Chanukah Time Machine
Step into the Time Machine and zoom backwards to 175 BCE when Antiochus began to enforce Hellenistic culture on all peoples who came under his rule. Follow the events as they unfold and as time moves forwards to 141 BCE.

175 BCE	174 BCE	173 BCE	172 BCE	167 BCE	166 BCE	165 BCE	164 BCE	163 BCE	161 BCE

175 BCE - The rise of Antiochus IV
In 175 B.C.E Antiochus IV Epiphanes rose in power as ruler of the Seleucid empire. Antiochus was a ruthless leader and a man of great ambition who planned to expand his realm and impose Greek culture and religion as a unifying force on his empire. As the empire incorporated 'Palestine' the Jews fell under Antiochus' sphere of influence. Due to Antiochus' vanity and infamous instability, he was prone to extremes of cruelty and generosity. He was commonly known as "Epimanes", "the Mad One", a play on his more illustrious official name "Epiphanes", "the Divinely Manifest".

175-172 BCE - Introduction of pagan rituals
The appointment of the renegade Jason as High Priest laid the foundations for the introduction of pagan rituals into the lives of the Jews. A gymnasium which was established close to the Temple succeeded in luring Priests away from the sacrificial service. The gymnasium was a vehicle of licentiousness, a place where athletic exercises were performed naked. At such times Jewish youth took pains to disguise the "Covenant of Abraham". In order to qualify as honorary citizens of Antioch, Jews had to demonstrate a total acceptance of Greek ways and culture.

172 BCE - Beginning of persecution
The deposing of the more moderate Jason by the harsh Menelaus lead to the beginning of religious persecution for the Jewish people. This increased after Antiochus entered Jerusalem and plundered the Temple. When Antiochus re-entered the city two years later he attacked its people, massacring great numbers. The Syrian soldiers destroyed houses and walls which guarded the city, plundering, murdering and taking women and children captive. In their fury against the Temple, the Syrians made thirteen breaches in the wall encompassing the Temple court.

168 BCE - The "paganisation" of the Temple
In pursuit of his goals, Antiochus declared that all peoples had to relinquish their own way of life and conform to the dominant Greek culture and its practices. The sacrificial service in the Temple was to be replaced with the idol-worship of hogs and other unclean animals. The Holy Temple was consequently desecrated and converted into a pagan temple. On 15th Kislev, 168 B.C.E., an idol was placed on the Temple's altar, this was followed by the offering of a pig ten days later on the 25th of the month.

Observance of the Sabbath and festivals, dietary laws, the covenant of circumcision, the laws of family purity and the use of God's name were specifically prohibited. All copies of the Torah and holy writings were to be confiscated and burned, and anyone found to possess these was to be executed. To profess that one was a Jew was punishable by death.

Though most of the people complied with the king's barbaric order, many chose death rather than transgress the Torah's commandments. Women who had their sons circumcised were put to death with their infants tied to their necks. Certain figures were outstanding in their refusal to submit to Greek rule, among them Elazar, a leading sage of ninety, who refused to eat pork as part of the Greek sacrificial ritual, and Chana and her seven sons, who refused to reject the tenets of the Jewish faith even when in the face of painful brutality and torture.

In their defiance of the ruthless Hellenism of the Greeks these martyrs and others like them acted as a constant thorn in the Greek side and kept Judaism alive throughout this darkest period of Jewish history. However, it was not until the revolt of the Maccabees a few years later, that Jews as a group took up arms to free themselves from the spiritual and physical oppression.