YONATAN DOES NOT WANT TO CONQUER JERUSALEM
With Elazar dead, Yehuda killed in the battle with Bakchides and Yochanan eliminated by the betrayal of the Nabateans, only two of the five brothers survived: Yonatan and Shimon. Yonatan took command of the army and after two years of fighting he managed to expel the powerful Seleucid general Bakchides from Israel. When the general and his army fled Israel in 159 B.C.E. Jonathan did not seek to reconquer Jerusalem immediately. Yonatan, recognized as the leader of the Jews, stayed in Mikhmas. But why? What was Yonatan doing in Michmas and why did he not run to conquer Yerushalayim? Yonatan learned from the mistakes of his brother Yehuda. In 165 B.C.E., when Yehuda saw that the Greeks abandoned Jerusalem, he conquered it and declared that his mission accomplished. And since he believed that he no longer needed his army, he sent most of his fighters home. But in doing this he was very exposed and weakened: a couple of years later, when Demetrius overthrew Lysias, the Seleucids returned to Jerusalem with their armies and Yehuda could no longer defend his conquest. Now, in Mikhmas, Yonatan spent 7 years organizing a powerful Jewish army that numbered 40,000 soldiers. Once Yonatan had this enormous military force, the Seleucid not only did not longer want to have any problems with the Jews, rather, they competed with each other to offer the Jews more privileges, in exchange for Yonatan’s military support .
YONATAN’S MILITARY POWER
Alexander Balas, a young adventurer from Smyrna who claimed to be the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, challenged king Demetrius Soter and engaged him in a civil war looking to obtain the Seleucid throne. Both generals offered all kinds of concessions and favors to the Jews in exchange for their military support. At the end, Yonatan supported Alexander Balas, who ended up victorious.
In 152 B.C.E. on the festival of Sukkot, Yonatan finally entered Jerusalem. He was appointed as the Temple’s High priest, with the official consent of Alexander Balas, the new Seleucid King. This was practically a second Hanukka, a re-dedication of the Temple to God after the many years in which Hellenists desecrated the Bet haMiqdash.
After a couple of years, Demetrius II, the son of Demetrius Soter defeated Alexander Balas and retook the Seleucid throne. But this time the new King avoided any confrontation with Yonatan, recognized him as the Jewish supreme leader and offered him additional privileges, in order to have his powerful army on his side.
A PEACE AGREEMENT?
But conflicts between the Seleucid leaders continued. Tryphon, a strong general, claimed the throne of Demetrius II and arrived in Israel in 143 B.C.E. with an army of 30,000 soldiers. When he saw in the battlefield the overwhelming Jewish army that Yonatan was leading, Tryphon asked to meet with Yonatan in Acco to negotiate a peace agreement. When Yonatan arrived in Acco, Tryphon betrayed him, killing him and his soldiers. After the death of Yonatan the leadership of Judea was taken by the sole surviving son of Matityahu: Shimon. With Yonatan’s powerful army, Shimon expelled Tryphon from the land of Israel. In the year 142 B.C.E. another great miracle took place. Shimon, the last survivor of the five courageous brothers, declared “the establishment of an independent Jewish State,” which was called “Yehuda” (Judea). This new state was immediately recognized by Demetrius II, who exempted the Jews from paying further taxes to the Seleucid empire. The new Jewish state continued, with ups and downs, for more than 100 years.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL
Shimon fortified Yerushalayim and in 142 B.C.E. another great miracle occurred: In Yerushalayim, the Jewish capital, in the Bet haMiqdash, Shimon, the second son of Matitiyahu, and the only survivor of the five brave Hashmonayim brothers, “declared the establishment of an independent Jewish state” that would be called Judea. Celebrating the declaration of independence of the new Shimon used these words that are also relevant today in Medinat Israel: “We did not conquer a land that does not belong to us; and we do not seize what is not ours. We recovered the inheritance of our ancestors, which was usurped by our enemies temporarily and without justice. And when we had the opportunity, we reconquered the inheritance of our parents” .
לא ארץ נכריה לקחנו, ולא ברכוש נכרים משלנו – כי אם נחלת אבותינו, אשר בידי אויבינו בעת מן העיתים בלא משפט נכבשה. ואנחנו כאשר הייתה לנו עת, השיבונו את נחלת אבותינו
This new state was immediately recognized by Demetrius II, who sought an alliance with Judea, and for the first time exempted Jews from paying taxes to the Seleucid empire. The new independent State of Israel continued, with ups and downs, for more than 100 years.
