India and Israel Against Islamic Terror

CHAPTER 2
HISTORY OF ISRAEL 45
<; nagogues. Centered round Torah and the Mosaic law, strict

elieious discipline was observed. Torah, preserved orally for

enerations, was scripted and the Jews gladly responded with

romplete devotion. Generalities of Torah were subjected to great

details of interpretation, application and practice, leading to the

foundation of Talmud. Devoid of orthodoxy and practicable in

rea| life for later generations, the laws were humane. The useful

principles of civil laws, later modified in Mishnah were an

improvement over Biblical injunctions and religious practices

whereby Sabbath became a day of useful rest. Some of the laws

of Bible, such as prohibition on eating torn meat and washing

the baby in the mother’s milk, though based on sound principles

of health, became embroiled in religious dialectics. Elaborate

and difficult rituals regarding slaughter were evolved and

prevention of drinking and eating meat at the same table became

a taboo. Such narrow and stifling rituals set a reaction among

free thinkers and the scribes had a hard time getting their way.

The Allegory of Jonah of these times illustrates the points very

well.
The central theme throughout was that in a__special

relationship with His Chosen people Cod”wants the Jews to

preach J.he gospel and improve the lot of the heathens as well,

much beyond the boundaries of Palestine. Another example of

protest is the Book of Ruth. Ruth was born of alien tribes and

absorbed in the faith, and she begot heir to the throne of David

and the Temple, thus negating the concept of exclusiveness. In

Judaism, as in all religions, the dichotomy of revealed faith, a

rigid law with its stifling and uncompromising adherence to the

Book and the liberal, rational and inquiring religiosity of its

adherents bound only by universal values, has been a permanent

phenomenon The scribes adhered to the rituals and their own

interpretations of the laws of the Lord, while other inquiring and

liberal minds with equal attachment to their religion, fought for

more freedom and less exdusivism. Yet the scribes performed a

profound service to Judaism by giving coherence and a distinct

identity to their religion, the greatest gift after Torah, and the

Prophecy tor a Messiah that linked together Jews all over the

world.
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The Greeks
^ A.? ^’Judaism, that for a century after the building of the Temple

””*. consolidated itself under the Mosaic law and the rigidity of its

religious rites, now faced a great onslaught of values and new

gods after the conquest of Alexander and subsequent Hellenism.

Their very rigidity gave them firm roots and the people survived

the passing storm. From centuries of struggle for survival against

the Greeks and later the Romans, though influenced by both,

Judaism emerged distinct and militant even after the destruction

of their Temple and the state. And then the Syrians took over

the task of destroying Judaism. This was a time when the Book

of Daniel was written to reassure the Jews that Judaism will

survive all assaults as it had done in the past. And then came the

Greeks with their capital at Antioch in Syria, led by Antiqchus.

His main contribution was to exacerbate the feelings of the Jews

by imposing Greek culture and symbols on the people and

trying to transform Jerusalem into a Greek metropolis. Feared

and hated by the Hasidim, the Jewish reaction to his depredations

was prompt. His persecution began in 169 B.C with a ban on

the reading of Torah, a death sentence for a Jew observing the

Sabbath or circumcising his children and forcing them to

participate in pagan temple sacrifices and the abhorrent eating

of pig’s meat. He ordered the statue of Zeus to be established

in the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant reposed,

•’abon}jjTaIioji_vvhich makes desolation” (Daniel 9:27). This

continued persecution set the Jewish nation afire in the year

167 B.C., the spark being the sight of a Jew offering sacrifice on

a pagan altar. Matthias Hasmon from the village of Modein took

up the torch of rebellion and slew the Greek officer and the

obedient Jew. He organised a small band of dedicated followers

including his five sons and struck the first blow for freedom.

