THE DEATH OF YEHUDA MACABEE
General Lysias arrived in Antiochia, the capital of the Seleucid kingdom, defeated Philip, and became the regent of the 9-year-old king Antiochus V.. Still, this situation was highly favorable for the Jews, only lasted a few years. In 161 BCE, general Demetrius Soter killed Lysias and the young emperor Antiochus. Among other things, Demetrius resumed the military campaigns against Judea, seeking to conquer Jerusalem and appoint his allies, the Hellenistic Jews, in positions of power. Demetrius sent his best general, Bakchides, with 20,000 men and 2,000 riders to kill Yehuda the Macabbee and end the Jewish rebellion. Bakchides did not arrive by sea, as Greek troops usually did, but arrived by land from the Northwest. Bakchides took Yehuda by surprise. Yehuda, with only a small local army of 800 men, was defeated and killed. The consequences for the Jews in Israel were disastrous. Josephus Flavius writes that the new anti-Jewish decrees and persecutions of faithful Jews carried out by Demetrius were much more intense and brutal than in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes. The Greeks wanted not only to reconquer Judea but also to enact vengeance on its Jewish fighters.
Instituting Greek rule in Jerusalem, Bakchides nominated a false priest, Alqimos, to manage the Temple. In his first official act as High Priest, Alqimos publicly executed 60 rabbis. Thousands of Jews were killed or taken as slaves under Bakchides’ rule.
Without Yehuda Maccabee, without a Jewish army, without Jerusalem, and without the Bet haMiqdash, it seemed that the rebellion that had begun with Matitiyahu seven years earlier had come to a tragic end.
THE BETRAYAL
There are miracles, like that of the oil, that lasted for eight days, which are a matter of exclusive Divine intervention. And there are other miracles where Divine intervention is combined with human greatness.
This happened with Yehuda’s surviving brothers: Yochanan, Shimon, and Yonatan. They and the few surviving Jewish fighters decided they would not give up. Yonatan took over the fledging resistance’s military leadership and began to plan his fight against the powerful Bakchides. In response, Bakchides mounted a search campaign seeking to kill the Jewish fighters. He offered a reward for the heads of the Hasmoneans, their fighters, and their relatives. To confront the Greeks, Yonatan decided to replicate the early tactics of the Maccabee fighters: avoid a direct confrontation with the Greeks and instead attack them by surprise. Yonatan fled to the Judean desert near the city of Tekoa, where his men could hide in caves. However, climbing the mountains and accessing the hidden caves was arduous and dangerous. Yonatan and his men could access the caves, but the fighters’ families – women and children – could not. Yonatan decided to rely on Yehuda’s allies and fellow enemies of the Greeks, the Nabateans. The Nabateans, a nomadic people who lived in the Arabian peninsula and had formed a military alliance with Yehuda, agreed to shelter Yonatan’s fighters’ families. Intent on fighting Bakchides, Yonatan sent the families to the Nabateans accompanied by Yochanan and a few fighters. But the Nabateans, driven by the attractive reward offered by Bakchides, betrayed Yonatan and killed Yochanan, the women, and the children. Only one soldier escaped their massacre, and he brought the tragic news to the Jews hiding in Tekoa.
WHAT WAS THE WORST MOMENT IN JEWISH HISTORY?
For seven days, Yonatan and his men mourned and wept bitterly over the death of their wives and children. It is difficult to imagine the feelings of the Hasmoneans in those terrible days. Everything indicated that they should give up their fight. The most potent motivator for men to risk their lives in battle is the knowledge that they are fighting for their families and that they will return home one day. But now that their families were killed why and for whom should Yonatan’s men fight for?
This may have been the most critical moment in the history of the people of Israel. The future of our people and the survival of our religion was in the hands of a handful of men that were suffering the indescribable pain of knowing that their families were murdered in cold blood. The Hellenists, seemingly, had won. Traditional Judaism would disappear and be replaced by a Greek version of Judaism.
RISING FROM THE ASHES Miraculously, Yonatan drew strength from his faith in the Creator. He rose from mourning, removed the ashes from his head, and decided that the rebellion against the Greek oppressors would continue while he was alive. First, he carried out a surprise attack against the Nabatean. In doing so, he followed in the footsteps of Dina’s brothers, Shimon and Levi, who punished the city of Shekhem. The enemy would know that whoever betrayed Yonatan and the Jews would suffer the consequences. Then, Yonatan dedicated himself to recruiting more Jewish fighters from the villages and began a war of attrition against Bakchides’ army. For two years, from 161 BCE to 159 BCE, the improvised Jewish army did what Yehuda had done in the beginning of the resistance: they attacked Greek troops and their supplies, mainly under cover of darkness.
THE WITHDRAWAL OF BAKCHIDES
In 159 BCE, general Bakchides got tired from fighting the Jews. He was frustrated at his inability to capture Yonatan and in light of the constant attacks against his troops. He also realized that the war against the Jews – even if he were to win – would not result in significant prestige. In the eyes of the Greek Empire, he was just trying to vanquish a handful of insurgents.
Bakchides decided to leave the land of Israel to fight other battles that were easier to win and that would advance his military career. Thus, Yonatan, Shimon, and their soldiers again achieved victory against the Greeks. In light of this, the city of Jerusalem – ruled by Hellenist Jews – was now within reach for a new rededication. But surprisingly and seemingly against all logic, Yonatan did not retake Jerusalem, as Yehuda had done previously in 165 BCE. Instead, Yonatan settled in the city of Mikhmas for seven years.
