All language subtitles for empires.david.e02-sprinter

(STIRRING MUSIC)

In the 6th century BC,

Judean captives in Babylon wrote
the first edition of the Hebrew Bible.

After they returned to Jerusalem,

this new book
would define the Judean people,

giving them a sense
of what was right and what was wrong.

But then they would be
faced with a choice...

give up their faith
or fight to defend it.

No threat would prove more dire

than when Alexander the Great
and the Greeks

swept through the Middle East,

bringing with them the most exciting
culture the world had ever seen.

But Judaism would not die.

It would instead be transformed
by the new belief

that the Bible was not just a book

but a divine testament
authored by God himself,

and that those
who were faithful to God

would be rewarded
in an afterlife.

Faith in this new Judaism
would become so strong

that the Jews would become
the first people in history

willing to fight...

and die for their religion
and their God.

(PLAINTIVE MUSIC)

In 538 BC,
the Persians conquered Babylon.

Then the Persian king freed
all of the Babylonians' captives.

One people he encouraged
to return home

were the Judeans.

"Cyrus, King of Persia, says this:

'Yahweh, the God of Heaven,

'has given me all the kingdoms
of the earth

'and has appointed me to build him
a temple in Jerusalem in Judah.

'Whoever among you belongs
to the full tally of his people,

'may his God be with him.

'Let him go up to Jerusalem
in Judah

'and build the Temple of Yahweh,
God of Israel. '

But returning to a land
their grandparents had left decades before

was a daunting challenge.

And many Jews who had made
successful lives for themselves

remained in Babylon.

It was the adventurous
and the deeply religious

who were drawn to Jerusalem
to rebuild the Temple.

As soon as the exiles
arrived in Jerusalem,

work on the Second Temple began.

The Book of Ezra described
the excitement that filled the air.

"The people contributed money
for the masons and carpenters,

"and food, drink and oil
for the men from Sidon and Tyre

"who brought cedar wood
from Lebanon by sea,

"for which Cyrus, King of Persia,
had given permission.

"The priests in their robes
stood forward with trumpets,

"and the Levites with symbols,
to praise Yahweh.

"Then all the people raised
a mighty shout of praise

"since the foundations of the Temple
had now been laid.

"Many of the older priests
and heads of families,

"who had seen the First Temple, wept.

"But many others shouted aloud for joy! "

But the Temple was the only source
of joy for the returnees.

The rest of their world was grim.

The only Judeans
the Babylonians had left behind

were the poorest of the peasants.

Now their descendants
were on the verge of starvation

as they struggled to eke out a living
from the land.

The only others living nearby

were peoples who had been
forcibly resettled in lsrael

after the northern tribes
were exiled.

These foreigners
would do all they could

to keep the returnees from gaining
a foothold in Jerusalem...

for they viewed them as rivals
for control of the region.

(WIND BLOWS, SHEEP BLEAT)

But the worst burden
for the returnees to bear

was that their ancestral home,
Jerusalem, was a wasteland.

MAN: The city of Jerusalem
is still in ruins.

The people who come back
to live in the area of Jerusalem

go and inhabit those stone buildings

that were left standing from
the time of the Babyblonian destruction.

So you have half of the city where
people are living in ruined homes,

and then another half of the city

where nobody is living and
the buildings are still standing empty.

It would have been...
something depressing.

And, after a while, all hope
would have gone out of the people,

and people would have settled down
to a life of discontent.

(GLOOMY MUSIC)

Soon, even the building of the Temple
slowed to a crawl,

crippled by conflict between
the returnees and the foreigners.

The ruthless uprooting
of groups like the Judeans,

who were then resettled with peoples of
entirely different ethnicity and religion,

had led to turmoil
throughout the Middle East.

In Judea, law and order
had completely broken down.

By convincing the Persians
that the Jews were planning to rebel,

the foreigners won an order
suspending the rebuilding of the Temple.

Eventually, the Jews received
permission to continue,

but were too poor and too apathetic
to finish the work.

Eighty years after they arrived,

the return home of the exiles
seemed like a horrible mistake.

But then a remarkable man
arrived in Jerusalem.

His name was Ezra,

and he had been sent
by the Persian king

to restore order to Jerusalem.

"Artaxerxes, king of kings,
to the priest Ezra.

"Greetings.

"Now, here are my orders.

"You are being sent to Judah
and Jerusalem.

"You are to appoint
magistrates and scribes

"to administer justice
for all who know the law of your God.