Living hardly for two years, the torch was passed to the ablest

of his five sons, Judas, nicknamed Maccabee, or the ”Hammerer”

so described for his military zeal. |udah continued the guerrilla

revolt with fanatic zeal against Antiochus, now preoccupied in

the east, and won four battles, crowning it all with a decisive

victory at Emmanu pass, the gateway to Jerusalem, the same site
CHAPTER 2
HISTORY OF ISRAEL 47
here earlier Joshua had defeated the Amonites. He again won
he battle of Mizpah. He with his brothers Jonathan and Simon,
allied the people against the Seleucids, and by 163 B.C. Judah,
Samaria and the Galilee,were re-conquered and Jerusalem cleared
Of all Creek forces with the Temple finally cleansed of all
abominations.
The struggle which began continued from the hills overlooking

Lydda and ended by the consecration of the Temple in Jerusalem

as the sacred candelabrum was lit. This was an epochal moment

of religious and political significance prominently etched in the

festival calendar of the Jews to be celebrated thereafter as

’Hanukkah’, the Feast of Dedication. The territorial expansion

of the Jewish state by the Hasmonean, dynasty which stretched’

from the sea coast to Transjordan led to the consolidation of

the new Jewish state by including Idumea, Samaria and Moab

in Transjordan. Later his son Alexander Jannacus (103-76 B.C.)

extended the Jewish kingdom to Gaza and Dor, equaling the

size of the Jewish state to that under King David. Jerusalem also

expanded five-fold and its population stood at 30,000. While

the territorial expansion provided a degree of military security,

the internal troubles and quarrels between Hellenizers and

Hasidim persisted and did not end even after the successes of

the Hasmonean leaders. A quarrel broke out between the

Pharisees, the orthodox and purists, and the Sadducees, calling

themselves the descendants of King David’s chief priest, Zadok,

all as a result of their differences in the theological interpretation

of the Torah. With the passage of time, the conflict reduced itself

to the opposition of Sadducees forming a pro-monarchy party

with Hellenic influence against the Pharisees, who called

themselves the teachers in Torah’s academies. The quarrel

between the two later took political colour after the death of

Judas Maccabeus in 161 B.C. His succession by his brother,

Jonathan, was followed by Simon, both claiming the title of high

priest. This internecine turmoil led to what was perceived at the

time as the usurpation of the royal title by John Hyrcanus in

135 B.C. Unsure of his Davidic lineage, and a king on purely

Political reasons, Hyrcanus, supported by the Hellenizers and
48 INDIA AND ISRAEL CHAPTER 2
opposed by the Pharisees, never won the confidence of his

subjects. His despotic tendency further infuriated the Pharisees,

as Israeli army was filled with the Creek mercenaries who owed

no loyalty to the Jewish land. The puritanical Essenes also took

offence to the tyrannical rule of the king, fled Jerusalem to the

caves of Qumran near the Dead Sea, praying and tasting for the

next two hundred years for the arrival of the Messiah until they

were destroyed by the Romans in 68 B.C. In his fanatic zeal

Alexander Jannacus who succeeded his father, Hyrcanus, while

quelling the six-year old rebellion of the Pharisees, ordered 800

Pharisees to be executed and the throats of their wives and

children slit open before their eyes. Merely 13 years after the

death of king Jannacus, the Hasmonean state came to an end,

the last ruler being Alexandra, the wife of Jannacus who ruled

for nine years (76-67 B.C.). Cursed by her two incompetent

sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II who fought a constant civil

war of succession, the land of Judea opened the gates of Jerusalem

to Roman forces in 63 B.C.
The Roman Invasions
History now meanders till we find the Romans come to power

with Palestine as an outer province where the emperor appointed

a pro-curator. Their policy towards Jewish religion was more

tolerant and the Sanhedrin, the supreme judicial body of the

Jews, was allowed to handle freely its domestic affairs and religious

practices. But the taxes continued and so did the practice of

leaving behind offensive Roman images. Some efforts at

Romanising the jews continued and later intensified by Pontious

Pilate, not realising the backlash of such measures on the Jewish’

religious mind, until a five-day siege by the priests and a general

uprising in the whole nation forced him to yield ground. His

diversion of Temple funds for secular use again infuriated the

masses, and his cruelties and stringencies of taxes turned even

the moderates into zealots, while public hangings created

vengeance. Driven to desperation, the procurators became more

barbarous. Slaughter, crucifixion of Jewish leaders, wholesale

razing of villages fanned further frenzy when every Jew stood up

to die mocking the Romans. The Romans were bewildered. Never
Q^PTER2 HISTORY OF ISRAEL
49
before had they seen such national and religious frenzy. National

