When Judah Maccabee and the Hassidim entered Jerusalem, the Temple was an abomination. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle preserved by Moses Gaster in 1899, the altars the foreigners had built still stood. Judah tore them down, cleansed the sanctuary of every defilement, and constructed a new altar. They arranged the wood and placed the sacrificial flesh upon it. But the holy fire—the sacred flame that had burned since the time of Moses—was gone.
They called out to God in prayer. Fire burst forth from a stone upon the altar, igniting the wood and the offering. This miraculous flame remained with Israel until the time of the third captivity. On the 25th of Kislev, Judah and his people celebrated the rededication of the Temple for eight days with songs and praises. This, the chronicle tells us, is the origin of the festival of Hanukkah.
But peace did not last. The nations surrounding Judah—in Gilead, Ammon, and the coastal cities—launched attacks on every side. Timotheos, a powerful enemy commander, gathered a vast army and fortified cities against the Jews. Judah marched his forces across the Jordan, captured strongholds, and liberated besieged Jewish communities. At the fortified city of Kaspon, whose inhabitants cursed Judah and slandered his people, he called upon God: "At the sound of the trumpet You delivered Jericho by the hands of Your servant Joshua. Now deliver this city into our hands."
Judah took his shield in his left hand and his sword in his right, and for two days his forces did not cease their assault. They conquered the city and put the enemy to the sword. Timotheos fled and hid in a pit. His brothers were captured and beheaded. The spoils were carried to Jerusalem with psalms, praises, and thanksgivings—singing the songs of David, King of Israel, "to the Lord, whose mercy endures forever."