D'var Torah - A Great Miracle was Where? By: Jamie Salter About this time of year many Israelis will be pulling off route 443 into the small gravel car park marked by an old brown sign with the words 'Graves of the Maccabees'. This pilgrimage to the site of the resting place of Judah and his brothers is important to those who seek some kind of physical confirmation of the prior presence of archetypal Jewish fighting warriors in this land. However, almost all are agreed today that the graves are not those of the Hasmonean dynasty; in fact, the best and only evidence that these are Maccabee graves is the sign placed by Israel's highway authorities only a few decades ago. So what clues do we have regarding the actual location of the Maccabee graves? The first book of Maccabees, chapter 13, tells us regarding Judah's brother: 27
Simon also built a monument upon the sepulcher of his father and his brethren, and raised it aloft to the sight, with hewn stone behind and before.
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Moreover he set up seven pyramids, one against another, for his father, and his mother, and his four brethren.
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And in these he made cunning devices, about which he set great pillars, and upon the pillars he made all their armor for a perpetual memory, and by the armor ships carved, that they might be seen of all that sail on the sea.
This sounds like an incredible monument, fitting of royalty, and one can understand the frustration in not being able to point definitively at the place where this Jewish dynasty is buried. (We have splendid tombs from close to this time period that do exist in other parts of the country to this day). Following the clues in the text, we could begin by looking at a place from where we can see the Mediterranean coastline. (This is one of the main reasons why the current supposed location has been ruled out). Josephus, who tells us that the tombs can be seen in his day, tells us only that that they can be seen from a great distance (not necessarily till the sea), but he confirms the tantalizing detail that they were constructed in the town of Modi'in itself – the home of the patriarch Mattityahu and where the revolt broke out. So now it seems we should be searching also for the remains of a town with an epic burial monument inside it. Along with other clues in the text we could spend many hours (and I have‌) searching the various hills and sites that are candidates for the hometown of the Hasmonean family. Interestingly in Masechet Hagiga (3:5) we learn that 'from Modi'in inwards ('inland') we trust their pottery (their kashrut?), whereas from Modi'in outwards we do not'. This clue seems to indicate the geographical links between Modi'in and the center of Jewish life in Jerusalem – that in some ways they were considered the same district under the same 'rabbinical kashrut authority'. Until we find better evidence of the actual location of the cradle of the Chanukah story it is sometimes said that it is a shame to ruin a good story with the facts. This statement is an educational challenge to the entire Chanukah story/myth, and perhaps is good advice to those who are clamoring for the removal of the reassuring sign off route 443!