The Irresponsible, Miraculous Maccabean Revolt – Then and Now

by Haggai Huberman , journalist and author, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Judah Maccabee's war against the Syrian Greeks was not logical or realistic, and basically had no chance of succeeding. But then came the miracles… Things didn't work then by logic – and the same is true today.

If someone in the year 167 BEC had made a cold calculation of the balance of power between the Hasmonean rebels and the Greek kingdom in the Holy Land, he would not have recommended that the Jews start a war against the latter. In fact, there was truly no realistic chance for them to win. They started off with only 3,000 soldiers (or possibly 6,000, according to Maccabees II), while the Greeks had anywhere between 20,000 and 100,000 troops. Things did not look rosy for the good guys.

Even worse was the quality of the respective forces. The Seleucids were well-trained, well-organized, and well-armed, and could boast of infantry, heavy and light cavalry, elephant units, and catapult units for hurling large rocks. In contrast, Judah Maccabee's small army used primitive farming tools and home-made weapons. What chance did he have?

And yet, the Jews won, after a very long war. They utilized a unique combination of Judah's battle tactics: guerilla warfare integrated with unpredictable miracles. The first Chanukah miracle was not the famous "flask of oil" incident, but rather a seemingly "natural" battle development. It happened during the fourth of the eight battles between the Hasmoneans and the Greeks, which took place in Beit Tzur, south of today's Gush Etzion bloc. [One of the modern Jewish communities there is known as Carmei Tzur, in commemoration of the town.] Practically in mid-battle, Greek commander Lysias suddenly left for home to try to inherit the apparently-deceased Antiochus – and Judah rushed in with his forces to fill the void. Announcing, "The Temple Mount is in our hands!" a bunch of centuries before anyone ever dreamt of Al-Aqsa, they purified the Holy Temple, found a lone flask of ritually pure oil, and lit the Menorah for eight days until additional pure oil could be produced.

The fifth battle also took place in Gush Etzion, one of whose communities is named Elazar – after the brother of Judah Maccabee who was killed at this time while bravely stabbing a Seleucid elephant from beneath.

After this defeat, another Chanukah miracle took place. Lysias had retaken Jerusalem, and was about to pursue Judah's army to the north. However, he received word of a rebellion in the eastern part of the kingdom, and again he abruptly and surprisingly left the scene, though not before offering Judah a ceasefire of sorts. Judah the Maccabee utilized the situation for good advantage, and retook the entire area of Judea. This did not mean the onset of a Jewish State, however, as Judah was killed in the next battle: the Battle of Elasa, not far from today's Beit El.

For the next seven years, the Jewish forces were led by Mattathias' youngest son (Judah's youngest brother) Yonatan. He spent this time building up a larger and better-trained army, and in the year 152, he and his forces again liberated Jerusalem and purified the Temple. This time, the Jewish autonomy and Temple dedication lasted for over 200 years, until the Romans sacked the Holy City in 68-70. Yonatan also achieved the nullification of the anti-religious decrees.

Paradoxically, then, it was precisely the Greek decrees aimed at separating the Jews from their Judaism that caused them to rebel and ultimately oust the Greeks and their culture from the Holy Land.  

Miracles are of course not a good work plan. But it's also true that Ben-Gurion - who declared the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 even though it was militarily expected not to last more than a week - famously said: "In Israel, whoever doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist."

We can also now give new meaning to the words of our prayers, "He Who wrought miracles to our forefathers in those days – at this time" - for in our times, too, we are living through a period of an ongoing miracle. It will take years before we truly comprehend what an amazing Heavenly miracle these entire last few months have been, and internalize that nothing that happened here could have been forecast by any realistic observer.

Could anyone have believed on Simchat Torah of 15 months ago, with thousands of Hamas terrorists overrunning our southern border, capturing communities and kibbutzim, slaughtering over 1,200 Jews – that a year later, Hamas leader Sinwar would be turned to dust, most of the Gaza Strip would be turned into piles of ruins, and .Iran would abruptly lose much of its military power in the Middle East and would be closer than ever to economic collapse? Could it have been foreseen that within this time period, Hizbullah would lose not only most of its military strength, but also its legendary leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli attack? Would anyone have believed that a long strip of villages in southern Lebanon would be razed and Hizbullah would be pushed back from the Israeli border? How about that Assad would be in exile in Russia, Syria would be left without an army, and the highest peak of Mt. Hermon, as well as other parts of Syria, would be under Israeli control without even a battle?

Yes, miracles cannot be the main feature of a national battle strategy. And even for a miracle to take place, we must work hard – or at least, fight hard. Without the initiatives that the IDF took, to what would the miracles have adhered or applied? On the other hand, no matter how much we do, without Heavenly providence, our success, especially in these wars, is very far from guaranteed. Both of these have always been true, throughout our history, and including of course that of the State of Israel.

