EncoreOn this page, we present essays profound or timely culled from the CLAL literary archive. Most of the articles that appear here appeared originally in the pages of Sh'ma A Journal of Jewish Responsibility, which was founded by Eugene Borowitz in 1970 and published by CLAL from 1994-1998. For further information regarding Sh'ma today, click here.
(from Sh'ma 14/263, December 9, 1983) The Chilling Fate of the Maccabees
By George Silver
The
Israelis seem to be in the process of repeating an unfortunate scenario more than 2000
years old. This is not to say that they are uniquely responsible for this unhappy sequence
of events; it is said only to underline the apparent pitiless nature of history and the
fate of the Jewish people. When the
Second Jewish Commonwealth was established following a revolt against the Syrian Empire in
168 BCE, the newly independent nation was plagued with religious dissension and conflict
within, and was in constant battle against enemies from without. A tragic series of
events, turmoil, intrigue and fratricidal strife marked the 130 years of the nation's
existence. Eventually, the period ended with loss of independence and the
"Commonwealth" became a vassal state of Rome. To review
the history briefly, one must pass over most of the complications of royal successions and
fleeting alliances that marked the period following the death of Alexander the Great and
the breakup of his empire. In the second century before Christ, the Middle East -- in our
terminology -- was in very much the same kind of turmoil as at present. Alexander's
successors were at each other's throats, intriguing and plotting among themselves and with
the various petty kings and princelings that made up their empires. Syria -- extending
over a larger area than today's country of that name -- was far more beset by internal
struggles and divisions than the other great Alexandrian successor state, Egypt. Those
areas of that empire that we would today call Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Israel were
wracked by confused conflicts upsetting any efforts of the central government to
maintain peaceful order and resist the encroachments of Egyptian power. Generals plotted
against one another and against their ruler. Off in the distance, Rome, fresh from great
victories over the paramount power of the Mediterranean, Carthage, and in the process of
swallowing Greece, was mounting diplomatic offensives to establish its hegemony over the
entire world. Alliance With The Superpower of the Age
The Jews,
even as today, were in the middle of the crises and chaos. In 168 BC, under the
leadership of an elderly priest and his five sons -- "the Maccabees" -- the
Jews in Palestine began a revolt against their Syrian overlord in defense of their right
to practice their religion. In the beginning, the struggle was simply for the freedom to
enjoy their religion, not a political revolt at all. Eventually, however, after some
victories and some defeats, the Jews managed to obtain not only religious freedom, but
independence as well. National
independence was achieved rather more easily than freedom of religion, curiously enough.
Empires of that day permitted "independent" kingdoms to exist provided they
acknowledged the suzerainty of the imperial power. Then, Simon Maccabee, the surviving
brother, exploited the divisions between Syria and Eygpt by arranging a
"federation," a kind of alliance, with the rising power of Rome, which insulated
the country against the victorious Egyptian forces that had overrun the area. In short, the new Jewish nation allied itself with a distant power
and alienated itself from local powers, but really under the protection of neither. Simon
used the "alliance" to establish his title as king of this nation of Judea and
dubbed himself High Priest also, a title formerly held in hereditary fashion by another
clan altogether. The
children and grandchildren of the heroic Maccabees fell to quarreling among themselves and
engaged in secret diplomatic negotiations and pacts with one or another of the great
powers of the time, creating discord in the leadership and factionalism in the country.
Religious dissension was fostered in part by differences in strictness of interpretation
of religious law, but also by partisans of traditional priestly leadership as against
the "usurpers." The internal conflicts exacerbated the external threats and
incursions. In Search of Defensible Borders For
security reasons, and the fears were not irrational, the tiny Jewish state engaged in
almost constant wars of defense or reprisal. The hostility of the neighboring kings and
princelings was real, as they sought to eliminate the Jewish state in response to their
own expansionist designs, or on orders from their imperial masters. Forced by the
unyielding hostility of their neighbors and by foreign intrigue to be fighting almost
constantly, the Judeans attempted to carve out defensible borders by capturing and
occupying bordering parcels of their neighbors' territory. They also adopted a tactic of
the time, marrying into neighboring royal families, to consolidate advantageous
alliances, again as defensive measures. This involved more than usual diplomatic action,
since Jews insisted on conversion to their religion in such marriages. In the
end, Judea was destroyed as much from within as from without. One of the royal converts
became King and High Priest, by intrigue and assassination of the rightful heir, and
invited in the Roman legions to validate and protect his claim. That ended the
independence of the Jewish state. Total defeat and dispersion was still a century or so
off, but the Jewish state had lost its independence. Much of
the events echo into our time: great power rivalries bruising and polarizing client
states; the alliance of a Jewish state with a distant power; instability among the smaller
Middle Eastern states; jealous intrigues and tribal warfare; revanchism, irredentism and
chauvinism. The religious conflicts were more important then than now, although serious
enough now. The resentment against the usurpers of priestly power and prerogative is
absent, although perhaps vaguely reflected in the passionate resentment of the
"eastern" Jews in Israel against the domination of wealth, position and
politics by European Jews. Similar End For The Modern State?
The script is not too different. The similarities are striking, the augury chilling. The Israelis have not been allowed to build their country in peace. Increasingly, the country has been forced to seek "secure" borders and has become an occupying power. "Reasons of state" excuse all kinds of nefarious activity. The parallel may not be exact. In the second century before Christ, there had been no Holocaust to drive the Jews into Palestine to seek refuge; no dread memory of genocide to arm them against compromise. Yet, Moshe Dayan once boasted that the Israelis earned their military victories from Biblical study: historic battles brought up-to-date. One can only hope that history will not repeat the Commonwealth experience, the doomed efforts at control through territorial acquisition, alienation of neighboring states, alliances with distant empires, pawns to indifferent powers, toward a tragic end.
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