Hannukah - a tale of blood, rebellion, fire... and oil.

First of all - happy Hanukkah! May you have a great and pleasant Festival of Lights.
And now a bit of history...

2,174 years ago the situation in Israel was grim. We were under a prolonged and brutal occupation by the Seleucids, descendants of Alexander the Macedonian's army. The Seleucid Emperor, Antiochus VII Epiphanes, really didn't like Jews – we were a rebellious bunch, with weird traditions, a strange religion and a peculiar ancient culture. So in 167 BCE, Antiochus decided to get really mean. He conquered Jerusalem, tortured the population to death, desecrated the Great Temple and outlawed Judaism. Cultural and ethnic cleansing, in other words. And it worked – many Jews were losing their identity, swallowed by the Seleucid Hellenism. The Jewish people were dying. These were the bad old times… but then again, it was far from the first oppressor of our people, and far from the first (or last) attempt to wipe us out.

An old priest named Matateyahu the Hashmonean started a rebellion along with his sons. It didn't go too well – Jews were cowed and oppressed, their leaders were all dead, the centers of cultural life were destroyed… and it was a bunch of guys in the hills of Modi'in (where my wife's from) against a huge Empire which ruled over most of the Middle East and parts of Europe. The old man died a year later, and the torch of rebellion passed on to his son, Yehuda, nicknamed the Maccabi – the Maul.



The Maul was a shrewd military leader. His small band of warriors hid in the hills, harrying the Seleucid forces in small-scale ambush battles. It was two years before he could score a significant victory – he ambushed a small Seleucid army in Wadi Khermia, near Hebron, destroying it utterly. It seems that the main effect of this was psychological – the oppressed Jews rediscovered a hope for freedom and independence, flocking to The Maul's side.



The mighty Seleucid Empire did not take such a defeat lightly. A much larger force was sent to deal with the pesky Jewish rebels… and again Yehuda's forces ambushed it in another ravine, routing the survivors. It has continued for some time – Seleucids sending ever larger armies marching into Jewish territory, the Jews outmaneuvering and defeating the numerically superior and better equipped enemy. After a fourth major victory, The Maul marched on Jerusalem and on the 25th of month Kislev (14 of December in the Christian calendar, which didn't exist back then) cleansed Jerusalem and re-sanctified the Temple (on Temple Mount, where Al-Aqsa Mosque now stands).

This is the point where Hanukkah celebrations come in. Part of the re-sanctification of the Temple was relighting the eternal flame. According to the legend, the Seleucids desecrated all of the sacred olive oil, and only enough pure oil for one day remained. This single pot of oil miraculously lasted for eight days, until new sacred oil could be prepared. Personally, I believe it was an eight-days-long party – after all, Jews were throwing off the yoke of foreign occupation after centuries of oppression. Either way, we now light candles, eat deep-fried foods and make merry for eight days to celebrate the occasion.




Yehuda the Maul's story didn't end here, though. He struggled to free all of Israel and to save the Jews outside the restored Jewish state for the remainder of his life. A few years after the restoration of the Temple (and the Jewish state along with it) he died in battle while leading his men against an overwhelming Seleucid force. His brothers continued his mission, eventually freeing Israel and establishing a Jewish state which held for one hundred years, besieged from all sides by enemies. It was internal strife that brought it down, bringing about a Roman occupation which led to even greater persecutions, massacres… and, at the end, the Diaspora.