Israel Matzav

The first war of national liberation

Matityahu, with his sons, fled Jerusalem for his ancestral village of Modi'in. There, a Seleucid officer ordered him to make a public sacrifice to Zeus. Matityahu refused. "I and my sons and our kinsmen," he said, "shall follow the covenant of our fathers."

Other Jews had said as much: "Many Israelites strongly and steadfastly refused to eat forbidden food. They chose death in order . . . to keep from violating the Holy Covenant, and they were put to death." What made Matityahu a great leader was the fact that he refused to accept the necessity of choosing between violation of Jewish law and death. Instead, he chose to vindicate the Jews' right to determine their fate as a nation by organizing an army and driving the Seleucids from the land of Israel.

After Matityahu refused to make the pagan sacrifice in Modi'in, another Jewish man stepped forward to make the sacrifice—and Matityahu "slew him upon the altar." He then killed the Seleucid officer, destroyed the altar itself, and fled with his sons into the hills, shouting, "Everyone who loves the law and stands by the covenant follow me!"

Suddenly we are on familiar ground: the modern war of national liberation. There are no prophets in the book of Maccabees, and no miracles. This is the story of a man and a nation, faced with the awful choice of watching their nation die or risking their own death, who take their fate into their own hands and fight for their right to be governed by Jewish rulers under Jewish laws—the right we call national self-determination.

Labels: Chanuka

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:57 PM