Chanukah Unpacked: The Hasmoneans

(14) In those days went there out of Israel wicked men, who persuaded many, saying,

(15) “Let us go and make a covenant with the heathen that are round about us: for since we departed from them we have had much sorrow.”

(16) So this device pleased them well. Then certain of the people were so forward herein, that they went to the king, who gave them a license to do after the ordinances of the heathen,

(17) whereupon they built a place of exercise at Jerusalem according to the customs of the heathen and made themselves uncircumcised, and forsook the holy covenant, and joined themselves to the heathen, and were sold to do mischief.

(45) For the king had sent letters by messengers unto Jerusalem and the cities of Juda that they should follow the strange laws of the land,

(46) And forbid burnt offerings, and sacrifice, and drink offerings, in the temple; and that they should profane the sabbaths and festival days:

(47) And pollute the sanctuary and holy people: Set up altars, and groves, and chapels of idols, and sacrifice swine’s flesh, and unclean beasts:

(48) That they should also leave their children uncircumcised, and make their souls abominable with all manner of uncleanness and profanation: To the end they might forget the law, and change all the ordinances.

(49) And whosoever would not do according to the commandment of the king, he said, he should die.

(1) In those days arose Mattathias the son of John, the son of Simeon, a priest of the sons of Joarib, from Jerusalem, and dwelt in Modin.

(2) And he had five sons, Joannan, called Caddis:

(3) Simon; called Thassi: Judas, who was called Maccabeus:

(1) Then his son Judas, called Maccabeus, rose up in his stead.

(2) And all his brethren helped him, and so did all they that held with his father, and they fought with cheerfulness the battle of Israel.

(3) So he gat his people great honour, and put on a breastplate as a giant, and girt his warlike harness about him, and he made battles, protecting the host with his sword.

(4) In his acts he was like a lion, and like a lion’s whelp roaring for his prey.

(5) For He pursued the wicked, and sought them out, and burnt up those that vexed his people.

⁷ Later, when King Seleucus died and Antiochus (known as Epiphanes) became king, Jason the brother of Onias became High Priest by corrupt means. ⁸ He went to see^[a] the king and offered him 27,000 pounds of silver with 6,000 more pounds to be paid later.⁹ Jason also offered him an additional 11,250 pounds of silver for the authority to establish a stadium where young men could train and to enroll the people of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch.^[b]

¹⁰ The king gave his approval, and just as soon as Jason took over the office of High Priest, he made the people of Jerusalem change to the Greek way of life. ¹¹ He began by abolishing the favors that John had secured for the Jews from previous Syrian kings. (John was the father of the Eupolemus who later went to Rome to make an alliance and to establish ties of friendship.) Jason also did away with our Jewish customs and introduced new customs that were contrary to our Law. ¹² With great enthusiasm he built a stadium near the Temple hill and led our finest young men to adopt the Greek custom of participating in athletic events. ¹³ Because of the unrivaled wickedness of Jason, that ungodly and illegitimate High Priest, the craze for the Greek way of life and for foreign customs reached such a point ¹⁴ that even the priests lost all interest in their sacred duties.

Three years later, Jason sent Menelaus (brother of the Simon^[d] mentioned earlier) to take some money to the king and to get his decision on several important matters. ²⁴ But when he stood before the king, Menelaus impressed him with his show of authority and offered 22,500 pounds of silver more than Jason had offered for his appointment to the office of High Priest. ²⁵ As a result Menelaus returned to Jerusalem with papers from the king, confirming him as High Priest. But he possessed no other qualifications; he had the temper of a cruel tyrant and could be as fierce as a wild animal. ²⁶ So Jason, who had cheated his own brother out of the office of High Priest, was now forced to flee to the land of Ammon. ²⁷ Menelaus continued to be High Priest, but he never paid any of the money he had promised the king.

§ The mishna taught that during the War of Titus the Sages decreed that a person should not teach his son Greek. The Sages taught that this decree came about as a result of the following incident: When the kings of the Hasmonean monarchy besieged each other in their civil war, Hyrcanus was outside of Jerusalem, besieging it, and Aristoblus was inside. On each and every day they would lower dinars in a box from inside the city, and those on the outside would send up animals for them to bring the daily offerings in the Temple. A certain Elder was there, in Jerusalem, who was familiar with Greek wisdom. He communicated to those on the outside by means of Greek wisdom, using words understood only by those proficient in Greek wisdom. He said to them: As long as they are engaged in the Temple service, they will not be delivered into your hands. Upon hearing this, on the following day, when they lowered dinars in a box, they sent up a pig to them. Once the pig reached halfway up the wall, it inserted its hooves into the wall and Eretz Yisrael shuddered four hundred parasangs. When the Sages saw this, they said at that time: Cursed is the person who raises pigs, and cursed is the person who teaches his son Greek wisdom.

(1) The spirit of the Lord made Judah Maccabee and his men succeed, and they captured the city and the Temple.

(2) They destroyed the altars and the houses of idolatry that the nations had built in the city squares.

(3) After they purified the Temple, made a new altar, and removed the fire from the stones they gathered, they offered their sacrifice to the Lord at the end of two years.

(4) They offered incense and arranged the lamps; they placed the show-bread on the table of the Lord.

(5) And at the end of all these, they fell on their faces and they pleaded to the Lord God, saying:

(6) Please, God, protect us forever from this trouble that's come to us.

(7) And if we have sinned against you, punish us with kindness, and do not give us any longer into the hands of strangers who are cursing the name of your holiness.

(8) And from the Lord it was this, to purge the House on the same day that the nations defiled it, and it was the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev.

(9) And they celebrated a festival to the Lord for eight days, like the days of the festival of Sukkot, and they remembered the previous days when they celebrated the festival of Sukkot in mountains and in caves, and they went out in the desolation/wilderness, like wild beasts.