HANUKKAH SELF IDENTITY
Tonight Jewish kids
will light the menorah, spin their derides and
get their present, but Hanukkah is the most adult of holidays. It commemorates
an event in which the good guys did horrible things; the
bad guys did good things and which everybody is flummoxed by insoluble conflicts
that remain with us today. It's a holiday that accurately reflects how politics is,
how history is, how life is. It's begins with spread of Greek culture.
Alexander Empire and the smaller Empires that succeeded it
brought modernizing the ideas and institutions to the Middle East. As
it is best, Hellenistic culture emphasized the power of reason and the power of
individuality/conscience! It raised living standards, especially in
places like Jerusalem.
The Greeks had one central idée> Creation of Universal Culture; the Jewish had their own central fix idea; the idea of one true God. The reformation began!
Urbane Jews assimilated parts of Greek culture into their own, taking Greek names like Jason, etc. and prospering in some of Greek institutions. Not all Jews assimilated. Some resisted quietly. Others flied to the hills. But Jerusalem did well. The Seleucid dynasty, which had political control over this area, was not merely tolerant; it used imperial money to help promotion of the different religions within its sphere. In 167 b.c. Seleucid king Antiochus IV, issued a series of decrees defiling the temple, confiscating wealth and banning Jewish practice, under death penalty. It's not clear why he did this? Some historians believe that extremist Jewish reformers were in control and were hoping to wipe out what they saw as the primitive remnants of their faith. Others believe Antiochus thought the Jews were disloyal fifth columnist in his struggle against the Egyptians and, hence was hoping to assimilate into this nation. Regardless, those who refuse to eat poor were killed in early case of pure martyrdom. But Jews very slow on those times to make same uprising/revolt! The cultural pressure on Jewish practice had been mounting; it was only when it hit an insane political level that Jewish traditionalist took up arms. When they did, the first person they killed was a fellow Jew. In the town of Modin, a Jew who has attempting to perform a sacrifice on a New Greek altar was slaughtered by Mattathias, the old head of priestly family. Mattathias's five sons, led by Judah Maccabeus, and then led an insurgent revolt against the regime. The Jewish war raised questions; who is Jew? Who gets to define the right level of observance? It also created spiritual crises. This was not a battle between tribes. It was a battle between theologies and threw up all sorts of issues about why bad things happen to faithful believers and what happens in the afterlife / issues that would reverberate in the region for centuries, to epic effect. The Maccabeus is best understood as moderate fanatics. They were not reveling to in total against Greek culture, moreover they use GREEK LANGUAGE!? THEY CREATED A FESTIVAL TO COMMEMORATE THEIR TRIUMPH (which is part of Greek, not Jewish culture). Before long, they were electing their priest.
Jews were fighting heroically for their traditions and the survival of their faith. If they found uncircumcised Jews, they preformed forced circumcisions. They had no interest in religious liberty within the Jews and their inner community, so issue has been that religion was a collective choice.As burst of anger they retook Jerusalem in 164 B.C. and redicated the temple.Generations of Sunday school have turned Hanukkah into story on unIfied Jewish bravery agains Anti / Semitic Hellenic Empire. Settlers in the West Bank tell it as a story of how the Jewish hard core defeated the corrupt, assimilated Jewish masses. Rabbis later added the lamp miracle to give a God at least a bit part in the proceedings. But there is no erasing the complex ironies of the evens, the way progress, heroism and brutality weave through all sides. The Maccabaeus heroically preserved Jewish faith/or Jewish national SELF IDENTITY.
THE LESSON OF HANUKKAH IS THAT EVEN THE STRUGGLES THAT SAVED A PEOPLE ARE DAPPLED WITH TRAGIC IRONY AND ANTAGONISTIC CHOICES.
The Greeks had one central idée> Creation of Universal Culture; the Jewish had their own central fix idea; the idea of one true God. The reformation began!
Urbane Jews assimilated parts of Greek culture into their own, taking Greek names like Jason, etc. and prospering in some of Greek institutions. Not all Jews assimilated. Some resisted quietly. Others flied to the hills. But Jerusalem did well. The Seleucid dynasty, which had political control over this area, was not merely tolerant; it used imperial money to help promotion of the different religions within its sphere. In 167 b.c. Seleucid king Antiochus IV, issued a series of decrees defiling the temple, confiscating wealth and banning Jewish practice, under death penalty. It's not clear why he did this? Some historians believe that extremist Jewish reformers were in control and were hoping to wipe out what they saw as the primitive remnants of their faith. Others believe Antiochus thought the Jews were disloyal fifth columnist in his struggle against the Egyptians and, hence was hoping to assimilate into this nation. Regardless, those who refuse to eat poor were killed in early case of pure martyrdom. But Jews very slow on those times to make same uprising/revolt! The cultural pressure on Jewish practice had been mounting; it was only when it hit an insane political level that Jewish traditionalist took up arms. When they did, the first person they killed was a fellow Jew. In the town of Modin, a Jew who has attempting to perform a sacrifice on a New Greek altar was slaughtered by Mattathias, the old head of priestly family. Mattathias's five sons, led by Judah Maccabeus, and then led an insurgent revolt against the regime. The Jewish war raised questions; who is Jew? Who gets to define the right level of observance? It also created spiritual crises. This was not a battle between tribes. It was a battle between theologies and threw up all sorts of issues about why bad things happen to faithful believers and what happens in the afterlife / issues that would reverberate in the region for centuries, to epic effect. The Maccabeus is best understood as moderate fanatics. They were not reveling to in total against Greek culture, moreover they use GREEK LANGUAGE!? THEY CREATED A FESTIVAL TO COMMEMORATE THEIR TRIUMPH (which is part of Greek, not Jewish culture). Before long, they were electing their priest.
Jews were fighting heroically for their traditions and the survival of their faith. If they found uncircumcised Jews, they preformed forced circumcisions. They had no interest in religious liberty within the Jews and their inner community, so issue has been that religion was a collective choice.As burst of anger they retook Jerusalem in 164 B.C. and redicated the temple.Generations of Sunday school have turned Hanukkah into story on unIfied Jewish bravery agains Anti / Semitic Hellenic Empire. Settlers in the West Bank tell it as a story of how the Jewish hard core defeated the corrupt, assimilated Jewish masses. Rabbis later added the lamp miracle to give a God at least a bit part in the proceedings. But there is no erasing the complex ironies of the evens, the way progress, heroism and brutality weave through all sides. The Maccabaeus heroically preserved Jewish faith/or Jewish national SELF IDENTITY.
THE LESSON OF HANUKKAH IS THAT EVEN THE STRUGGLES THAT SAVED A PEOPLE ARE DAPPLED WITH TRAGIC IRONY AND ANTAGONISTIC CHOICES.
