The Phoenix Jewish news., 1962-12-21
By L. M. GREEN
Jewish TeIegraphic Agency


throughout much of its history fol
political as well as religious free
dom.
The struggle of the Maccabees,
led by Mattathias the HaSmonean
and his son Judah, against the Sy-
rian ruler of the Jews, Antiochus
Epiphanes, at first had as its OBJ
iect only the restoration of freedom
of religious worship and the pres
ervation of Jewish laws and GUS
toms.
King Antiochus, in his contin-
uous attempts to Hellenic hi S
subject peoples, was led to sus-
pend Jewish practices, to convert
the Temple in Jerusalem into a
Greek sanctuary, and to erect
heather affairs in the country'S S
towns. The revolt of the people
succeeded in restoring religious
freedom and spiritual autonomy to
Judea, and the rededication of the
Temple in 1876 B. C. E. marked the
end of this stage of the conflict.
Thereafter the conflict with the
non-Jewish rulers became politi-
cal. Mattathias' sons gradually
gained both religious supremacy,
as high priest, and political SUI
premacy, as kings in Judea, and
established the Hasmonean dy-
nasty, whose political independ-
ence was recognized by the RO-
man Senate in 1S9 b. @. Z.
The Hasmonean dynasty ruled
Judea for more than century. It
was not happy period in Jewish
history. After religious and politi-
cal independence had been achiev-
ed, there came bitter internal
struggles which shook Judaism
and the Jewish state to their foun-
dations. "The new state" accord
ing to the Universal Jewish En-
cyclopedia, "entered int to diplo-
matte relations with other states,
made alliances, created standing
army, conducted wars; in short,
it tended to become just another
one of the many Hellenized states
in the Orient"
This secular attitude of the Has
monean rulers came into conflict
with some fundamental ideas of
Judaism. A religious struggle, this
time an internal one, flared up
again. Two Jewish parties w e r e
formed the PhariSeeS, w h o
were the Jealous guardians of tra-
dition, of the unwritten law, of
theocracy, and who had the masses
of the people on their side, and the
whose adherents were
drawn from the priestly aristoc-
racy and the wealthy and influ-
entail laity.
The HasmOnean rulers tended, 4
for the most part, to the Sad
ducean vi e w. The Hasmonean
dynasty came to an end in 81
B. @. E., when the Idumean
half-Jew, HerOd, ascended the
Judean throne and slaughtered
the remaining members of the
HasmOnean dynasty.
Nevertheless the, troublesome
and rather unhappy aftermath of
the Maccabean revolt, an after
math of royal intrigues and throne
of bitter religious con-
flicts and even of civil war, does
not detract from the great import
ance of the revolt itself which the
Chanukah story symbolizes. The
restoration of religious freedom to
Judea through the defeat of the
tyrannical Greek king was a great
event not only in Jewish but in
human history.
Had AntiochuS won, Judaism
would have been annihilated. And,
had Judaism been annihilated, no
Christianity, which was born out
of Judaism, could have arisen a
couple of centuries later. Thus, had
the Maccabean revolt been crush
ed, instead of having emerged vic
toriouS, the whole course of human
history would have been altered.
tAIlu 81 Tic NAdCSQOCQI1 ACNOAL OC-
came a turning point in history
and is recognized as such even in
the religious calendar of the Ro-
man Catholics.
No matter how bitter may have
been the religious struggles be-
tween the Pharisees and Sad
ducees following the Maccabean
revolt, the Jews were again free
to practice their religion and to
develop it In accordance with
changed conditions. It gave the
Pharisees, who became the DOM
inant force in Judaism, a chance
to preserve and strengthen the
Jewish religion through devel-
Oping Oral Law, constantly REIN
terpreting the Written Law of the
Hebrew Bible. 1t saved the Tai
mud for future ages.
The political independence which
the Maccabean revolt ultimately
won for ancient Judea may not at
first seem as important as the re-
ligious freedom 1t achieved, in view
Of the fact that a couple of CEN
turies later the Jews lost not only
their political independence but
we're even uprooted from their
by the Romans.
One might argue that, while the