Very soon, we all pray and hope, we will merit to experience possibly the happiest miracle of all: The safe return of dozens of Israeli captives to their families and country, Amen. 

The 76-Year-War

by Yossi Achimeir, journalist and former politician, translated by Hillel Fendel.

The trauma of Oct. 7^th is not over, the war continues – and Israel lives on.

It's now been nearly 15 months that Israel has been living in the shadow of the trauma of Oct. 7^th. The horrendous calamity that fell with a frightful thud that morning of Simchat Torah has swollen into a multi-front war, unprecedented since our War of Independence. The matches lit on the Gaza envelope have set raging fires in the northern border and Judea and Samaria as well, ignited by the pyromaniacs sitting in Tehran.

The flames, of course, have not yet gone out. Even though two of our greatest enemies – Hamas in the south and Hizbullah in the north - have been soundly defeated, the Ayatollahs in Iran have not given up their dream to destroy the Jewish State, and are actively employing their third proxy - the Houthis in Yemen – to this end.

Just like the Yom Kippur War 51 years ago, the current war also took Israel by surprise – and both were grave blunders that endangered our very existence. Both of them might have been avoided were it not for complacency on our side.

But our national will was strong. Though we abruptly found ourselves nearly overwhelmed both times, the IDF was able not only to recover, but also to repel the enemies, strike them cripplingly in their own territories, and thwart their plans. However, both times we paid a very steep price in the blood of our soldiers and citizens.

The main difference between the two is that the Yom Kippur War lasted three weeks, while the current war has not yet reached its absolute conclusion. Most Israelis continue to live the good life, while its best sons, in the standing army and in the reserves, continue to meet the challenges both north and south, far from their families and jobs. The Israel Air Force has successfully sent its long arms thousands of kilometers away, both to Iran and to Yemen – and with all this, the work is far from completed.

We sometimes believe that we will finally be able to breathe easily as soon as we totally obliterate Iran's nuclear and other military capabilities. Is this true?

Though we are the only country in the world under constant threat from all directions, Israel has a strong military capacity that seems to reveal itself most impressively when we are under attack – and often, after terrible internal fiascos that seem to have invited the enemy upon us. In the current case, the enemy appears to have identified the weaknesses eating away at us from within, issues that bring us too close for comfort to civil war. And yet, over the past year, we were able to climb up from the depths of defeat almost to the pinnacle of victory and national pride. The Middle East geopolitical map has been turned upside down, with the long-time attackers and war-mongerers having brought upon themselves death, destruction and suffering that will require many years of recovery.

But really this war is simply the last in a chain of hostilities that have been forced upon Israel throughout its 76 years. Basically, it's been one long, 76-year war. It would be a mistake to think that Oct. 7^th is behind us, and that we have well learned the lessons it presented us. Just consider last week's terrorist murder of Holocaust survivor Ludmila Lipovsky, 83 years old, on Holocaust Martyrs St. in Herzliya. That was her own private Oct. 7^th – parallel to the national Oct. 7^th that cruelly snuffed out the lives of 1200 Israelis in their homes and at an outdoors festival.

We must internalize that the extremist Muslims' uncontrolled hatred for us, wherever they are, is far from extinguished. They will continue to seek to murder and maim us – Israelis and other Jews alike. Even when our security forces manage, without fanfare or recognition, to thwart hundreds of attacks a year, there could still be one lone attack that could pass under the radar and bring death and tragedy upon us. We are at perpetual war with fanatic, implacable enemies who, as it looks now, will never accept our existence.

Dangers also face us from the "quiet" Jordanian border. The Hashemite Kingdom, with which we have a peace agreement, is facing the threat of destabilization by Iranian elements. We also have a treaty with Egypt, which for some reason has begun arming itself to the teeth. And even in crumbling Syria, the dreaded Assad regime is in the process of being replaced by an unknown quantity – i.e., not only the rebels, but partially also Erdogan's threatening Turkish forces.

What we can do is the following: We must not ever give our enemies reason to believe that we are crumbling from within, busy with our own disputes and arguments while ignoring the threats from without. And 15 months after Oct. 7^th, the IDF needs a new leadership, ready to spring like a lion, aware and ready for all scenarios

I read recently of a small, little-known country named the Kingdom of Bhutan. It is barely 1.5 times the size of Israel, with less than 1/12 of our population. Despite its precarious location between superpowers China in the north and India in the south, this "Land of Happiness," as it is known, manages to live in peace and serenity, away from major headlines. Israel is far from being Bhutan or Switzerland, but it is still the "Jewish Kingdom of Happiness" – even if in the coming years we will continue having to live on our sword.