When the Israelis reclaimed their homeland and formed their government in 1948, they looked back two millennia to the example of the Maccabees because that had been the last independent Jewish kingdom.
What they saw was both inspiring and cautionary.
While the Maccabees, initially led by the patriarch Mattathias, were great political and military leaders, they were careless about preserving the traditions of Judaism; therefore, the records of their accomplishments, the First and Second Books of the Maccabees, were not included in the Hebrew Bible.
Led by Judah “The Hammer” Maccabee, the revolt from 167-160 B.C. ended with the Seleucid Greeks being thrown out of the country and the Temple being reclaimed in Jerusalem, said Rabbi Jordan Parr of Temple Beth El.
The other brothers were John, Eleazar, Jonathan and Simon. “They were priests and warriors,” Rabbi Parr said.
“Simon was the last surviving brother because Judah and the others had all died in battle. But Simon became high priest and king, which was an impossibility because he couldn’t be both high priest and king.”
Noting that the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah is an eight-day celebration of the re-dedication of the Temple after the Maccabees’ victory, Parr said, “Simon died a normal death after he was exposed as being corrupt.
“So the Maccabees are respected from a military and political standpoint but not so much from a religious standpoint.”
The Very Rev. Michel J. Sis, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo, said the family “stood up for their faith despite assaults from their surrounding society.
“I thank God for the noble witness of the Maccabees, those heroic Jews who fought against assimilation into the pagan culture.
“The Greek officials were trying to impose idol worship on the Jews,” Bishop Sis said. “People offered them rewards for abandoning the religious traditions of their ancestors and they were persecuted when they resisted that pressure to violate their spiritual heritage.
“Not only did they receive pressure from non-Jews, but they were also tempted by fellow Jews to accommodate the pagan society around them by hiding the mark of their circumcision and by eating pork for the purpose of fitting in.
“Today members of our Christian churches are similarly tempted to accommodate our secular culture by avoiding giving evidence of the distinctiveness of our faith. We have much to learn from the Maccabees about having the courage to be faithful to God even when that brings persecution from the world. The Maccabees teach us to stand up for religious liberty.”
Sis said another lesson to be learned from the story is to be aware of the ways in which the example of one’s actions affects others.
“The elderly man Eleazar refused to take an action that would have lead the young men in his community astray by letting them think he was willing to disobey God’s law,” he said. “He realized that he had a moral obligation to avoid leading others to sin.
“Jesus says in Matthew 18:6 that those who lead others to sin would be better off with a millstone tied around their necks as they are thrown into the sea.”