"And you are to teach it
to all who do not know it. "

ZEVIT:.
Ezra is a scribe and a priest.

One didn't become a scribe
because he was born a scribe.

One became a scribe
by dint of talent,

intelligence,
literacy and creativity.

So now comes back to Jerusalem
a man of rank

and privilege and political power.

(PERCUSSION & HORN)

Ezra had come from Babylon

where Jewish scribes had written
the first edition of the Hebrew Bible.

But the mostly illiterate returnees

knew nothing about the book
or its stories or its laws.

Now Ezra had a surprise for them.

MAN: Ezra didn't come
to Jerusalem empty-handed.

He came with a book.

And that book
was almost certainly the Torah,

the first five books of the Bible,

in the form that we have it today.

And he said to the people

"This is what we're about
and this is how you must live. "

In what would prove to be one of
the most important events in history,

Ezra gathered all of the people
of Judea together

in a square near the Temple

and read them
the first five books of the Bible,

the Torah.

(Man reads in Hebrew)

FRIEDMAN: That makes Ezra
kind of a new Moses.

He's the law giver, he's the one
who stands up and tells the people

"Well, you haven't known exactly
the right thing to do until now

"but from this day forward you will
always know the right thing to do.

"And it's in this scroll, right here. "

"You are the children
of Yahweh, your God.

"You must take all the tithes
of your harvest for the year

"and gather them together
in your community.

"Then the foreigner,
the orphan and the widow

"living in your community
will come and eat.

"I'm giving you this command.

"Always be open-handed
with your brother

"and with anyone in your country
who is in need and poor.

"Remember that you were once
a slave in Egypt

"and Yahweh, your God, redeemed you.

"That is why I am giving you
this order. "

(GENTLE MIDDLE-EASTERN MUSIC)

FRIEDMAN: The central possession
of the Jews is the Torah

and it became the central possession
of the Jews THAT day,

the day that Ezra had it read
in Jerusalem.

Before that,
they had parts of the Torah

but that day
they had the whole thing.

And for the 2500 years since then,

that's been the governing force
of the Jews,

the highest ideal.

All of it, the history, the laws,
the principles of Torah,

all come out of that moment in history.

After the ceremony
in which Ezra read the Torah,

the people of Judea
were asked to sign a contract

agreeing to live according
to the laws of the Bible.

The document they signed
was revolutionary...

proof that the lsraelites' God cared
not just about kings and priests,

but about farmers and weavers,
mothers and fathers.

MAN: This is a profoundly
democratic religious revolution.

What Ezra declared that day

is there is no secret knowledge
in Israel.

In traditions all over the world,
there were always mystery priests

and rites
that other people couldn't know,

but the Torah is full of the exact rites
that the priests follow in the Temple,

and what that means
is every Israelite can know

what the priests know,
what the teachers know.

God's revelation is for anyone
who chooses to understand it.

Not one revelation to the prophet
and one to the priest,

and then a lower order of revelation
to the average person in the street,

but rather,
everyone can seek God,

everyone can understand God's teachings.

Ezra's call for all Jews
to participate in the covenant

revitalised Jerusalem.

The Temple, especially,
was transformed.

The Torah required that the Temple
play a central role in Jewish life.

"You must not put the firstborn
of your herd to work

"or shear the firstborn
of your flock.

"You must eat it...

"you and your household, each year,

"in the presence of Yahweh,
your God. "

MAN: During the time
of the Second Temple,

there was only one place

where sacred time and sacred space
came together.

And it was the whole spectacle
and structure and ritual of the sacrifices

that was the vehicle
by which people came close to God.

So if you lived in the north of Israel,
and it came time to celebrate Passover,

you wanted to bring an animal-
one of your animals-to the Temple

and you would sell your animal,
take that money,

make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem,

buy another animal
and bring it to the Temple.

And you can imagine,
with all of that preparation,

what that moment
must have been like for a penitent

who came all that distance,
went to all that trouble.

That moment finally came when
he laid his hands on this animal

and established it as
'This is my gift to God.

'This is what I'm going to eat
along with God, in God's presence. '

Imagine the power of that!

In addition to its laws about
how human beings should treat God,

the Bible had a great deal to say

about how human beings
should treat each other,

making it one of the most
sophisticated law books

in the ancient world.

And yet, for a man to administer laws
that were written centuries earlier

was not an easy task.

