Vayechi: What?! Criticize the Maccabees?!

Chanukah is now more than a week behind us, so I figure that I can share with you some of the sequels of the Chanukah story. Sorry to say that even though we have all recently glorified the martial, spiritual, and political successes of the Chashmonaim, or Hasmonaeans, all did not go very well in the long run.

I do not intend to depress you, but just as the heroism of Yehuda the Maccabee and his brothers inspires us in many ways, and rightfully so, there is much about their behavior post-victory that is disappointing, to say the least. My goal is to help us all learn some lessons about failed leadership that we must learn as a nation, especially at this moment in our complex and tortuous history. The largely untold “rest of the story” of the Hasmonaean dynasty deserves to be better known by us all, but especially by those whom we choose to lead us into a better future.

Furthermore, I hope to demonstrate that this week’s Torah portion, Vayechi (Genesis 47:28-50:26), provides me with a basis to insist that several persons in the parsha play a major role in the ever-unfolding drama of Jewish history, down to this very day.

To accomplish this, I will call upon my second most favorite commentary on Chumash, after Rashi, and that is Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman or Nachmanides (born 1194, Girona, Spain/died 1270, Akko, Israel and buried in Jerusalem.)

I will refer to three passages in his commentary, two in Sefer Bereshit, the first in Parshat Vayishlach, where, just a few weeks ago, we read of Yakov’s encounter with his estranged brother Esav, and the second in this week’s Parshat Vayechi, where we study Yakov’s final blessings to his sons, particularly to Yehuda. I will conclude with reference to his commentary on Sefer Vayikra, Parshat Bechukotai.

First, let us recall the captivating narrative of Yaakov meeting Esav head on. Yaakov is deathly afraid and resorts to a triad of strategies: prayer, gifts, and battle. With prayer, he hopes to enlist Almighty’s assistance; with gifts, he hopes to soften Esav’s hostility; and with battle plans, he hopes either to escape Esav’s claws or, better still, to defeat him.

Now Ramban convincingly argues throughout his many works that the stories of Tanach are “precursors” for the rest of Jewish history. “The activities of our forebears are indicators for their descendants.” Thus, the narrative of Yaakov vs. Esav is a prelude to every encounter between the Jewish nation and the nations of Esav. Esav is Edom, the Torah tells us, and Edom is identified by our sages as Rome, in all its transformations from the Caesars down the many generations of conflict between Judaism and Christianity.

Thus, writes Ramban, we are to face Rome as Yaakov faced Esav, with prayer for divine assistance, with battle through debate and resistance; but, he insists, not by appeasement and trying to win Rome over to our side with “gifts.” Ramban, based upon much earlier rabbinic sources, finds fault with our patriarch Yaakov for not avoiding Esav entirely, which was quite possible given the geography of Yaakov’s destination, Hebron, and Esav’s territory in what is today’s southwestern Jordan.

Ramban, out of respect for our ancestor Yaakov, reserves his ire for… Yehuda HaMaccabi, the major hero of the Chanukah story. He too faced a bitter enemy, the Esav of his time and place, and he prayed and certainly waged war. For that, he deserves great praise. But he also attempted the strategy of “gifts.” Quoting from the Book of the Maccabees, Ramban demonstrates that after vanquishing the Greeks, Yehuda sent two delegates on a mission to Rome to form an alliance with this new power on the world’s geopolitical scene. Yehuda. the brave and charismatic leader of the Jews of his time, turned to Rome for its support, a move which led to Rome’s eventual occupation of the Land of Israel and, ultimately and tragically, to the destruction of the Second Temple and the exile of the people of Israel from our land, an exile which largely persists to this very day.

Let us proceed to this week’s parsha. There, throughout chapter 49, Yaakov delivers his blessings to his sons. Ramban sees Yaakov’s words as his last will and testament, as his instructions to his sons and their descendants down all the generations. Look at verse 10: “The staff of authority shall not be removed from Yehuda, nor shall the rod of leadership be taken from him, until the Messiah arrives, with the assembly of nations” (my translation, following Rashi).

Ramban understands this verse to be Yaakov’s last will and testament, instructing his descendants until the “end of time.” Royalty, kingship, majesty, governance—all belong to Yehuda and his descendants from King David until the arrival of the Messiah, himself a descendant of David.

Here, Ramban is eloquent and forceful: The sons of Matisyahu, Yehuda HaMaccabi and his brothers, were priests, descendants not of Yehuda son of Yaakov but of Levi son of Yaakov. Their role was the Temple service and its broader spiritual mission. In a moment of desperation with Jewish lives and Jewish tradition at stake, they could wage war, and they did so with great persuasion, with religious zeal, with guerilla tactics. We celebrate their efforts. But when the battle achieved its mission, they had no right to remain the kings and rulers of the Jewish people for well over two hundred years. The tools of royalty, the throne itself, were reserved for the tribe of Yehuda. The Hasmonaeans usurped the kingdom, invited Rome into the Holy Land, corrupted the very institution of kingship, and eventually brought about religious catastrophe, mass casualty, bondage into slavery, and the Diaspora experience which endures.

Strong words indeed. I refer to even stronger words which Ramban reserves for Sefer Vayikra, Parshat Bechokutai, chapter 26:16. It is there that Ramban argues at length and with great conviction that whereas the dark predictions of the passages in Bechukotai refer to the first exile, subsequent to the destruction of the First Temple, the even darker passages in Parshat Ki Tavo allude to the second exile, which both Ramban’s generation and succeeding generations have experienced.  

He accuses the Hasmonaean kings, who proved to be so incompetent, of a failed leadership so disastrous that we suffer its consequences to this very day. 

I hope to dedicate the next many weekly parsha columns to happier themes, but I am tempted to return to Ramban’s so very cogent and apt analysis in my Person in the Parsha column for Parshat Bechukotai, now many months away, with the help of the Ribbono shel Olam.