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You can almost taste the victory. The adrenaline is pumping, the spoils of war are right there for the taking. But hold on. Judas, ever the astute leader, brings everyone back to e...
That’s the feeling that practically leaps off the page as we look at this short passage from the First Book of Maccabees. The scene: The Maccabees, led by the indomitable Judas Mac...
Our scene opens with a figure named, well, he’s not named in the text. But he's in a tight spot. He's just heard some pretty bad news. He’s "confounded and discouraged," as the tex...
They were a small band of Jewish fighters up against the vast and powerful Seleucid Empire. And in the midst of that struggle, they turned to prayer. What did they pray for? to the...
That’s what faced Judah Maccabee and his followers as they finally reached the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Let’s set the scene. The year is roughly 164 BCE. After...
That’s the feeling that pulses through the First Book of Maccabees as Judas Maccabeus sets about reclaiming the desecrated Temple in Jerusalem. The story is a raw, visceral account...
The Temple in Jerusalem, once defiled, was now back in Jewish hands. But it was in ruins. Imagine the scene: broken stones, desecrated spaces, a palpable sense of loss hanging in t...
Let’s peek into a moment of incredible renewal – the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after it had been defiled. We find this story not in the Hebrew Bible as we know it, bu...
That’s the kind of energy we’re diving into today, straight from the heart of the Maccabean story. Our scene comes from the Book of Maccabees I, chapter 4. The Maccabees, a small b...
