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victory HAN UK AH
over fear
by FRED STEIN
“There is nothing to fear but
fear.”
This is the meaning of Hanukah.
Antiochus ruled over Asia Min
or, ruled with a ruthless hand.
"The gods of his fathers he re
garded not and he regarded no
god but raised himself above
everything,” says a Jewish his
torian of that day.
His arrogance turned to ven-
gence and spite, when pursuing his
plans for the conquest of Egypt,
Rome quietly stepped in. The Ro
man Senate had dispatched Popi-
las Laenas with a message for him
to leave Egypt.
“I would like a little time to
consider,” said Antiochus. Arrog
ant as he might be against the Ju-
daens, he knew better than to chal
lenge the power of Rome.
For answer to Antiochus, Popilas
drew a circle in the dust about him.
"Before I step out of this circle, I
must have your answer,” he said.
Antiochus had no other recourse
but to withdraw his legions.
His pride wounded, he found an
outlet for his passions by descend
ing on Judaea. He had heard that
many of the Judaeans were sym
pathetic to Rome. Antiochus let
his soldiers lose in Judaea, killing
men, women and children, burning
homes and looting the Temple of
its golden candlesticks and other
treasures. He issued a decree com
manding the Judaeans to cease the
worship of their faith and offer
sacrifices to swine. The priests
were ordered to eat swine flesh.
Fear and panic seized the Ju-
daens. “There was great mourning
in the land,” writes the Book of
Maccabees. “The princes and
elders mourned, the virgins and
young men were made feeble and
the beauty of women changed.”
All the darkness of the world,
the rabbis of old wrote, contem
plating the Hanukah candle, can
not extinguish the light of one
lone candle.
The lone candle that could not
be extinguished but instead lighted
others, shone in a small village
of Modin, thirty miles northwest
of Jerusalem, in the person of the
fearless old priest Mattathias and
his five sons.
"E\en if all the nations fall
away from their fathers, I, my
sons and my brothers will remain
true to the covenant of our faith,”
he said to the officer of Antiochus
when it was demanded that he
sacrifice to the heathen gods.
When he saw another Judaean
approach the altar and offer such
sacrifice, he and his sons, armed
with long knives, fell on the sol
diers and overwhelmed them.
“Whoever is zealous for the co
venant let him follow me,” he
called out. A small number of the
faithful gathered. The little candle
had kindled other candles.
An old man, Mattathias, was
soon to die but he left his sons to
continue the battle, conferring the
leadership upon Judas, surnamed
the Maccabee (Hebrew for ham
mer), “Now therefore, my sons,”
he said dying, “Be ye zealous for
the Law and give your lives for
the Covenant of your fathers. Be
ye valiant and show yourself men.
Fear not death, for if ye die in the
battle, ye shall receive reward.”
Judas Maccabeus was described
by a contemporary as a man who
was like a raging lion in battle but
like a dove of gentleness in peace.
Judas Maccabeus successfully
continued the guerilla warfare
which his father had initiated and
the number of his followers grew
with each victory. His forces were
always greatly outnumbered and
out equipped by the enemy forces,
yet he offset these disadvantages
by continually surprising the en
emy troops, falling on them when
they were off guard.
The anger of Antiochus mounted.
Previously he had sought simply
to wipe out the Jewish faith. Now
he proposed to wipe out the peo
ple as well. He sent his top mili
tary man, General Gorgius with a
formidable force of chariots, ele
phants and horses. The general
was so confident of victory that he
had invited the slave dealers to
come to the battlefield at Emmanus
with money and chains to bear
away the captive Jews into slavery.
But General Gorgius had an
other one of his little surprises.
When he arrived at the place
where he expected to do battle,
there wasn’t a Jew to be seen. Aha,
he said, Judas Maccabeus had got
ten chicken and had run away.
But Judas Maccabeus had mere
ly led his army around the rear of
the enemy and soon had them in
confusion and flight. The enemy
running away left great quantities
of military equipment and the
slave merchants in their haste to
get away dropped their wallets of
money, with which they had ex
pected to buy the Jewish captives
for slaves.
So a sad story had a happy end
ing and the little Hanukah candle
glowing in the dark speaks to us
of the greatest of messages. Be not
afraid.
The Southern Israelite
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