One law forbid Jews
to marry foreigners,

to keep them from worshipping
foreign gods.

(STIRRING MIDDLE-EASTERN MUSIC)

But in the tumultuous years
since the return,

many Judeans
had married foreign women.

After great deliberation,

Ezra decided he had no choice

but to order these men
to divorce their wives.

"You have committed treason
by marrying foreign women.

"You have added to the sin of Israel.

"But now, give thanks to Yahweh,
the God of your ancestors,

"and do his will
by separating from your foreign wives. "

MAN: Ezra's conception
of the Jewish people

was as a holy people...
'zera hakodesh', he called them.

And that was important to him

precisely because they lived not alone,
but among other peoples.

So it was very, very important
to create a kind of religious state,

um, apart from
the actual physical state.

The religious state would be
the Jewish people...

marrying their own kind and constituting,
therefore, the holy seed.

The divorcing of foreign wives,

with which some Jews bitterly disagreed,

was a sign of the challenges to come.

The Bible often spoke in metaphors,

and from the time
Ezra made it public,

people would argue fiercely
about its true meaning.

KUGEL: There are all kinds of societies
that have disagreements

and certainly
that is likely to be the case

with a group of people
returning from exile.

They all have their vision
of what society ought to be

once we get back there.

But precisely because
it happened among people

whose eyes were focused on the past,
who were in this mode of return,

meant that their disagreements
would quickly become

disagreements about the text
that talked about that past,

disagreements about scripture.

And this tradition, as it were,
of disagreeing about scripture

really became the kind of leitmotiv
of the entire post-exilic period.

One of the most important disagreements

was triggered by a book
that dared to challenge the message

put forth by the scribes
who edited the Bible.

The scribes' explanation
of Jewish history

was based on their belief
that God was fair

and he rewarded the good
and punished the evil.

But a new book,
written after the return,

argued that God
did not work that way at all.

(HAUNTlNG FLUTE MUSIC)

The hero of the book,
a wealthy and upright man named Job,

suffered a series of catastrophes.

Job's crops were destroyed by drought,

his flocks killed by disease

and all ten of his children died.

Then Job's own body
was racked by illness.

As he sat by the roadside
mourning the loss of all he held dear,

in sackcloth and ashes,

Job posed one
of life's great questions.

Why is it that bad people
often prosper

while good people often suffer?

"Why are the wicked allowed to live,
grow old and win prosperity?

"Yet they had said to God

'Away from us.
We do not want to know your ways. '

"I rescued poor men when they cried,
and orphans,

"people none would help.

"Desperate ruined men would bless me

"and I brought song
to the widow's heart.

"Yet horror has rode over me...

"and driven off my dignity
like wind.

"My wealth has vanished
like a cloud

"and now my life
is spilling out of me.

"I hoped for good, got only wrong.

"I hoped for light,
got only darkness.

"I go about in the sunless gloom. "

MAN: Job seems to be
reacting to the view

that there is basically
one powerful good god in the world

who can be counted on to reward
the righteous and punish the wicked.

This is the central idea
of most of the biblical books

and certainly
of all the biblical histories.

And Job is reacting against this by
saying simply that this is not the case.

This is just not reality
as we know it.

Reality doesn't bear out the thesis

that God consistently rewards
the righteous and punishes the wicked.

Job did not expect to receive
his reward for being a good man

after he died.

Into the 4th century BC,

Judeans viewed the Bible
as a book about their past,

not their future,

and few believed in an afterlife.

"Even a tree has hope.

"If you cut it, it sprouts again.

"But man, when he wearies and dies,

"when a human gives out,

"where is he, then?

"Water vanishes from a lake.

"Rivers dry up, parched.

"And man lies down
and does not rise. "

The philosophy of Job would become
a critical challenge to Judaism.

If there was no reward
for being good,

no punishment for being bad,

then why bother obeying God's laws?

It was a question that would prove
even more difficult for Jews to answer

when the chance arose to embrace
an entirely new and exciting way of life.

In the 4th century BC,

a remarkable people
invaded the Middle East.

They were the Greeks.

Led by one of the greatest generals
in history,

Alexander the Great,

the Greeks would conquer the world
from Greece to lndia.

But there was far more to the Greeks
than military prowess.

The Greeks had created
the most sophisticated civilisation

the world had ever seen.

Their magnificent art was inspired
by a reverence for the human body,

which also found its expression
in the athletic feats on display

in their Olympic Games.

