Chanuka and the Spiritual War of the Maccabees

The Gemarah asks, Mai Chanukah¹ – what is Chanukah? Ask any Jewish school child, and they will know to tell you that it is the celebration of the miracle of the oil that lasted for 8 days. An older child might tell you we are also celebrating the victory of the small army of Maccabees over the mighty Greeks. Both are true, but when we dig a little deeper into the historical context of Chanukah, and what came after, we might actually be surprised it’s a festival at all. 

After all, we do not celebrate any of the other minor festivals that were enacted during the Second Temple period (recorded in Megillat Ta’anit), for example the 13th of Adar, “Nikanor Day,” when Hasmoneans defeated the large Greek army of Nikanor, killing Nikanor, himself, or the 14th of Sivan when they conquered Caesarea². Moreover, while they don’t teach this in elementary school, the victory of the Maccabees lasted less than a century, resulted in the notorious Hasmonean Dynasty, and eventually led to the reign of Rome in Israel and the destruction of the Second Beit Hamikdash. What did the Rabbis of the Talmud, who fixed the holiday for all generations, see in the events of this period that are timeless and relevant to us to this day? What were the Maccabees really fighting for, or against?

According to the book of Maccabees, the rebellion of Matityahu and his sons took place when, motivated by religious zeal after being instructed to worship idols, they decided they could no longer sit back and watch the oppression of their religion³. A Midrash tells us that their revolt was actually spurred on by Mattityahu’s daughter, Chana, who dramatically criticized the family of Kohanim’s failure to preserve the dignity of Jewish women⁴. But in the 160 years before the revolt against Greek rule over Israel,  there were signs of an eroding commitment to Torah life, even amongst the elite of Jewish society and the Kohanim; and that was the widespread adoption of Hellenism.

What exactly was Hellenism? On their conquests in Mesopotamia, the Greeks sought to create a unified culture that embraced Greek philosophy, a love of beauty, athletic prowess, science, and a particular system of governance. It was a culture that was considered progressive and accepting of other cultures and adopted many cultural practices of the locals whom they conquered, before it came to be known as Hellenism⁵. Many of these aspects – love of learning, science, architectural beauty (like the Beit Hamikdash and its keilim) seem very aligned with Judaism. What was so bad about adopting some of the Greek practices? Even the Rabbis in the Talmud seem to suggest that Greek culture had value to Jewish life, stating the Midrash that Yaphet (Noach’s son and the ancestor of Greece) would be exalted, and lauding their Greek language⁶.

According to the Rambam, who was an expert in Greek philosophy, the main point of departure between the Greeks and Torah life, even those aspects that seem compatible, was that the Hellenists were obsessed with physicality and did not believe in or accept the concept of spirituality, and certainly not in one true God. All the beauty that they saw and revered was useful for them only on a physical level. The Rambam says about them:

“The Greeks denied the reality of anything that they could not grasp themselves. Scientists go in the way of the Greek [i.e. Aristotle] who denied the reality of anything that he could not experience with his senses. He and his wicked students were arrogant enough to believe that anything which they did not understand could not possibly be true.”⁷

Their appreciation of the external world remained on a superficial level. While they may have appreciated the vessels of the Beit Hamikdash for their splendor and beauty, they did not appreciate them for their real worth – a way in which to serve and connect to Hashem. And that is also why when Antiochus issued his evil and oppressive decrees to force the pace of Hellenization, he specifically chose decrees that would break up the partnership we have with Hashem. By forbidding Brit Milah, shabbat and Rosh Chodesh, all of which show an active partnership between us and Hashem in time and in space⁸, Antiochus was trying to put a stop to our connection with Him.

In our history, we have faced, and will continue to face, many ‘isms’.  Each time, we need to examine that ‘ism’ honestly and ask if it is one that brings us closer to Hashem or one that will (perhaps slowly and sub-consciously) take us further away from Him.

The call of Matityahu shows the goal of the rebellion in just three words: Mi LaHashem, Eilei – Whoever is for Hashem, join me! One cannot be for the Greeks and their superficial culture, and also for Hashem. Years of exposure to, and acceptance of, a foreign and ultimately enemy culture were put in a different light with this call. It was a wake-up call to the Jews of Israel. And the result of the war was an amazing resurgence of Jewish life, Torah study, and sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael. It’s true that it did not last long, and that the Hasmoneans later abused and misused their powers, but there were long lasting effects of that light, that we still see today, such as the ushering in the age of Chazal and the significance of Torah SheBaal Peh, which, in the absence of the Beit Hamikdash, prophecy and overt miracles, has sustained and been the mechanism by which we foster a connection to Hashem throughout the generations.

In our history, we have faced, and will continue to face, many ‘isms’.  Each time, we need to examine that ‘ism’ honestly and ask if it is one that brings us closer to Hashem or one that will (perhaps slowly and sub-consciously) take us further away from Him. Are we descending a ‘slippery slope’, or are we forging a revolution of the types of the Maccabees?  How we come to a conclusion on these questions is a big challenge, one that thinking Jewish individuals, living and engaging in the modern world, face constantly. It is a challenge that requires us to seek guidance from Torah, which always needs to be our starting point for illumination.  

In explaining the continued celebration of Chanukah after the cancellation of the other festivals enacted during the Second Temple era, as mentioned above, Rabbi Sacks states⁹;

“And in the end, the Rabbis looking back over history said the real battle was not the military one. It was a cultural one. And we can see now how right they were because the military victory lasted 100 years, but the spiritual victory has lasted more than 2000 years.”

The world in which we live today is so very full of ‘isms’, of the obsession with beauty and looks, and exposure to influencers and external influences, of ‘cancel culture’, of which religion is one of their biggest foes. It takes a lot of strength to stand up to these ‘isms’, and a lot of faith in our direction. The lessons of the spiritual war against Hellenism are still as relevant today as they were in the days of the Macabim, and their resolve and faith can stand as inspiration for us to stand up for our beliefs and our right to observe them, no matter the century in which we live.

¹ Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 21b

² All historical references, unless otherwise noted, are based on Dr. Mordechai Breuer’s Divrei Ha-yamim Le-Yisrael U-le’umot Ha-olam cited by Pninei Halacha, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed.

³ The Book of Maccabees I, 2:24-27

⁴ Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Ma’asee Chanuka (page 039 in Munich manuscript)

⁵ https://www.colorado.edu/classics/2018/06/14/hellenistic-period-cultural-historical-overview

⁶ Talmud Bavli, Megillah 8b-9b

⁷ Ramban, Vayikra (Leviticus) 16:8

⁸ https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/1052573/What-the-Greeks-were-Really-Trying-to-Uproot

⁹ https://www.rabbisacks.org/videos/video-the-hidden-story-of-chanukah