OT Re: Hannukkah, was: Essays, OT:Ebony

[Susan McGee]

No: HPFGUIDX 7280



> 
> But the scholars spent 1900 or so years being VERY uncomfortable 
> about Hannukkah, because of the Maccabee connection. First, while 
> Judaea was 'under the heavy foot' of Rome, people liked to avoid 
the 
> subject of Maccabees altogether, because it was that dynasty which 
> had INVITED Rome to intervene (as their ally against Syria). 
Second, 
> after the Bar Kochkba rebellion, grown-ups did not want their 
> children listening to stories that would encourage them to rise up 
> against the imperial overlords in a doomed rebellion and get 
> themselves killed. Which is why emphasizing Judah Maccabee and 
> his brothers as successful freedom fighters throwing off colonial 
> rulers is a very twentieth (now twenti-first) century thing. Our 
> (our = baby boomers's) great-grandparents believed that the holiday 
> was ONLY about the MIRACULOUS OIL.


Anyone else have the Peter Paul and Mary Hanukkah tape?
(light one candle for the Maccabee children with thanks that their 
light didn't die....light one candle for the terrible sacrifices, 
justice and freedom demand)