Maccabees, The

On this first night of Chanukah, could I really be standing in the very spot where Matityahu and his sons stood?

Explore the inner meaning of Chanukah and the mystical dimension of the Maccabees and the different characters in the Chanukah story from Matisyahu the High Priest to the heroine Yehudis.

Who dares to criticize Chanukah? Luckily I didn’t run out of my free articles for this month (it’s only the 6th), as I was even willing to buy a subscription just to find out!

Time and time again, it appeared as if the plucky nation of monotheists would be swallowed up by the religion du jour

Judah Maccabee was one of the leaders of the Jewish guerilla freedom fighters who drove the Seleucid Greek occupiers out of Judea in 139 BCE.

The Maccabees were a band of Jewish freedom fighters who freed Judea from the Syrian-Greek occupiers during the Second Temple period.

Become an expert on this widely celebrated but barely understood Jewish festival.

There's a leak in the system. Some warriors punched a hole in the box over two thousand years ago, and every year, at this time, it leaks again. We're hoping that this year it won't stop.

Nothing could be more bleak than the future the Maccabees faced.

The Hasmoneans form a band of guerilla fighters called the Maccabees to defeat the wave of Hellenistic assimilation. After their miraculous victory, however, new troubles arose that would ultimately lead to the destruction of the Second Temple.