66 Friday, November 25, 1983 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Hanuka Has Modern Lessons or Israel and Judaism By DR. IRVING GREENBERG National Jewish Resource Center NEW YORK — Each generation interprets Hanuka in its own image. In the salad days of liberalism in America, Hanuka was often pictured as the holiday of religious freedom. It was almost as if the Maccabees were free- dom fighters, fighting for their First Amendment ri hts to • ractice reli ion without interference from government. According to this presen- tation, the regime of An- tiochus Epiphanes tried to impose the cult of Zeus by armed force. The Maccabees fou ht back and won the 1 2 1/4% Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) . 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Even if Christians have to give up the advantage of being the majority or being sponsored by the American government, they had best do so. The message is a good one but the connection to the ac- tual historical facts is shaky. What really hap- pened? In the Second Com- monwealth in the land of Is- rael, as before, Judaism was the state religion. Taxes supported the Temple; the king was a leading particip- ant in national festivals and a major factor in the politics of priestly succession, i.e., in deciding who would lead the priests and the Temple cult. From the time of Alexan- der the Great's successors (the Seleucids located in Syria) on, the Hellenistic Empire's governments di- rectly intervened in the political/religious struc- tures of Judea. By the time of Antiochus (mid-Second Centerury BCE), the High Priesthood was bought and sold in the coin of taxes, payments to the Seleucids and political support. The Jews themselves were deeply divided over Hellenism's attractions. An influential, wealthy, pow- erful group was rapidly Hel- lenizing, e.g., assimilating. The process ran into stiff opposition from other Jews — initially from the most traditional sector which was appalled by Greek prac- tices and the changing mores of Hellenism. In the bitter fight which followed, Hellenizing Jews with close connec- tions to Antiochus per- suaded him that his in- terest lay in suppressing the traditionalist opposi- tion — as much for his own political/economic benefit as for any religi- ous purposes. Thus An- tiochus departed from the general Seleucid pol- icy of toleration, and in- stead lent his troops to the active suppression of the Jewish opposition. By then, the rebelling Jews consisted of a coali- tion of moderate Hel- lenizers (today we would call them: "Those who fa- vored acculturation rather than assimila- tion") and the ultra- traditionalists. Mattathias and his Has- moneans did not fight for re- ligious pluralism. Think of the central image which every schoolchild remem- bers as the start of the re- volt. In the town of Modin, a squad of soldiers enforces the cult of Zeus; a Jewish quisling sacrifices a pig; an aroused Mattathias defies the soldiers, stabs the traitor and holds up the standard of revolt, crying, "Who is for the Lord, come with me!" With all honor to the courageous band who took to the hills and courage- ously defeated a world em- pire, stabbing is not one of the strongest arguments for religious freedom. Mattathias, Judah Mac- cabee and the brave people who saved Judaism were not fighting for a pluralist Judea. 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