Rabbi Micah Streiffer

Let’s talk about the #Maccabees.…
I love #Chanukah as much as the next Jew, but I struggle with the Maccabees as a role models. If you look in the book of Maccabees (written by their own followers), it’s clear that they were zealots and they weren’t afraid to kill in order to try to stem what they perceived as some #Jews’ lack of commitment to #Jewish practice.

But if we look at that period in history, it’s not clear at all that those other Jews weren’t committed to Jewish practice. 1/