But the Greeks
also revered the mind.

And their greatest thinkers
were responsible

for the flowering of philosophy,
science and mathematics.

As a result, Hellenic architecture,
politics and economics

were centuries ahead
of the other peoples of the world.

For the Jews, the takeover of most
of the known world by the Greeks

was a threat more dire
than any a mere army could pose.

MAN: When the Greek world
expanded ever eastward,

ultimately the Jews
of the land of Israel

found themselves almost literally

smack in the middle
of the Hellenistic Empire.

We were surrounded
by Hellenistic culture

and, willy-nilly,
we found ourselves becoming Hellenists.

This triggered both a great advance
and a great struggle

within the Jewish people

for how we would identify.

Would we simply succumb
to Hellenism?

Or would we somehow maintain
our unique identity as a people?

The Greeks brought
brilliant innovations to Judea

that would completely transform
daily life.

For thousands of years,
the people of the Middle East

had survived through barter.

But the Greeks encouraged
the widespread use of money.

Suddenly,
merchants throughout the region

could sell their goods
to anyone, anywhere.

MAN: Economically,
the world was now open.

People started leaving their villages,
leaving their towns.

For the first time in world history,
we find large numbers of people

moving more than 20 or 30 miles
from their village.

And Jews were no different
from others.

This, I think, was the great innovation
of the Hellenistic world...

mass movement.

Greek culture offered Jews
exciting new opportunities.

The many farmers
who produced olive oil

could now sell their oil
in cities from Alexandria to Athens.

As this trade flourished,

Jewish communities were established
in cities throughout the Greek Empire...

and new Greek cities
were built in Judea.

But as the Greek influence
in Jewish life grew,

more and more Jews worried

that their own culture
was about to be crushed.

MAN: We can understand how
the ancient Jews regarded Hellenism

simply by reminding ourselves

how traditional societies
around the world

have regarded
the coming of American culture...

movies, Western styles of dress,
Western technology.

In our own times, we have seen

how violently
the more traditional elements

of Islam and Judaism
and Christianity

have regarded the materialistic,
secular culture of the Western world.

As this remarkable new culture

swept from its cradle in Greece
across the Middle East,

devout Jews faced
a monumental challenge.

How could Judaism,
with its focus simply on being good,

compete with the vibrant and exciting
way of life the Greeks had to offer?

(WIND WHlSTLES)

But then, Judaism underwent
a revolutionary transformation.

(Man talks in Hebrew)

It began with a teacher
who lived in the 2nd century BC,

named Ben Sira.

Ben Sira was deeply influenced
by the Greek philosophical tradition

of Socrates and Plato.

"Happy the man
who meditates on wisdom

"and reasons with good sense...

"who studies her ways in his heart
and ponders her secrets. "

GAFNI: One can almost
categorise Ben Sira

as being one of the first
Jewish philosophers,

that is to say, a lover of wisdom.

And much of the Book of Ben Sira

is devoted to this great respect
for wisdom, for learning wisdom,

for institutionalising wisdom
within an academy,

and this is something uniquely Greek.

Ben Sira's brilliant innovation

was to apply the Greek tradition
of study and debate to the Bible.

He believed that if his students
studied the Bible as a story,

they would learn more
about how to live from Moses

than from Socrates.

"FROM Moses,
he produced a generous man

"who found favour
in the eyes of all mankind.

"Beloved by God and man,
Moses of blessed memory.

"God allowed him to hear his voice,

"gave him the Commandments
face to face,

"the law of life and knowledge. "

KUGEL: Ben Sira looks at
the stories of Abraham and Moses

and for him,
they're not stories about the past.

Their lives embodied eternal lessons.
He really has the mentality of a sage.

But at the same time, he did something
that no previous sage had ever done.

He talked about scripture.

He regarded the Torah as nothing less
than the great book of divine wisdom.

And so his job as a sage,

in order to know as much
as a person can know about God's will,

wasn't what other sages had done
or had seen as their job-

namely, to look at the world
and draw lessons from it -

but to read the book.

It was a new approach to Judaism.

Ezra had given the people the Torah
to live by its laws.

But thanks to Ben Sira
and others like him,

Jews eager for an alternative
to Greek culture

began studying the lives
of the Bible's heroes,

searching for the divine wisdom
their stories revealed.

As this practice became
more and more widespread,

a new idea arose...

that the writers of the Bible
were divinely inspired

and, therefore,
everything in the Bible was true.

