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The Jews and the Hellenists

Chanukah this year begins on Saturday night, December 8 and ends on Sunday night, December 16. One of the things that makes Chanukah an intriguing holiday is that it actually begins many years before the events of the Chanukah story. In the 4th century BCE there lived the Greek leader Alexander the Great. Alexander was said to have an extremely good relationship with the Jewish people. The Talmud says that when he came to Judea to do battle, the Jewish High Priest came out to greet him and he recognized the High Priest from a dream he'd once had and the High Priest had predicted that Alexander would conquer the world. Unfortunately when Alexander died, the empire was broken into 3 groups, always warring with each other. There was the Greek part (Greece), the Northern part (Mesopotamia and Syria) and the Southern part (Egypt). The Seleucid Empire that controlled Syria and Greece got control of Judea in 199 BCE. In 167 BCE, the Seleucid leader Antiochus IV Epiphanes became the Emperor. He had just lost a battle with the Ptolemaic Greeks and blamed it on the Jews. Therefore he declared that the Jews should become more Hellenistic. He forbade Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh (the observance of the New Moon), circumcision and learning Torah. With these elements forbidden, it was difficult for the Jews to remain Jewish. The custom of the dreidel on Chanukah is attributed to the fact that Jewish children used to act as though they were playing with a top so the Syrian-Greeks wouldn't suspect they were learning Torah. The battle was not only against the Syrian-Greeks and Greek culture, it was actually a battle between Jews and their brothers who wanted to give up the mitzvot (commandments) and be more Hellenistic. Many Jews embraced Greek culture enjoying sports like wrestling, and went as far as to perform reverse circumcisions so they could fit in at the gymnasium. Eventually the Emperor deposed Mattathias the High Priest and replaced him with a more sympathetic High Priest who held more Hellenistic beliefs. It was when the new High Priest rose to the altar with a pig that Mattathias and his sons decided that it was time to rebel. That act began the rebellion of the Maccabees.