WHILE YOU STAND ON ONE LEG: Was the Maccabees’ war just a “civil war” among Judaea’s Jews? I don’t think so. Like in other wars of homeland liberation, there were those who supported the ruling foreign empire, but let that not obscure the reality – a people who started that war as subjects of foreign empire rule ended it as independent, and that’s the fact.
This Week: A Hanukkah Legend and a Hanukkah Fact
We can only guess how the leader, later regarded as a great national hero for triumphing against the mighty Empire, must have felt that winter night as he slowly rode his horse back through his ragtag fighters’ rural encampment to his own quarters. It was a long time ago. My guess is this leader wondered. Historians tell us that only 40 to 45%, “at most no more than a bare majority,” supported him, that most of the rest were indifferent, and up to a fifth loyalists to the Empire. (Wikipedia, “Loyalist,” text at footnote 21.) Even if somehow in the end against all odds they did triumph, would their struggle be regarded, not as a freedom-loving homeland people’s wresting of independence from a mighty ruling empire, but simply as a local people’s civil war?
The widely-known Hanukkah legend is that George Washington rode by that winter night at Valley Forge one of his soldiers’ huts in the door of which a private soldier was lighting candles in a holder that held several. Bemused, Washington paused and asked the private what he was doing. The soldier replied that years before in his youth he had brought with him to America from his persecuted father’s home in eastern Europe this menorah, one that his Jewish people light every year in commemoration of their restoration against all odds of their homeland’s religious and political freedom from a foreign ruling empire, successors of Alexander the Great, that had sought to crush both, and that in lighting those candles and saying the same blessings this night at Valley Forge, he foresaw the ultimate victory of this American homeland army against the mighty British Empire. “Soldier,” said General Washington, “carry on.”
The Hanukkah fact is that just like the Americans’ War of Independence, the Maccabees’ ultimately triumphant struggle against the Seleucid Empire was a Revolutionary not civil war. The acid test is were the homeland fighters politically independent before the war and were they independent after?
I recounted the battles of the Maccabees’ war against the Seleucids in chapter three of my book, Israel 3000 Years: The Jewish People’s 3000 Year Presence in Palestine. They were real battles, and it was a real war. Here are some excerpts. I want you to read this while evaluating in your mind whether this was a “civil war” or that of a homeland people endeavoring to throw off the yoke of foreign empire rule.
“[In resistance to ruling Seleucids’ decrees to stamp out Judaism, the Judas-led Maccabees’] first clash [167 BCE] was with the attacking Appolonius, governor of Samaria, who was killed and his forces routed. A second Seleucid attack was repulsed. Judas then surprise-attacked a third Seleucid force while its general was off-hunting, forcing him to retreat though hostile Jewish country, suffering disastrous losses and reaping the Jewish forces enormous war booty, enabling them to organize a regular army.
“A regular army, but not a world-class one of the caliber of the imperial successors of Alexander the Great. Still, Judas extended Judaea’s bounds, annexing to it Hebron and areas of dense Jewish settlement in the south and mixed in the west, and defended Jews in gentile towns. ‘But it was the political consequences of his victories that mattered most.’ After yet another Seleucid force was likewise routed, with the Seleucids engaged on another front, in bad financial straits, and with Rome threatening to intervene, the Seleucids decided upon a political solution with Judaea’s Jews.”
The Seleucids’ dictates against Judaism were withdrawn and other reconciliation promises made. But
“’Judas Maccabaeus and his followers – distrusting [with some justification] the Seleucid promises – would not disarm. Instead, Judas marched on Jerusalem at the head of his forces, taking the city (but not the citadel) in 164 B.C.E. Three years after its pollution, Judas and his men were able to cleanse the Temple, and in memory of its rededication the festival of Hanuka was established for all generations.’
“That action made Judas the recognized head of Judaea. After a year’s further fighting in border regions, he readied for an attack on the Seleucid-held citadel in Jerusalem, a direct challenge to the Seleucids themselves.”
The authorities I cite in my book say that in this challenge the Seleucids “would have undoubtedly been victorious,” but worked out a diplomatic solution restoring the Jews’ rights. But in 162 BCE a new Seleucid ruler, Demetrius I, acted against Judas, reuniting the people behind him, and in a new battle against the Seleucids Judas won again.
“Then, in an effort to rid The Land of Seleucid control, Judas in 161 BCE concluded an alliance with Rome. A mighty Seleucid army invaded. In the ensuing battle Judas was killed…. But Judas’ brothers organized Judean desert resistance, which the Seleucids failed despite repeated efforts to crush. Eventually, the Seleucids, ‘despairing now of victory, accepted that the only real power was in Hasmonean hands.’”
Judas’ brothers, Jonathan and then Simeon, expanded Judaea’s borders and influence, took the Jerusalem citadel, expelled foreigners from Jaffa and made it the main Jewish port.
“’In 142 B.C.E. the independence of Judaea was recognized by Demetrius II. The climax came on the eighteenth of the Hebrew month of Elul, 140 B.C.E. On that day, before priests and people, leaders and elders, Simeon was proclaimed hereditary nassi (prince or president), high priest, and commander in chief, and was entrusted with all the concerns of the Temple and Land…. So a new royal dynasty, the house of the Hasmoneans, was born. Once again the Yishuv could enjoy political independence.’”
Just a “civil war” between Seleucid Empire-ruled Judaea’s Jews? I don’t think so.