On the thirteenth of Adar, 3599 (161 BCE), Yehuda the Maccabee’s troops defeated the army of Greek general Nicanor; Nicanor was killed and the remnants of his troops retreated. This day was celebrated as "the Day of Nicanor" for generations. Immediately thereafter, the Greeks sent Bacchides at the head of a large army. Yehuda, unable to mobilize a greater number of fighters, stood against him with a mere 800 soldiers. Yehuda was killed in this battle (3600/ 160 BCE). Bacchides conquered the entire Eretz Yisrael and awarded the position of High Priest to Alcimus, a Hellenist, who executed sixty of Israel’s elder sages. Yonatan, Yehuda’s brother, assumed command of the remaining Hasmonean fighters, who had fled and gone into hiding. Over time, the Hasmoneans regained their strength and managed to harass the Greeks, but they were unable to reconquer Jerusalem. Then, a threat arose against King Demetrius’ rule, and in order to maintain his power he made a pact with the Hasmoneans, giving them Jerusalem and autonomy. Yonatan took advantage of the struggle for power in the Seleucid dynasty and obtained additional concessions from Demetrius’s rival. Thus, in the year 3608 (152 BCE), the Hellenist administrators of the Holy Temple were deposed and Yonatan began serving as High Priest. Diodotus Tryphon, one of the Greek rulers who opposed Yonatan’s increasing power in Jerusalem, lured him into meeting for a friendly conference and then murdered him (3618/ 142 BCE). Shimon inherited his brother’s command and made a treaty with Tryphon’s rival, in exchange for a tax exemption for the Jews of Judea. While the Greek kings were preoccupied with internal battles, Shimon cleansed Eretz Yisrael of the vestiges of Greek influence, conquered the fortress of Accra (23 Iyar, 3619/ 141 BCE, a date later established as a holiday), as well as additional cities surrounding Judea, and fortified its political independence. When Antiochus VII Sidetes defeated his enemies and no longer needed Shimon’s aid, he instigated a conspiracy against him, and indeed, Shimon’s son-in-law Ptolemy murdered Shimon, along with two of his sons (3625/ 135 BCE). With Antiochus’s help, Ptolemy tried to take control of Judea, but Yoĥanan Hyrcanus, Shimon’s faithful son, fought him. Then, Antiochus came to assist the murderous Ptolemy, pillaging Judea and bringing Jerusalem under heavy siege. However, Antiochus was forced to retreat because of revolts that sprang up against him elsewhere. He accepted Yoĥanan’s peace proposal, which stated that the Jews would pay a heavy tax to the Greeks in exchange for partial autonomy. Yoĥanan was appointed High Priest and nasi. Shortly thereafter, Antiochus’ army was crushed by the Parthians and Antiochus himself was killed. At this time, Yoĥanan began conquering additional territory in Eretz Yisrael, in order to expand Jewish settlement at the expense of the gentiles and to cleanse the land of idolatry. These conquests brought the Jews wealth and economic prosperity. Yoĥanan ruled Judea for 31 years (3625-3656/ 135-104 BCE), acting righteously most of his lifetime and strengthening the Sanhedrin. At the end of his life, however, he joined the Sadducees.↩︎