the Selucids so some 500 years later some made up the fictional story about finding a single candle in the Temple. It was to take 8 days to produce more candles and the “so called” miracle of the candle lasting 8 days was pushed to all following generations instead of the true story of the Maccabean triumph over the Greeks.
IF SO WHY IS HANUKAH EIGHT DAYS IF NOT THE CANDLE?
BIBLICAL HISTORY DAILY:
Hanukkah, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and the Apocrypha
A brief passage in 2 Maccabees provides a meaningful explanation for why the festival lasts eight days per se:
“They celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the festival of booths, remembering how not long before, during the festival of booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals. 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 (2 Maccabess 10:6-8).”
“So according to this source, Hanukkah began as a belated celebration of the fall festival of booths (Sukkot). Henceforth, once Sukkot will be celebrated properly again in its own right, then Hanukkah takes on a life of its own as a new eight-day festival, also celebrated annually.
This makes a great deal of sense, especially when we recall that Solomon’s temple was dedicated on Sukkot (1 Kings 8:1–2). Traditionally-informed Jewish readers may know of other ways that Hanukkah recalls Sukkot, including the daily recitation of the unabbreviated Hallel (Psalms 113–118), read in entirety on Sukkot and Hanukkah only (the recitation is abbreviated for the other holiday of that rough length, Passover). These hints may be telling, but we must turn to 2 Maccabees 10 for the surest confirmation of this sound explanation for the eight-day length of the Festival of Lights.”
THIS IS ALSO SUPPORTED IN THE JEWISH HISTORY BY THE GREAT HISTORIAN JOSEPHUS FLAVIUS
Hanukkah The Festival of the Dedication, The Festival of Lights
SO WHY CAN’T I FIND THE BOOK OF MACCABEES IN MY TANAKH (COMPLETE OLD TESTIMENT)?
As the Tanakh grew and evolved it was very clear that this Holy Scriptures were like no other book or literature ever produced. It dealt with a full flow legal and social system based on ethics, justice, and the word of G-d. It also tracked history of a nation, a people, and a religion with scope, depth, and compelling lessons. Realizing the importance of the Holy Bible there were 3 early translations that detached the Holy Bible from the Jews and gave it a semi-detached alternative path for preservation albeit in a translated “face value” form. These translations were the Vulgate to Latin by Jerome, the Septuagint the Greek translation by the “Seventy”, and finally Targum Onkelos to Aramaic.
The Very Long Process of Canonization of the Hebrew Bible
(Old Testament) occurred over several centuries, probably between 200 BCE and 200 CE.”CONCLUSIONS
The lessons of Hanukkah are enormous and should not be dismissed offhand just because it does not sit right with what you have been taught all your life or that it conflicts with the long established belief system that you have inherited over more than 1700 years.
I believe we must use the lens of the HOLOCAUST to guide us. For those of us who either directly survived the horrors of the HOLOCAUST no one has to explain what Auschwitz, Bergen Belsin, or other concentrations were. And today we may support Ukraine in the war with Russia but we will never forget Babi Yar on Sept 29, 1941. If teh Ukreainians then did not jubilantly join in on the massacres of Jews then, their grandchildren today would have been far more willing to help Ukrainians today. History has a long memory for some people and sins are never forgiven. So today who among us would laugh at a “HOLOCAUST joke” or not be offended by a “HOLOCAUST denier?”
The core issue now is why do we not see the rest of our history as directly and personally as were see our history and that of you immediate family? The suffering of the slaves of Egypt, the tortured and kidnapped Jews of the Babylonian Exile, the near annihilation of the Jews of Persia in the Book of Esther, etc. seem remote, unemotional, disconnected stories and misunderstood stories from the ancient past.
One important mission of this website is to reconnect the readers with the true events, the emotions, the trauma, and understanding of the people and events in our Holy Scriptures. We have already done some amazing work with the early periods of creation through the story of Joseph and the rise and fall of Moshe to and from leadership with new insights and discoveries. There is a lot more to come. Stay tuned and try to open your minds and discard some of the excess baggage.