KUGEL: The idea
of divine inspiration of scripture

seems to have emerged actually
rather slowly and piecemeal.

There are many, many biblical prophets

who say what they say
in the name of God...

"God told me to say this
and here's what he said. "

But gradually, as time went on,

this notion of the divine
inspiration of scripture,

or the divine authorisation
of scripture,

came to be spread rather uniformly
to all parts of the Bible.

The Greeks might be the richest
and mightiest people in the world,

but devout Jews now had
a powerful weapon of their own...

a book they believed
was authored by God himself

that revealed
how he wanted them to live.

But exactly what God was revealing

in any particular passage
of the Bible

was often hard to figure out.

For now, many centuries
after it was written,

the Bible's meaning
was open to interpretation.

KUGEL: People like to think of the Jews
as the people of the book

but they were the people
of the interpretation of the book.

I guess there are
very few texts nowadays

that you could say
unambiguously just mean one thing.

But when it comes to a text
that was very old,

that, in some cases, used words
that were no longer understood

or used them in a way
that was quite different

from the way those words
are used nowadays,

people needed
on that most basic level

to be helped to understand
what the text meant.

(Man reads in Hebrew)

The uncertainty
over what the Bible was saying

gave its interpreters
tremendous freedom.

Soon, new beliefs were arising

that would shape
Judaism and Christianity

for the next two millennia.

(GENTLE RELlGlOUS SlNGlNG)

The most important new belief
was an answer to the great question

of why human beings should be good.

For in the 2nd century BC,
some Jews began to believe

that the dead would one day
be resurrected and judged,

with the good sent to heaven
and the evil, to hell.

Those who embraced this belief

pointed to the brief hints in the Bible
about an afterlife as proof.

KUGEL: At this point
in Jewish history,

I think people began to look
more and more to the afterlife

as a kind of place
of final reckoning.

It will be in the world to come
that these accounts will be settled.

And so they turned to scripture
in order to find support for this idea

and, of course,
support was not lacking.

(TRADITIONAL MIDDLE-EASTERN MUSIC)

The belief that the Bible
was inspired by God

also gave rise to great interest
in its prophecies about earthly events.

The most influential prophecy of all

was that a time of turmoil
was coming,

and during it,
God would stand by those

who, like the patriarchs of old,
stood by the covenant.

These new ways
of understanding the Bible

not only transformed Judaism,

they prepared it
for a war of survival.

After the death
of Alexander the Great,

a new Greek dynasty called the Seleucids
seized control of the Middle East.

The first of the Seleucid kings
were content to let Greek culture

gradually transform
their subjects into Greeks.

But in 185 BC,

a very unusual man
ascended to the Seleucid throne.

He was Antiochus lV

but he was known to his subjects
as Antiochus the Madman.

One of Antiochus' first decrees,
recorded in the book of Maccabees,

demanded that all his subjects

replace their ancestral traditions
with Greek ones.

"The king issued a proclamation
to his whole kingdom

"that all were to become
a single people,

"each renouncing
his particular customs. "

Many peoples of the region

had already adopted
the Greek way of life,

but not devout Jews.

Now they would be faced
with a choice...

give up their faith
or fight to defend it.

Antiochus relied at first

on a faction of Jews
who had embraced all things Greek.

To increase their influence,

he sold one such Jew
the most important job in Jerusalem...

high priest of the Temple.

"Jason usurped the high priesthood

"by giving Antiochus
a promise of 360 talents of silver.

"As soon as he was in power,

"Jason set about converting
his fellow countrymen

"to the Greek way of life. "

GAFNI: For a high priest
in Jerusalem in the 2nd century,

the question was quite simple-
do I jump on the Greek bandwagon or not?

Do I remain separate or do I throw
my lot in with a social process

that had taken over
all of the Middle East at this time?

We find high priests that were
willing to take that extra step

and to throw their lot in
with the lot of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

This would create a reaction,
a violent reaction,

because there were Jews
who considered this

to be nothing less than heresy.

(TRADITIONAL MIDDLE-EASTERN MUSIC)

Circumcision was the ultimate symbol
marking a man as a Jew.

But under the new high priest,

many Temple priests
began having cosmetic surgery

to disguise their circumcisions

so they could take part naked
in the Greek games.

"The Hellenising process
reached such a pitch

"that the priests ceased to show
any interest in the services of the altar.

