THE HAPPY STORY OF HANUKKAH

For children of all ages.


A long time ago in a place called Judea there lived many people, some followed Jewish law and tradition and some followed Greek law and tradition. Some of the Jews, mostly the rich ones, wanted to be more like the Greeks. And some other Jews wanted to stick to the way things were under Jewish tradition.
When a man named Antiochus became ruler of the the area, the Jewish High Priest was a man named Onias III. Antiochus treated Onias as just a man who paid money to have his special job. One day, Onias’ brother Jason, gives Antiochus a lot of money so he can become High Priest instead of his brother. And when Jason gets the job he changes some of the rules and makes a lot of money until another guy named Menelaus comes along and he gives Antiochus a lot of money and he becomes High Priest in place of Jason. Menelaus wants to keep his new job so he kills Onias. Then Menelaus' brother Lysimachus steals holy vessels from the Jewish Temple, causing riots and Lysimachus’ is killed by the rioters. Menelaus is arrested but pays a lot of money to get out of trouble. Jason (remember Jason?) gets rid of Menelaus and becomes High Priest again. Antiochus gets really mad because he doesn’t like all the confusion and not being in charge of everything and everyone, so he destroys the Temple, and tells the Jews that they can’t be Jews anymore and that they have to change the way they live. From now on they will have to eat the meat of pigs (like everyone else does) and they have to stop cutting the skin off the top of the penises on their boy babies. A lot of the Jews refuse to eat pig and they are killed. And others who keep cutting the skin off penises are killed too. Pretty soon, things get out of hand. Another Jewish priest named Mattathias, decides to fight against Antiochus and he rounds up a lot of other Jews and forms an army. Mattathias kills a Jew who doesn’t agree with him and then has to to go into hiding for a long time and he finally dies and his son Judas Maccabee takes over the army of Jews and goes into battle and beats Antiochus’ army. Maccabees is the word used to describe the fighters in the Jewish army and it comes from the Hebrew word for "hammer".The Maccabees win many battles and one day they enter Jerusalem and clean up the Temple, and bring back the old ways of Jewish worship there and make Jonathan Maccabee the new high priest.
The Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrates the cleansing of the Temple following Judah Maccabee's victory and the story of how a small jug of oil that was only enough to keep the Menorah lit for one day miraculously lasted for eight days—and that miracle showed that God was looking out for the Jews.
After they won the war and got their temple back, the supporters of the Maccabees fought with each other a lot. Some wanted to go home and live peacefully, and others wanted to keep fighting wars. Those who wanted more war were led by Judah Maccabee. But he died and his brother Jonathan took his place. But then Jonathan was killed by a guy named Diodotus Tryphon, who wanted to be the ruler, but then he died and was replaced by Simon Maccabee, the last remaining son of Mattathias. But then Simon was murdered by his son-in-law Ptolemy, and the new high priest and king was his son John Hyrcanus I. Eventually, a Roman general named Pompey came to the area and took over everything…and another Jewish guy named Herod became king of Israel and king of the Jews. And all the problems started all over again.