The Real History of Chanukkah
*(re-published from December 2024)
Though we have beautiful traditions associated with the holiday such as the miracle of oil and lighting the menorah, it is also important to delve into the actual history of why Chanukkah is celebrated. Unlike many of our holidays which are based on stories and traditions, Chanukkah is based on actual history.
Why is Chanukkah eight days long is something I never thought about until recently. The Maccabees were unable to celebrate the fall harvest holiday of Sukkot as they were fighting both the Hellenized Jews and Seleucids (most of the Seleucids were Syrian but were under Greek rule). Instead, they celebrated Sukkot in the winter with eight days of festivities. According to the Jewish historian, Josephus, by the 2nd century AD, Jews were celebrating an eight-day-long midwinter holiday called Chanukkah, also called the Festival of Lights. But it had nothing to do with oil and everything to do with celebrating a military victory from the 2nd century BC.
The oil story was added centuries after the Judean victory, within the Babylonian Talmud, in the 5th century AD, to explain the menorah candle lighting on Chanukkah that began in the second century AD, and may have been influenced by the Roman holiday of Saturnalia, where candles were given as gifts.
The Book of Maccabees does not mention any miracle of oil, and the added-on story thus became a tradition that overshadowed the military aspect of Chanukkah being the greatest Zionist military victory of all time. There are theories that rabbis invented the miracle of oil to downplay the military component to discourage more uprisings, this time against the Romans, after three devastating wars against the Roman empire.
There is a plethora of factors which led to a Maccabean victory, and some lessons from that time in Jewish history are applicable to Jews today and the Jewish homeland’s position moving forward.
Not all occupiers of Israel & Judea were malevolent towards Jews. A few exceptions stand out, including Saladin I of the Ayyubid Dynasty in the 12th century AD, and Alexander the Great.
In 338 BC, Alexander the Great began his invasion of the Persian Empire and shortly afterward, his Macedonian forces conquered the entire Levant, including Israel & Judea. During that time, Judea had many Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon, thanks to Cyrus the Great who freed the Jews; though not all Jews in Babylon returned, many chose to stay in exile.
From 338 BC – 175 BC, Jews enjoyed freedom of faith and culture under their foreign rulers, first by Greeks and then by Greek-adjacent rulers (Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire).
It was during the Seleucid Empire rule (235 – 198 BC), that many Jews learned Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the day in much of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Jews who were upper class and who were engaged in trade, were very much immersed in not just the language of the rulers but the culture as well. Many Jews of that period had two names: a Hebrew one and a Greek one. Overall, Greek rulers did not impose their culture on Jews, but rather it was the upper echelon of Jews who sought out Greek culture and influences. Hellenization was deeply embedded in those segments of the Jewish population.
All freedoms of Jewish faith and culture were still not compromised even when Antiochus IV Epiphanes came to power of the Seleucids in 175 BC. However, Antiochus replaced a Jewish High Priest, Onias II with his brother, Jason, after Jason bribed the Seleucid ruler. Still, there was no issue among the Jewish population as they perceived any politicking to be just that and not an infringement on Jewish rights. Any infighting at that time was among upper-class Hellenized Jews.
Misinformation Sparks War:
During the Sixth Syrian War (170 – 168 BC), war broke out between the Seleucids and the Ptolemaic Egyptians. On his way back from attacking Egypt, Antiochus stopped in Jerusalem and was invited by the High Priest Menalaus into the Second Temple (in violation of Jewish law). Again, Antiochus went out to fight in Egypt, and Jason heard a rumor that Antiochus was dead. Upon hearing the rumor of his own apparent demise, Antiochus mistook the Jewish infighting among the High Priests as an affront and revolt against his rule and sent an army to defeat Jason and his ‘traitors.’
Thousands of Jews in Jerusalem were killed, many enslaved, the Greek government seized land and the Temple was made the site of a Greek-Jewish offshoot group, which deeply angered the non-Hellenized Jews. A new citadel was built in Jerusalem which was guarded by both Greeks and pro-Seleucid Jews.
Antiochus did not stop there. He issued harsh decrees requiring Jews to eat pork, work on Shabbat, and stop circumcisions, among numerous other suppressions of Jewish faith, culture and customs.
Shrine building became rampant especially in the countryside of Judea. A rural Jewish Priest from Modi’in, Mattathias, ignited the revolt against the Seleucids by refusing to worship Greek gods at the new Greek altar in Modi’in. Mattathias killed a fellow Jew who had taken his place to worship and offer sacrifice to an idol, and killed the Greek officer who was sent to oversee the sacrifice.
Mattathias and his five sons destroyed the altar and then fled to the nearby mountains. After Mattathias’ death a year later, his son Judah Maccabee took over and led a ragtag band of rebels, while absorbing other Jewish groups who opposed Seleucid rule. These Maccabean rebels attacked Hellenized Jews fiercely to stop Hellenization from spreading widely. The most brutal of years against those Jews were during the Guerilla campaign (167 – 164 BC), when the Maccabees destroyed Greek altars in the villages, forcibly circumcised boys, burnt villages, and drove Hellenized Jews from their land.
