12th December, 2009
To my Dear Family and Friends
Last night, before lighting the Shabbat candles, Jews around the world lit the first of eight candles in the Hanukiah, celebrating Hanukah, the Festival of Lights, which commemorates the rededication of the (Second) Temple after it had been desecrated and plundered by order of Antiochus, ruler of the Seleucid Empire.
Unlike other Jewish holydays which are given to us in the Torah and which are like Shabbat in that work is forbidden, the Festival of Lights is post-Torah and commemorates a historical event. Work is permitted but schools are on holiday from the second day.
At the risk of boring you to tears and frightening you with names which are a mouthful, just a few lines on the complicated historical events leading up to Hannukah.
The First Temple, built by Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE but within decades the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persian Empire and disappeared from history. Cyrus, king of Persia and ruler of Judah gave the Jews permission to rebuild the Temple and restore the priesthood. (Ezra 1:2-3 and an inscription discovered in Nineveh)
In 332 BCE Judah was conquered by Alexander of Macedon and became part of the Greek Hellenist Empire, ruled first by the Ptolemy dynasty in Egypt and then, in about 200 BCE, by the Seleucid dynasty in Coele- Syria.
At about this time Onias, the High Priest, was replaced by his brother Jason who had bribed the Seleucid emperor to support him. Not for long though as he was in turn ousted by Menelaus.
Acting on the advice of Menelaus, Antiochus banned circumcision, forbade observing the Shabbat and forced the Jews to offer sacrifices to the pagan idol which he ordered be placed in the Temple.
Told you it was complicated. But now we get to the point!!
Mattathias, a priest living in Modi’in, called on the people to defy the ban against Jewish traditions. His son Judah led what would become known as the Hasmonean (Macabean) revolt, wresting the Temple from Seleucid control in 164 BCE.
The Hasmonean dynasty ruled the independent Kingdom of Judea until it was conquered by Pompey in 63 BCE and then continued to rule as vassal kings until Anthony and Octavian appointed Herod, the Edomite, also known as the great, king of Judea. In 37 BCE Herod ordered the execution of Antigonus, thereby bringing the Hasmonean dynasty to an end.
These events are recorded in Macabees I and Macabees II, external sources in the Jewish tradition but part of the Apocrypha which is found in many Christian Bibles. Verifying the events leading up to the Hasmonean (Macabean) revolt is the recently published inscription on the Heliodorus stele, exhibited in the Israel Museum, and three fragments found in the excavation in Beit Guvrin – Maresha.
Together they are part of a communiqué from the emperor Seleucus IV, written in Greek in 178 BCE , advising the local population of the appointment of Heliodorus as overseer responsible for the collection of taxes from sanctuaries throughout the province
In “The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple“, on display in the Vatican, the artist Raphael has immortalized Heliodorus and the events recorded in Macabees II and confirmed in this inscription.
Often, when we learn of historical events, two thoughts come to mind. The first is “what if…?” The second is “is there a similarity between the events then and those of today?”
What if the Hasmonean revolt had not succeeded? I believe that Judaism, the teachings of the Torah, particularly but not only, monotheism, would have ceased to exist. Without Jews and the Hebrew Scriptures, without the Second Temple, without monotheism, could there have been Christianity? Or am I getting carried away?
There would have been no Talmud. Many Jews (and non-Jews) today tend to see the Talmud as something which was and is entirely and solely the domain of the Orthodox Jewish community and mostly belongs to the Middle Ages. But this is not accurate.
Many aspects of western legal systems have their origins in biblical and talmudic laws. It is sad that so many Jews, because they are unfamiliar with their own heritage, are unable to take pride in this. Just two examples suffice.
That all people were created as equals and are equal before the law is a biblical and talmudic concept. That one should work six days and rest on the seventh comes from the Torah.
As for parallels between then and now? Then the Jewish communities stood alone in a pagan world, vilified and persecuted for their strange beliefs and their obstinacy in adhering to them. Yes, even then there was anti-Semitism.
Then there were Jews who ridiculed their fellow Jews, who denied the validity of their traditions and heritage, who assimilated and became part of the Hellenist world.
In the twentieth century, instead of a pagan world, the Jewish people stood virtually alone in a predominantly Christian world. But the threat of extinction was no less menacing and was a very definite possibility. Assimilation in nineteenth and early twentieth century Germany proved to be valueless as the Germans defined a Jew as one who had even only one Jewish grandparent even if that grand parent had converted.
How about the twenty first century? In my old age my glasses are no longer rose tinted. As I see it, today we Jews stand virtually alone in a world where being anti-Semitic, anti-Israel or anti-Zionist (which, despite claims to the contrary are all the same – a denial of the legitimacy of the Jewish people and the Jewish State) is the theology not only of Moslems but also of such strange bed fellows as liberals, socialists, communists, fascists, ecologists, humanists and goodness know what other -ists exist out there.
And we Jews have not changed either. Just as not all Jews then were proud of their heritage and traditions and willing and prepared to sacrifice their lives to preserve them, so it is today.
Over the coming week, each night we will light one more candle in our Hanukiah, until on the eighth day all eight candles burn together with the ninth candle which is used to light the other eight.
The Hanukiah is not to be confused with the Menorah which has seven branches and recalls the golden Menorah which stood in the Temple and is found in most synagogues.
It is less than two weeks to Christmas so I take this opportunity to wish my Jewish readers a happy Hanukah and my Christian readers a meaningful Christmas.