"They would hurry to take part

"as soon as the signal was given
for the games. "

MAN: There were certain things
about Greek culture and civilisation

that were totally unacceptable
to the Jews.

Among these, of course, was the religious
concept of a multiplicity of gods.

You cannot possibly imagine such
a thing as being acceptable to Jews.

Also, there were
certain kinds of behaviour.

For example, the gymnasium,
with naked athletics.

But really, behind that
isn't so much the nakedness

as the virtual worship
of the human body.

These types of concepts,

theological
and, we might say, behavioural,

were just totally unacceptable
to most Jews.

According to the book of Maccabees,
the ultimate insult to the Jews

came when Antiochus ordered
that the heart and soul of Judaism,

the Temple in Jerusalem,

be transformed into a Greek temple.

"The King sent a man to compel the Jews
to profane the Temple in Jerusalem

"and dedicate it the Olympian Zeus.

"The Temple was filled with revelling
and debauchery by the pagans,

"who took their pleasure with prostitutes

"and had intercourse with women
in the sacred precincts. "

The uprising against Antiochus
began in the countryside,

for the king had ordered his men
to travel from village to village

with an idol of Zeus.

"The king's commissioners
came to the town of Modein

"to make them sacrifice.

"Many Israelites
gathered around them,

"but Mattathias and his sons
drew apart.

"The king's commissioners
then addressed Mattathias.

'You are a respected leader,
a great man in this town.

'Be the first to step forward
and obey the king's decree.

'You and your sons shall be
honoured with gold and silver

'and many presents. '

"Raising his voice,
Mattathias retorted

'Even if every nation living
in the king's dominion obeys him,

'I, my sons and my brothers

'will still follow
the covenant of our ancestors. '

"As he finished speaking,

"a Jew came forward
in the sight of all

"to offer sacrifice on the altar.

"When Mattathias saw this,
he was fired with zeal.

"He killed the king's commissioners
and tore down the altar.

"Then he fled with his sons
into the hills. "

Mattathias and his sons would soon
become known as the Maccabees.

Their uprising was proof

that the Jews' commitment
to the religion of the divine book

had become so strong
they would die to defend it.

MAN: The Maccabees went to war

to put an end
to the religious persecution,

to reclaim the Temple, to purify it.

In the history of the world, this is
the very first war that we know of

that people went to war
over religious freedom

or freedom of conscience.

It's the first time the state
tampered with a religious tradition

which resulted in the people saying

"No, we will go to fight,
we cannot tolerate this. "

That is the war of the Maccabees.

Many of the Maccabean rebels
hid in caves in the countryside

to avoid Antiochus' army.

Not only were they greatly outnumbered,

they faced the serious handicap

of having to fight
according to biblical law.

The Bible said it was illegal
to fight on the Sabbath day.

So when the Greeks tried to smoke out
a large group of rebels during Sabbath,

the rebels decided they would rather die
and seek their reward in the next life

than break God's law.

"They offered no opposition.
Not a stone was thrown.

"There was no barricading
of the hiding places.

"They only said
'Let us all die innocent.

'Let heaven and earth bear witness

'that you are massacring us
with no pretence of justice. '

"The attack was pressed home
on the Sabbath itself.

"And they were slaughtered
with their wives and children

"to the number of 1000 persons. "

GAFNI: This introduces
the issue of martyrdom

for the first time
in something of a systematic way.

We hear of Jews, for instance,
refusing to fight on the Sabbath

and they are martyred.

The Maccabean uprising, then,

not only became the classic example
of Jews fighting for their religion,

but it became the first classic example
of Jews willing to die for their religion.

But after the massacres,

the surviving rebels decided to reconsider
the matter of Sabbath observance.

And the uncertainty that existed
over the Bible's meaning

gave them the freedom they needed.

"They said to one another

'If we all do as our brothers have done
and refuse to fight,

'they will only destroy us
the sooner from the earth. '

"So then and there,
they came to this decision.

'If anyone attacks us
on the Sabbath day,

'we will resist them.

'We must not all be killed

'as our brothers were
in the hiding places. '

SCHIFFMAN: The Maccabees ruled,

and it seems to have been followed
by Jewish tradition forever after,

that in a defensive war,

one not only was permitted
to set aside Sabbath restrictions

but one was obligated to do so.

(DRAMATlC M USlC)

After the death of Mattathias,

his son Judah took over
the leadership of the rebels.

