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Our Past in Present Tense
Why
Do We Ignore The Second Jewish State?
Part
2: The Legend Of The Cruse Of Oil
Dr.
Yehuda Shabatay
In
the first part of this article I raised the question: Why did the rabbis of old,
who so carefully commemorated every tragedy that befell us in the course of our
long history, decide to hide from us one of the greatest victories in our past?
Before responding to that question, I dealt with the historical events that led
to the Maccabean uprising against the Syrians and their Jewish cohorts.
Naturally, I paid particular attention to the Maccabees’ fight for religious
freedom – the first in human history, and to the birth of the second
independent Jewish State that lasted for nearly a century, until the Romans
occupied Judea in 63 BCE.
Rabbinic
Judaism did its best to erase that period of time from our collective memory. It
ignored the Books of the Maccabees
that described the developments leading to our people’s renewed independence
and kept the Festival of Chanukah as the only surviving reference to those
events. Even that festival’s origin was completely reinterpreted. Instead of
recalling our ancestors’ heroism that resulted in Jerusalem’s liberation
from the Syrian oppressors, the ancient rabbis bequeathed to us a legend whereby
the freedom fighters found only a little cruse of oil in the Temple, adequate to
provide light for a single day. Miraculously, it lasted for eight days, as long
as it took for the priests to produce more oil.
Even
a brief encounter with the relevant chapters of the two Books
of the Maccabees will show that such a miracle is not mentioned in them.
Actually, according to the Second Book of
the Maccabees, the Jewish fighters had no intention of establishing a new
festival at all. They set the Temple’s rededication ceremony for the
anniversary of “the day on which the sanctuary had been profaned by aliens”
(10:5), and held it for eight days to parallel the First Temple’s consecration
in King Solomon’s time. But while Solomon dedicated the Temple on Sukkot
(i.e., on the Feast of Tabernacles), the Maccabees had to do it several months
later because during the eight days of Sukkot,
“they had been wandering in the mountains and caverns like wild animals.”
Thus, on the 25th day of Kislev they celebrated the missed holy day,
and “carrying wands wreathed with leaves and beautiful branches and palm
leaves, too, they offered hymns of praise to Him who had brought to pass the
purifying of His own place” (10:6-7). All this seems to indicate that the
original Chanukah was merely a substitute for Sukkot!
Still, both Books of the Maccabees express the hope that the eight days,
starting with Kislev 25, will be observed by “the whole Jewish nation” every
year (I Macc. 4:59; II Macc. 10:8). And they have been, ever since. Chanukah,
the only post-biblical festival (beside Yom
Ha’atzma’ut, the Independence Day of Israel), became a very popular one
for two weighty reasons. The first is that there are no restrictions one must
observe during that holiday. One must refrain from work only while the candles
are burning, and even then all kinds of joyful activities are permitted. The
second reason is even more attractive: Chanukah occurs at least two months away
from any other holy day. In the Northern Hemisphere, it takes place in the
darkest days of the winter when most other religious and ethnic groups have
similar celebrations — so why not the Jews? At some stage even the leaders of
Christianity decided to observe Dec. 25 as Jesus’ birthday — although that
date is not indicated in the New Testament.
But,
as popular as Chanukah must have been from the first moment on, the Pharisees,
who became the ancestors of rabbinic Judaism, were opposed to it. Their most
obvious reason was that the festival glorified the Maccabees and their leading
family, the Hasmoneans, who assumed power over Judea. How could they recognize
the Hasmonean kings who were not descendants of David — when God promised to
David’s house the kingdom forever? (II Sam. 7:11-15) More importantly, the
Pharisees strongly objected to the intrusion of Greek culture into the royal
court, to the upper crust of the Judean society and to the priesthood. For those
reasons, the Pharisees were involved in armed rebellions against the rulers and
suffered considerable losses. Following one of these confrontations, Alexander
Iannai (103-76 BCE) crucified some 800 Pharisees, as well as many members of
their families. Only his widow, Salome Alexandra (76-67 BCE), who happened to be
the last member of that dynasty, made peace with the Pharisees, too late for
undoing all the damage her predecessors caused.
Toward
the end of the first century CE, when the rabbis became the undisputed spiritual
guides of Judaism, Judea was in rubble and all vestiges of the second
independent Jewish State had disappeared. “What’s the use of wars, of
fighting,” the rabbis may have asked. “Where did it lead us? Only to
destruction. So let us emphasize that ‘not might, nor power, but the Lord’s
spirit’ prevails” (Zach. 4:6). The rabbis may have preferred to abolish
Chanukah altogether, but for all the previously mentioned reasons it could not
have been done. Therefore, they radically reinterpreted the origins of this
Festival of Lights by attributing it to a miracle that may never have happened.
So all subsequent generations sat by chanukiyot
(which have nine branches, as opposed to the 7-branched menorahs),
sang songs, ate latkes, or other delicacies, played dreidels and even card
games, gave Chanukah gelt to the children — and forgot all about the second
independent Jewish State.
Now
that we are fortunate to witness the existence of the modern State of Israel, we
may return to the true meaning of the forthcoming Chanukah festival. The miracle
that took place over 2100 years ago was our people’s undying commitment to
live in freedom and to fight oppression. As we light the candles this year, let
us remember the bravery of the Maccabees and of all their successors, including
the ghetto fighters and the men and women who fought against all odds to gain
independence for their homeland in the 20th century.
Dr. Yehuda Shabatay received rabbinical training in Budapest, a master of jurisprudence degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his doctorate in Hebrew literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. He was engaged in Jewish educational administration over most of his career and now teaches Jewish studies and history at Palomar College and San Diego State University.