Key Battles Against the Seleucid forces:
- Battle of of Lebonah (167 BC)
- Battle of Beth Horon (166 BC)
- Battle of Emmaus (substantial victory in 165 BC)
- Battle of Beth Zur (164 BC)
It was after the Battle of Beth Zur that the Seleucid troops returned to Syria. The Maccabees re-took Jerusalem, and ritually cleansed the Second Temple for Jewish worship on the 25th day of the month of Kislev (start of Chanukkah each year).
What was interesting is that many Hellenized Jews ultimately supported the revolts as they saw the outsize suppression/oppression from the outside regime.
Yet, battles continued to ignite with both the Seleucid regime (now under a different ruler), and even with still Hellenized and former Hellenized Jews.
160 BC – Battle of Elasa – Seleucid King Demetrius I led an army of 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalries to take back the Judean province. The foreign army marched through Jerusalem and massacred Jews in the Galilee. The Maccabees lost control of Jerusalem (to rule, but Jews were allowed to live there), but held on to control of the vast countryside of Judea.
In part, there emerged two rulers of the same land – one Judean and one foreign.
If you are like me and have wondered how did the Roman army come to be involved with Judea? The answer is that the Judeans invited the Romans. The Judean rulers were desperate to seek international acceptance of their rule, and they found it in Rome in 139 BC, which would prove later to be a fatal mistake. The Romans were more than willing to weaken the Greek states, and so a Hasmonean (Judean Jewish leaders) Roman alliance was established.
The most successful Hasmonean King was Alexander Jannaeus; the Hasmonean Court in Jerusalem accepted minimal aspects of Greek culture including using Greek mercenaries in Hasmonean military campaigns, having Greek and Jewish names, and using coins with both Hebrew and Greek wording. However, the Hasmoneans ensured that the Jewish faith and culture remained central to Judea.
The Hasmonean Dynasty lasted until 37 BC when Herod the Great defeated the Hasmoneans to become a Roman puppet King.
The actual history of the Jewish Civil Wars mentioned above was largely erased by rabbis centuries ago. But it is not only central to what led to the Maccabean Revolts against a foreign enemy, it also gives a powerful lesson for Jews. Fight as we may within our own tribal nation, we do band together to take on outside evil when it threatens our very existence.
We see it clearly in Israel today. Jews who were fiercely at odds with one another over Judicial Reform (and many other issues), today are serving side by side in Gaza, in Lebanon, and are holding secure numerous moshavim and towns.
And it also teaches us a lesson that just because aspects of another culture might seem appealing, i.e., some Jews conflate Israel with a ‘Westernized country’ — it is anything but; Israel is a firmly Middle Eastern nation, the very fabric of Judean continuity rests on maintaining the central aspects of our faith, genetics, culture, and customs.
Contrary to antisemitic lies, Jews are a very homogeneous race, with a shared J1 haplogroup. Very few times in history, have Jews intermarried with non-Jews prior to the 20th century, and so even Judean genetics passed down, along with our distinct indigenous culture.
What Israel is facing now is not just another war or operation; Israel is fighting for its very survival. It takes one wrong move for a country to be overtaken by enemies either from within or from outside. Just look what happened to Christian Lebanon, moderate Iran, Buddhist Afghanistan, and increasingly, what is happening in many parts of Western Europe.
Israel cannot rely on perceived allies; just like the Hasmoneans wanted so desperately to achieve recognition and applause from the Romans, only to be stabbed in the back not even a century later. Israel can only rely on itself, and Israel will succeed resoundingly so if needed security measures are taken in Jewish Gaza (reclaiming Jewish Gaza), ripping up the Terrorist Accords and freeing all of Judea & Samaria, and reclaiming Southern Lebanon, which was part of the Judean homeland (stolen from Jews by the French in 1920).
A strong Israel is not just essential to Israelis but to Jews throughout the Diaspora.
On a very personal note, when I visited the hills of Judea in 2018, I had never felt so rooted in my life. I could feel the bravery of the Judean warriors in my veins. I had not felt that anywhere else in the world.
Misrahi & Sephardic Chanukkah Traditions
Across Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, and Morocco, Chag HaBanot was celebrated during Chanukkah. The day honored girls and women with sweets, gatherings, and songs, which were associated with the story (Jews in ancient times knew Yehudit was a character, not real) of Yehudit, a heroine. *just to note there are numerous actual Judean heroines from both our ancient and present history*
In Iran, Chanukkah was a home-centered holiday with an emphasis on fried sweets such as zulbia, a syrup-soaked treat.
Iraqi Jews traditionally had dairy foods on Chanukkah. In Baghdad, many families used circular menorahs, which were permitted as long as each flame was clearly separated.
In Afghanistan, Jews in more modern times often lit Chanukkah candles using small dishes arranged in a row plus a smaller dish for the shamash. This tradition reflected the fact that many Jews in Afghanistan post 1840 were from Mashdad, Iran, where the Judean faith was prohibited after 1839.
Children in Morocco celebrated Shamash day, the day after Chanukkah. Children collected leftover candles to build bonfires, dancing and joyously singing around them. Jumping over the fire was a segula for future fertility and finding a suitable partner. Moroccan Jews also eat fried desserts such as sfinge (Moroccan version of sufganiyot) and makhriud.
And in Syria, gratefulness was emphasized with many Sephardic Jews in Aleppo especially lighting an additional Chanukkah candle each night to thank the existing original Judean Diaspora community for welcoming them, post Inquisition.
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