rebellion broke out, ending only by the fall of Massada where

three thousand Roman cavalry rushed to avenge the slaughter of

Romans and protect the Roman fortresses. But they were disarmed

and driven out by a people now fully aroused. Even the Roman

soldiers in the fortresses were slaughtered to a man. The Pagan

was to be wiped out. All the country was afire with reprisals against

the rulers. A desperate people suddenly tasted revenge. Cestious

Gullus, realising the gravity of the situation, ordered a force of

twenty thousand cavalry and the same number of auxiliaries to

crush and subdue Jerusalem. The siege lasted six months but the

jews held on and ultimately won, killing six thousand soldiers with

Cestious retreating with haste and ignominy. There were no

moderates left now in Palestine and the state was cleared of Romans.
Nero now sent Titus, one of his ablest generals, with fifty

thousand men and immense war materials to finish the Jews

once and for ever. Titus set about his task meticulously and

gained successive victories till he came to the Holy City, the last

remaining bastion of the Jewish state, now crammed with a

million people with dissensions within. He used ballistas, slinging

one hundred and twenty five pounds shots into the city and

battering rams to force open the doors. We now take a few

steps back in history. During the times of Hyrcanus II, the

ethnarch of Judah, who w.as merely a titular head, the real

power lay in the hands of a half-Jewish, Rome appointed

Governor named Antipater. He was succeeded by his son, Herod,

the most controversial figure in Jewish history. He served his

Roman masters well, kept influential leaders in good humour

with lavish presents, and in real Graeco-Roman style constructed

gymnasia, pagan temples, amphitheaters, hyppodromes and

baths. A new deep water harbour at the site of old Straton’s

tower was constructed and renamed Caesarea to propitiate

Augustus. Herod also built massive fortresses to protect Judah

from all sides, including the north-western approach to the Temple

Mount, the last being named Antonia after Marc Antony, his

benefactor. The gifts and constructions needed money and Herod

enforced a strict system of tax collection leading to numerous
II
50 INDIA AND ISRAEL CHAPTER 2
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plots of unsuccessful rebellions. He kept his spies alert to report

on any sign of discontent. His important fortresses were Herodion

near Bethlehem and Massada a highly, emotive name in Jewish

history, overlooking the Dead Sea. A tyrant, a murderer, a

Hellenizer and an instrument of Roman repression against the

lews, he also introduced some pro-Jewish policies to gain

acceptance from the population at large. He seldom interfered

in Jewish ritual practices and to put a stamp on his Jewish origin

he married Mariamne, the grand-daughter of Hyrcanus II; though

eventually he had her killed. Antipater and his son Herod ruled

Judah from 40 B.C. onwards while Herod became the king in

37 B.C. and died in 4 B.C. after a reign of 33 years.
While on the one hand he insisted circumcision of any

prince marrying into the Herodian family, on the other he

encouraged scriptural study of the Pharisees, the scholars of

Torah. He won the support of the Sadducees by ordering the

reconstruction of Jerusalem’s Temple by the priests themselves

which starting in 20 BC was completed in 64 A.D., 68 years

after his death and only six years before its destruction in war.

Herod, the last great king of Judah described by some as strong

and statesman like, who brought prosperity, was never liked by

the hardcore of Zealots- for his half Jewish and half Idumean

breed. ”The blood of Edon flowed through his veins” goes a

saying. Hated by the Jews, he earned the dubious epitaph ”He

stole along to the throne like a fox, he ruled like a tiger and he

died like a dog”. With the ascenstorno the throne of his son

Archelous, with Roman blessing, the kingdom of the Jews came

to an end. As mentioned earlier the fortress of Massada was the

key to the capture of Jerusalem. It was here that a desperate

fight took place between the Jews and the Romans. The fortress

occupied by the Jews held out against all odds due to the

tenacity of the Jews who fought till the last man was slaughtered.

This episode is chronicled in the history of Jews in golden letters

and acts as an exhortation to the Jews to revenge past defeats.

Even now in every Jewth home a common prayer goes ”Massada

shall be avenged”. The battle for Jerusalem continued.
CHAPTER 2
HISTORY OF ISRAEL