Does Chanuka have a happy ending? Tonight the thought occurred to me that it absolutely does not. Within a generation the Macabee successors were Hellenized complete with Greek names. John Hyrkanus was one. Alexander Yannai was another. They were corrupt, vicious, enemies of the Rabbis. Greek in every way. Very, quickly, they became the very sort of people the family founders had fought against.
All Judah and his band of brothers managed to do was delay the inevitable.
Sad that.
