THE JEWISH CHANUKAH HOLIDAY AND CELEBRATION OF WHICH YOU MOST LIKELY NEVER HEARD…AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TODAY
THE JEWISH HANUKKAH HOLIDAY AND CELEBRATION OF WHICH YOU MOST LIKELY NEVER HEARD…AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TODAY
Nicanor (d. 161 BCE) was a Seleucid (Syrian–Greek) general active during the Maccabean Revolt. He is best known for leading Seleucid forces against the Hebrew rebels under Judas (Yehuda) Maccabee, and for his defeat and death at the Battle of Adasa.
The Battle of Adasa was fought during the Maccabean revolt on the 13th of the month Adar (late winter, equivalent to March), 161 BCE at Adasa (Hebrew: חדשה), near Beth-horon. It was a battle between the rebel Maccabees of Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) and the Seleucid Empire, whose army was led by Nicanor. The Maccabees won the battle after killing Nicanor early in the fighting. The battle came after a period of political maneuvering over several months where the peace deal established a year earlier by Lysias was tested by the new High Priest Alcimus, the new military governor Nicanor, and the Maccabee leader Judas Maccabeus.
The date of the battle in the Hebrew calendar, 13 Adar, was celebrated as Yom Nicanor (Day of Nicanor) to commemorate the victory.
The Hebrew community later commemorated this victory annually as Yom Nicanor (the Day of Nicanor) on 13 Adar. Over the centuries this Hebrew commemoration fell out of observance and the 13th of Adar became associated with the Jewish Fast of Esther; the older festival was effectively cancelled by the medieval period. NB: In the Book of Esther, Mordechai, for the first time in the TaNaK ,is called a "Jew.''
Primary Battles and Actions Involving Nicanor
1. 1. Caphar-Salama — skirmish / preliminary engagement
Sources (1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees) describe an encounter in which Nicanor led government troops to confront the Maccabees near a place called Caphar-Salama .The accounts differ in tone: 1 Maccabees portrays Nicanor as hostile and scheming to trap Judas; after a skirmish Judas forces prevailed and the Seleucid troops retired toward Jerusalem. 2 Maccabees offers a somewhat different narrative that records a period of negotiation and temporary cooperation that later broke down. Details such as troop strengths are not preserved.
2. 2. Battle of Adasa — decisive Jewish victory and death of Nicanor
Date & place: 13 Adar, 161 BCE (late winter, roughly March); near Adasa (near Beth-horon).
Narrative: According to 1 Maccabees 7:39–50 and 2 Maccabees 15:1–36, Nicanor took the field against Judas Maccabeus. In the fighting he was killed early in the battle, and the Seleucid army collapsed. The victorious Hebrews pursued the routed troops and carried Nicanor's severed head and right hand back to Jerusalem for public display — a humiliation described vividly in the sources. Josephus (Antiquities) preserves a condensed retelling of the same tradition.
3. Other possible actions
Some secondary accounts note Nicanor's earlier career as an elephant commander or involvement in wider Seleucid operations in Judea (e.g., the period around the Battle of Emmaus, 165 BCE), but the primary literary focus in the ancient Jewish sources is the Caphar-Salama encounter and the Battle of Adasa.
The books of Maccabees accuse Alcimus of arranging a slaughter of moderate Hasideans. Against this backdrop, Nicanor was appointed strategos (general / governor) of the region, likely ruling from the Acra. The Acra was a citadel in Jerusalem which the Maccabees controlled.
Nicanor had previously been a commander of Seleucid war elephants, and had taken part in the Battle of Emmaus four years earlier. On his way to assume the governorship, he apparently fought a skirmish with Maccabee forces under Simon Thassi (Simeon) at a place called Dessau or Caphar-dessau; Nicanor won and forced the Maccabees into retreat. As part of his governorship, Nicanor apparently attempted to negotiate with and even befriend Judas, according to 2 Maccabees. Judas was even given an official government role (diadokhos, "deputy" or "representative"), and would tentatively be involved in the administration and management of Judea.
A rivalry between Nicanor and Alcimus would undo this potential warming of relations. Alcimus, perhaps worried of being replaced or his authority undermined, complained to the authorities in Antioch. New orders from Demetrius at the behest of this rivalry forced Nicanor to move against Judas more aggressively. Judas realized something had changed, and laid low. Regardless of whether the original negotiations were sincere or not, the negotiations now broke down, and Nicanor made moves to have Judas arrested. Judas fled back to the countryside where his remaining army waited.
Nicanor left Jerusalem with a small force to track down Judas and the rebels. At Caphar-Salama, a skirmish was fought; the Seleucids suffered 500 casualties and retreated back to Jerusalem. Allegedly, Nicanor then blasphemed at the Second Temple; he threatened the priests there to help him find Judas, or else he would return and burn the Temple down. The truth of this matter may be unknown as well due to the hostility of the surviving sources to Nicanor; the priests at the Temple would presumably have been Alcimus's subordinates, although according to 2 Maccabees it had been Alcimus who forced Nicanor's hand in the first place. Whether Nicanor really did turn on his own allies in a self-destructive frenzy is unclear, but regardless, he gained the hatred of the rebels.