Judah was both a brilliant military
strategist and a charismatic leader

who used the stories of the Bible
to inspire his followers.

"First light found Judah
preparing for battle in the plain.

"Though his men lacked the armour
and swords they could have wished,

"Judah said to his men,
'Do not be afraid of their numbers

'and do not flinch at their attack.

'Remember how our ancestors
were delivered at the Red Sea

'when Pharaoh
was pursuing them in force. '

(SOLEMN MUSIC)

"The foreigners looked up

"and, seeing the Jews
advancing against them,

"came out of the camp
to join battle.

"Judah's men sounded the trumpet
and engaged them. "

(WEAPONS CLANG)

"The pagans were routed
and fled toward the plain

"and all the stragglers
fell by the sword. "

After a string of victories
over the Greeks,

Judah's men began to call him
Judah the Maccabee...

Judah the Hammer.

SCHIFFMAN: Judah Maccabee
is some kind of amazing giant figure

in our historical tradition.

Here you've got this man
who rises up

against the unbelievable power
of the Seleucid empire,

who fights battles
with massive armies

and who stands, on the one hand,
for Torah and tradition

but, on the other hand,
knows how to make deals with the Romans

and how to fight against
the Seleucids.

So we are speaking here
about someone

who must have been
literally a giant in his own time.

In 1 64 BC,
three years after the revolt began,

the Maccabees
finally conquered Jerusalem.

Their first official act

was to remove all Greek influence
from the Temple

and rededicate it
to their one true God.

"Maccabeus and his companions
restored the Temple and the city.

"They purified the sanctuary
and built a new altar.

"Then, striking fire from flints,

"they offered the first sacrifice
for two years...

"and burned incense
and lit the lamps. "

GAFNI: Judah Maccabee
will enter the city.

He will have to purify the Temple

because the Temple had gone through
a process of Hellenisation,

pagan rites had been introduced
into the Temple.

And Judah Maccabee would purify,
rededicate the Temple,

this, of course, leading to
the renowned festival of Hanukkah,

the dedication
of the Jewish Temple anew.

(SOLEM N M USlC)

For all of the portrayal of Hanukkah
as a triumphant moment of victory...

it was, unfortunately
for the Maccabees,

not where the story ended.

Antiochus' troops
soon counterattacked

and dealt the rebels a crushing blow
by killing Judah Maccabee.

"All Israel wept
and mourned him deeply.

"And for many days,
they repeated this dirge...

'What a downfall for the strong man...

'the man who kept Israel safe. '

There are two ways of looking at
this question of whether the Maccabees won

because the Seleucids came back
and kicked them out.

So apparently, this thing
that we celebrate on Hanukkah

is not really the final victory.

In the true story of the Maccabees,

it was not military might
that ultimately won the day

but politics and negotiations.

After Judah's death,

his brother Johnathan took over
leadership of the rebels.

By 1 52 BC, Jonathan had
1 0,000 soldiers under his command.

But instead of starting a new war,

Jonathan made a bargain
with one of two Greek generals

who were fighting for control
of the Seleucid empire.

There were two pretenders
to the Seleucid throne

competing for the rule of Syria.

Jonathan shrewdly threw his weight,
and his soldiers, behind the weaker,

getting in return an agreement

that he would be high priest and ruler
of the Jewish people.

Jonathan's bargain was successful.

Judea was independent for the first time
since the dynasty of King David.

The reign of the Maccabees
brought a sense of renewal to Judea.

Those Jews who looked to their divine book
to understand the world

drew particular encouragement.

For them, the Maccabees' victory
against overwhelming odds

was proof of the Bible's promise

that God would come to the aid

of those who were willing
to fight for their faith.

GAFNI: The meaning that was attached
to Hanukkah was obvious...

that if one is fighting a righteous war,

the few can defeat the many,

the righteous can defeat the wicked.

This becomes a mainstay, not only
in Jewish tradition, I would say,

but in Judeo-Christian tradition,

the idea that one ought to be willing
to die for one's belief, martyrdom,

and clearly the steadfastness,

I think the word
is almost 'zealotry'.

In fact, the Book of Maccabees
almost plays on this idea

that one should be zealous
for the law

and God comes to the aid
of those who are.

This conviction -

that the fate of the Jews depended
on defending God's laws at all costs-

would only grow in the years ahead.

And it would set the stage
for a true cataclysm

when another great empire
arrived in the Middle East...

the Romans.

(SOLEMN MUSIC)