Prof. Eyal Regev
The Torah.com, Dec. 10, 2017
“Although almost half of the book describes the military conflicts between the Judah’s troops and the Seleucids, its emphasis is on the religious piety of Judah and his followers.”
Chanukah has a special history. Early Jewish sources from the second century B.C.E. – 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, and the Maccabean epistles with which 2 Maccabees opens – attest to the religious sensibilities felt by those who called to celebrate it. This evidence, some of it is roughly dated to the days of Judah Maccabee, reveals that the main focus of the festival was the Temple.
It was not merely a celebration of a military victory over the Seleucids, but a religious one which put the Temple back at the center of the Jewish people, their practices and beliefs. This is borne out both by the way 1 Maccabees describes the piety of Judah and his followers in relation to the Temple and its purity as well as how 2 Maccabees emphasizes Judah’s religious piety in general. Nonetheless, the Maccabees and Hasmoneans’ later insistence that Jews in the diaspora would continue to celebrate it annually also stem from political reasons to enhance their own rule.
Historical Background of Chanukah
Shortly after Judah Maccabee defeated the Seleucid army at Beth Zur and Lysias, and the Syrian Greek army retreated from Judaea, the Maccabees entered Jerusalem. On the 25th of Kislev, 164 B.C.E., Judah purified the Temple. This was a crucial turning point in the history of the Jews in general. This began the process of Judea’s independence from the Seleucid Empire, and of the Jerusalem Temple in particular, which would grow in wealth and stature in the coming centuries.
Judah entered Jerusalem and the Temple in Kislev since this was his first opportunity to do so. A Babylonian inscription indicates that Antiochus IV Epiphanes died in Kislev 164 B.C.E., but we do not know exactly where he died, and it is impossible to ascertain when Judah heard of his death.[1] In any case, the preoccupation of Antiochus IV with the East allowed Judah to capture Jerusalem.[2]. … source