Hanukkah - The Feast of Lights (John 10:22-23)

The Feast of Dedication is today called Hanukkah or the Feast of Lights. It commemorates the reconsecration of the temple by Judas Maccabeus in 165 B.C. after its desecration in 168 B.C. by Antiochus IV (Epiphanes - he gave himself this surname which means "the visible god'). The time for the eight-day feast was in December. It was winter. The feast reminded the Jewish people of their last great deliverance from their enemies. Syria's ambition was to reunit all of Alexander the great's conquests. By 198 B.C. they had taken the first step in that direction when they forced Egypt to give up Palestine. One obstacle lay in the path of the Greek march to world dominion. Rome had just destroyed the power of Carthage, and was gradually acquiring supremacy over the Mediterranean lands. This event not only forced Antiochus to give up his Egyptian conquests, but to send hostages to Rome from among the royal family and, to pay a huge sum of money as indemnity. Still not discouraged, Antiochus and his successor, Seleucus IV, continued to plan conquests. To further their plans and to pay the heavy indemnity to Rome, the Seleucids exacted large sums of money from the people subject to them. When the Seleucide tried to realize their ambitions, one group of Jews favored the annexation of, Judea by Syria. In order to gain their ends, the pro-Syrian faction carried the favor of Seleucus by revealing to him that much money belonging to his opponents was stored in the Temple. In those days, there being no banks, all temples were used for storing treasures. The Hellenized Jews would stop at nothing in order to achieve their purpose. This pro-Syrian faction now decided to remove the high priest. That done, they could gain control of the council, and then proceed to revise the government of Jerusalem, and of all Judea, to suit their own views and interests. The extreme Hasidim may have been pacifists, but the ordinary Jewish peasants certainly were not. They did not permit themselves to be slaughtered without resisting. Though ill-armed and poorly led, bands of them occasionally put up a strong fight against the Syrian soldiers and their Hellenizing Jewish allies. But the latter knew how to get around their resistance; for as long as they were under the influence of the Hasidim they would not defend themselves on the Sabbath. The result was that the Syrians learned to wait till Saturdays in order to attack the Jewish bands and destroy them. A part of the Syrian army marched into Jerusalem. Many of the inhabitants of the city were killed; others escaped to the hills. Only.the known Hellenists remained. Orders were given prohibiting the observance of the Sabbath, the holidays and circumcision. In the Temple above the alter was placed a statue of Jupiter bearing an obvious resemblance to Antiochus. To that statue were brought as sacrifices the animal most detested by the Jews, the pig. An abominable act had been perpetrated on that 25th day of Kislev in the year 168 B.C. and, to use the descriptive expression of the book of Maccabees, it left the Jewish people desolate. The dreaded moment soon came. In the market place of the little town, probably facing the meeting-house of its citizens where the government was conducted and where services were held, the Syrian soldiers erected an altar. A pig was produced and Mattathias, as priest and elder, was ordered to sacrifice it to Jupiter in honor of Antiochus. Mattathias did not move. From out of the crowd a young Hellenized Jew stepped forward. He asked permission to preform the sacrifice. There was no doubt of what would happen next: the other Jews would be asked to eat some of the sacrificial meat, and those who refused would be executed. The aged Mattathias, standing closest to the captain of the troops and to the apostate Jew, snatched the sword out of the captain's hand, and ran it through the body of the traitor. As the captain quickly moved forward to stop him, Mattathias stabbed him too. The sons of Mattathias rushed upon the soldiers before they could quite grasp what had happened. The other Jews ran to their aid and in less time than it takes to tell it, the Syrian soldiers were killed and their altar completely demolished. In high spirits, with songs of praise (Ifallelu-Yah) on their lips, the Maccabean army approached the sacred city which had been in the hands of the enemyfor almost three years. The High Priest Menelaus, the Hellenizing Jews, the new pagan residents, now fled from Jerusalem just as three years previously the pious Jews had fled before them. Only a small Syrian force remained, protected by the walls of the Acra, a fortress they had built near the Temple. But the Maccabean soldiers did not advance against the Acra. Around that fort they stationed enough men to keep the garrison from interfering with other work they were planning. The simple peasants, whom the love of freedom had turned into soldiers, now dropped the sword in order to do what they had really been fighting for: cleanse the Temple and re-establish its worship. They removed every sign of paganism. They took apart the altar which had been defiled by pagan sacrifices and put aside its stones. They erected a new altar in its place. Exactly three years after the "desolating abomination' had been introduced into the Temple, they ground this statue of Zeus Antiochus into dust, and rededicated the Temple to the worship of G-d. Beginning with the 25th of Kislev (165 B-.C.), they celebrated the dedication-feast (Hanukkah) for eight days. Hanukkah has remained an important holiday in the Jewish calendar. The Second Book of the Maccabees, which was written considerably later, emphasizes the significance of these events by pointing out that God was concerned in the victory of Judaism. The Talmud, for its part, relates the miracle of the little cruse containing enough oil to light the Temple menorah for only one day; this oil burned on for eight days, until the priest could prepare more oil untouched by pagan hands. It was equally miraculous that the strong were conquered by the weak, the many by the few, tyranny and greed by the cause of justice and of freedom.