So yeah, I don’t believe that the Phariseac/Rabbinic tradition is the “true” one repressed by the Hasmoneans. There’s just no bloody evidence for that, anywhere in the texts themselves.

As for where I learned about Greek battle stuff, it came from a seminar with Dr. Shaye Cohen, noted scholar of Hellenistic Judaism, when I was at Brown (he’s at Harvard now, though–study with him if you can). If you don’t hold by him, you don’t. I do.

I find it fascinating that people have been coming to nitpick with me about the tangental factiods of this historical event rather than addressing the heart of what I’m trying to say, which is all based on Jewish tradition and a book found in the Septuagint (that is to say, Maccabees.) Fight with one tiny fact thrown in the corner of the essay and you successfully deny that there’s a problem with the theological bigger picture? Not so easy.

In any case, if I don’t answer everybody’s textual objections about everything, it’s not necessarily because I don’t have any response, but rather because I don’t have time. Just to put that out there. Keep commenting, people, and I’ll do the best that I can with the time that I have.

The narrative of the book of Hasmoneans concludes soon
after the period of Jochanan Hyrcanus (I Hasmoneans 17: 25 ). Since it goes no further, it obviously was composed at that time (for if it were merely a chronicle of the Syrian wars, it did not need to include the history of Jochanan Hytcanus). This demonstrates that it was written under the regime of the Sadduccee-Hasmonean rulers, of whom Jochanan Hyrcanus was the first; and the writer was under their dominion. Because the Sadduccee regime of Jochanan Hyrcanus forbade the practice of all Rabbinic laws and inflicted punishment (in some instances death) upon those who observed these laws (Antiq. XIII, 10, 6), the writer was careful to omit any mention of the Rabbinical law of kindling the Hannukah lamp. He could therefore make no mention of the miracle of the Menorah which the entire nation knew as the occasion for this Rabbinical law. The practice of Hannukah was not repressed, although it was a Rabbinical edict, for it was the memorial of the glory of the Hasmonean family and the sole justification of their authority. Josephus, who followed the Sadduccee chronicles throughout, also omitted the miracle of the Menorah; but he could not brush off the fact that the entire nation kindled the Hannukah lamps, and he therefore mentions the festival called Lights (Antiq. XII, 7, 7). He gives a lame explanation: “I suppose the reason (for this name of Lights) was because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us” (ibid.).
Despite the attempts of the Sadduccees to suppress the
fame of the miracle of the Menorah and the practice of the Mitzvah, the Sages and the nation made every attempt to publicize this miracle; and the universal practice of the people was to kindle the Hannukah lamps at the gates of their homes, in the public thoroughfare (Shabbos 22 A; Bava Kama 62 B).
from “Tzur Hate-udah” by Avigdor Miller

Now, if you want to hear why Judaism is the smartest, bestest, coolest religion ever, I’m happy to tell you. But that’s a different story.

For me, I guess the first move I make with any of this is the assumption of God’s goodness, God’s love, God’s–well, ultimately I’m more like Rambam than not, I don’t think that these positive descriptors do much. But my theology doesn’t include a God who is like a person but bigger; I assume that descriptions of God’s, say, anger or whatever (anything human-like really) are metaphors for a reality that is far beyond human language.

I assume that our sacred texts were written by people. As such, they reflect that–with a historical mindset, limitations, human language (”the Torah is written in the language of men”, etc) and so forth. This makes it pretty easy to affirm Biblical Criticism, pretty easy to understand how things that seem very far from the Deity that I, anyway, have ever met (in terms of being unjust, etc) got into our sacred books. On the other hand, there’s a potency, a power to these texts that radiates out in such a way that I am perfectly comfortable with the possibility that these texts are, in fact, a record of profound interaction(s?) between the Divine and human beings. Did Sinai “happen”? Well, from the tiny, tiny glimmers of the Divine that I’ve encountered, I can certainly say that there’s no reason that it couldn’t have–it doesn’t sound like an event that was, you know, too big for God. Did Moshe Rebbeinu speak to God panim al panim? Did somebody? From where did this tradition develop? Someone, somewhere along the way knew something important, profound, extraordinary about Deity and somehow it got into written form. Does the written text that we have contain a “perfectly accurate” description of those events? I’m not sure that that’s even the right question to be asking. I don’t think of the Torah as journalism. Does the written text that we have contain the whole story? Well, maybe. But probably not. There are allusions to other books and writings in the Torah (the “book of Jashar”, the “book of the wars of the Lord,” etc) that we don’t have, there are allusions in the Torah to a bigger picture that we don’t have (eg Miriam is called a prophet, but we never see her prophesey). Which doesn’t mean that what we do have isn’t… reflective of something about God, of an encounter with God, a guide to reaching God, however you want to understand it… that is more foundational or profound than pretty much any other thing. That, in my book, gives the texts a level of sanctity that most texts don’t have.

As for why didn’t God respond to the Hasmonean atrocities? I have several answers. One is that a) see above, God may have said something that didn’t get written down b) the Jewish understanding is that formal prophecy had ended several hundred years before this, so how people heard God from then on may have changed and c) Well, I believe God is communicating all of the time, constantly. It’s just not usually the case that anybody actually truly, truly shows up enough to actually… percieve it. Would that we did. I think the world would be in a lot better shape now if we actually did.