Judah the Maccabee, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (Dr. Moeller & Cie.)

The story of Hanukkah begins in 167 BCE. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of the Seleucid Empire, returned to Israel from an unsuccessful campaign in Egypt to find that civil war had broken out in his absence (rumor had it that he was dead- quite a surprise to Antiochus). After brutally quashing the rebellion, he enacted a policy of forced Hellenization (assimilation into Hellenistic culture) against the Jews, thinking that it would help unify his empire. He sacked and defiled the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and outlawed the worship of Judaism, including learning Jewish texts.

This provoked a revolt from the traditionalist Jews, led first by Mattathias the Hasmonean and then by his sons, most notable of which was Judah the Maccabee. These Jews resisted Hellenization both spiritually and physically, by practicing their religion under threat of death, and by fighting for decades against both the Seleucid Army and those Hellenized Jews who sided with them. The victory of this group, often referred to as the Maccabees, over an army that vastly outnumbered it, is considered the first miracle of Hanukkah.

The second miracle of Hanukkah came when the Maccabees captured the Holy Temple. They sought to resume temple services, but found only one unspoiled jug of the pure olive oil required needed to light the Menorah, a candelabra in the temple that had to be lit every day. Although the oil should only have lasted one day, it burned for 8 days straight- enough time for new olive oil to be pressed. ((Greenberg, Irving. The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays, New York: Touchstone, 1993))

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