Hanukkah Tale: Maccabees Story

[iuri1223]

even though i am a athiest i still respect the people who have religion (i hate cristians)

[SuperDeut4]

To all the jewish people..... Thank you.

[reginaDexant]

Happy Chanukah, Ahuvi Chaverim!

[Hilaryjenkins8002]

The real losers on the war were Hellenized Jews. They had taken up Greek athletics which as in today's Olympics amounted to pagan body worship. Some of them exercised naked and had their circumcisions reversed to look Greek. So the frummies slaughtered them.

[123noangel]

this year it goes over christmas but i just like to light the candles :)

[HOMEnHIGH]

jews are awsome..

[sailorathena17]

I like the story of this holiday even though I'm Christian and learning about the stories of Jewish holidays like Passover.

[HebrewFatherland]

Wo wo wo wo wo..Assyrians?terrible mistake that was greeks. :S

Hellens.

it was a statue of Zeus inside the temple the greeks made the Jews kneel to.

[StMorgen]

@HebrewFatherland

Yes. It was not the "Assyrians" but rather the "Syrian Greeks" - that is the part of Alexander the Great's former Empire that was ruled from Syria.

[Rickyrab]

@StMorgen It wasn't completely Syrian or Greek either. It was the Seleucid Empire - a country descended from the empire of Alexander the Great, and one that pretty much began in Babylonia (Iraq). At the time of the Maccabees, this country extended from Iran in the east to the Levant in the west, and the Seleucids already had picked fights with Jews.

[Rickyrab]

@Rickyrab The local powers at the time were Seleucia, Egypt, and the rising Roman Republic, and Antiochus III won Israel from Egypt around 200 BCE. He then made the mistake of going up against Rome (by invading Greece). He lost, so he gave up some land, and headed east to plunder Persian temples. He died at that point, and the empire fell to Seleucus IV Philopater. Seleucus IV sent some guy to raid the Temple in Jerusalem so he could pay the Romans.

[Rickyrab]

@Rickyrab Unfortunately for Seleucus, the raider (Heliodorus) came back and assassinated Seleucus in a coup d' etat. Then our bad guy came onto the stage - Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who took the throne by kicking Heliodorus off. Egypt then demanded back land that the Seleucids had taken earlier, and Antiochus responded by sending an army against Egypt, which the Seleucids defeated. This set off alarm bells in Rome, and so they sent a diplomat to try and persuade Antiochus to back down.

[Rickyrab]

@Rickyrab The Roman diplomat drew a circle in the sand around Antiochus, and told him that if he stepped outside it without pulling out of Egypt, the Romans would consider it an act of war. A disgruntled Seleucid army started pulling back towards the Jewish lands, which weren't in the best of moods either. Liberal/ secular Hellenized Jews were arguing with the traditionalists and both were trying to grab the position of High Priest for themselves.

[Rickyrab]

@Rickyrab This power grab took place in an atmosphere of scandal and corruption. The Seleucid army, retreating into this fight, was faced with violence they didn't need, and Antiochus promptly took sides (siding with the Hellenizers), making matters worse by slapping a ban on traditional Judaism. This probably made both sides upset with the Seleucids, and started the Maccabee revolt. A priest, Matisyahu (Mattathias), and his kids (including Judah Maccabee), led the charge.

[Rickyrab]

@Rickyrab Seleucids went and converted the Temple Mount to Greek pagan use and apparently abandoned part of it (resulting in some parts getting overgrown). A lot of fighting later, the Jews retook it, dedicated the Temple, and instituted a "Festival of Lights" (later renamed "Dedication", or Hanukkah). The fighting didn't end there, though. Parthians took a city in east Seleucia, Antiochus died, and Jews and Seleucids fought each other for the next few years.

[Rickyrab]

@Rickyrab The Maccabees became the Hasmoneans. They built up an unstable kingdom that was at first under heavy Seleucid influence. They then became independent, but it was a shaky independence. There were civil wars. The fighting ultimately led to a takeover of the Jewish lands by Rome.

[rokyroyal123]

amazing

[black01scarlet]

nun mer alle springet und singet im chor !

[quhawks48]

The beauty of this holiday is that it is all TRUE. With Christmas; you don't know what is historically accurate anymore.  I mean Jesus wasn't even born in December.

I love this holiday and I'm Catholic.

[HebrewFatherland]

@quhawks48

It's not always on Christmas like people think...

It depends on the year.

Christians detetmite their year by the sun.

While Jews by the moon.

For example last year Hannukah was before Christmas.

and this year Hannukah will be Much before Christmas..

they are not really related

[LleraCronicas]

My dear HebrewFatherland: You are committing a GREAT mistake Writing down that Our calendar is a Lunar one NO If that were the case, then sometimes we could be celebrating Hanukka in the middle of the summer or Pesaj In Winter Just imagine what would happen during Sukkot The Muslims have a Lunar calendar, the Most of the Occidental civilizations a Solar one. Ours is a Lunar-Solar calendar, so Pesaj is always on the same day of the month in the same season, varying the weekday

[LleraCronicas]

but we know for sure in which days of the week we are not going to be celebrating a determined celebration. Hanukka sameach to all the people of Israel! חנוכה שמח חג אורים שמח

[HebrewFatherland]

@LleraCronicas I must say I am not deep into Jewish astrology,or astrology at all..so I can't say.

But thanks for the information.

[nicknchrist]

@quhawks48 Apparently Yahshuah (Jesus) was born around the feast of tabernacles (God coming down to TABERNACLE with man?) around fall season. December 25th was a pagan celebtration spawned by Nimrod's mom who had a kid with him and called that child the ressurection of Nimrod and COMMANDED that every year under a fir tree (pine tree) gifts be given unto her in honor of her son and also had a statue built unto herself with a child in her arms and a halo around his head.

[gurtyxpinkfish22]

Thank you so much for posting an easy to follow story about the holidays, people dont understand what its about and then get all mad at me when i say happy holidays to them! i sent them the url for this and they eventually stopped bugging me! thanks

[kukiaaa]

Thank u Avi ♥