Nicanor rode out again and camped in the region of Beth-horon, northwest of Jerusalem, to meet up with Seleucid reinforcements traveling from Samaria. He likely had at least some heavy infantry with him. The rebels set their forces against him at Adasa. According to 2 Maccabees 15, Judas inspired his troops by relating to them a dream-vision he had experienced, wherein the Prophet Jeremiah presented a gold sword to him and said, "Take this holy sword, a gift from God, with which you will strike down your adversaries."
The battle appears to have been a direct frontal confrontation rather than an ambush or surprise attack; 1 Maccabees simply says that "armies met in battle", unlike phrasings suggesting surprise in earlier battles of the Revolt. Nicanor was killed very early in the battle, rattling the Seleucid force from the loss of its commander. Hellenistic commanders typically fought in the cavalry on the right wing and the force was comparatively small, so Nicanor would likely have been easy to find had Judas planned on attacking him directly.
The Seleucid troops retreated toward Gazara, the nearest Seleucid fortress to the west around 30 kilometers (19 mi) away. The Hebrew army followed in pursuit, and Hebrew partisans in the nearby towns harried their retreat, inflicting significant casualties on the fleeing government army.
Nicanor's body was desecrated after the battle. His head and right hand were cut off, originally a Persian punishment, and posted for display near Jerusalem. This was to raise the morale of the rebels as the first truly high-ranking officer slain by the Maccabees. Judas was also able to undertake negotiations with the Romans from a position of greater strength, and extracted a weak promise of potential Roman support in the future against Demetrius.
King Demetrius would suppress the rebellion of Timarchus in the eastern satrapies around early 160 BC, freeing up soldiers for other tasks such as suppressing the Judean unrest. Despite the victory at Adasa, in a year Judas Maccabeus would be defeated and killed at the Battle of Elasa.
Yom Nicanor (13 Adar) — origin and later fate
After the Battle of Adasa (161 BCE) the Hebrew community instituted an annual day of celebration on the 13th of Adar to mark Nicanor's defeat — known as Yom Nicanor. The event is explicitly attested in 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, and Josephus, and it also appears in rabbinic material (references in Megillat Ta'anit and Talmudic passages).
A Hebrew festival, Yom Nicanor (Day of Nicanor), was created to honor the victory at Adasa, the demise of the disliked Nicanor who had threatened to burn the Temple, and the triumphant return of Judas Maccabeus to Jerusalem after a period of Seleucid rule. The date it is held is 13 Adar, the day of the Battle of Adasa. The Day of Nicanor was included in a 1st century Jewish calendar of special days, Megillat Ta'anit. Later rabbinical writings, such as in the Ta'anit tractate of the Talmud, focus more on Nicanor's arrogance and threats backfiring on him, and omit mention of Judas Maccabeus. This may have been an attempt to counterbalance the Hasmonean aggrandizement of the book of 1 Maccabees and avoid hero-worship of Judas. In later writings of Rabbinical Judaism, Nicanor's Day is mentioned in Megillat Taanit. Nicanor's Day is also discussed in the Ta'anit tractate of the Talmud, although its depiction of Nicanor is rather brief: it describes Nicanor making boastful oaths, being slain in battle, and his thumbs and toes being hung at the gates of Jerusalem.
The importance of the Talmudic Jewish Sages of downplaying Judas Maccabee and his Hasmonean family helps us understand the myths surrounding the Hasmoneans. The Hasmonean's religion was Hebraism, based on the 5 books of Moses. They did not believe in Rabbinic Talmudic Judaism formulated while the Jews were in captivity, and later free, in Babylonia, soon to become part of Persia.
The Esther story is about Jews in Persia. The Hanukah story is about Hebrews in Judea. The differences between Hebraism and Judaism were not just academic and philosophical. It was bloody. The Hasmonean Hebrew king and High Priest was Alexander Janneaus. He was unliked by the Jews in Judea.
During the Jewish holiday Sukkot, Alexander Janneaus, while officiating as the High Priest at the Temple in Jerusalem, demonstrated his displeasure against the Jewish Rabbinic Talmudic Pharisees by refusing to perform the water libation ceremony properly: instead of pouring it on the altar, he poured it on his feet. The crowd responded with shock at his mockery and showed their displeasure by pelting him with etrogim (citrons).
They made the situation worse by insulting him. They called him a descendant of a captive woman and unsuitable to hold office and to sacrifice. Outraged, he killed six thousand people. Alexander also had wooden barriers built around the altar and the temple preventing people from going near him. Only the priests were permitted to enter. This incident during the Feast of Tabernacles was a major factor leading up to the Judean Civil War.
Yes, the Hanukah wars were started because of Hebrews killing Jews. The Hasmonean Hebrews did not like Jews becoming Hellenized, taking Greek names, and even putting sheep foreskins over their penises to hide their circumcisions when exercising and playing sports, with Greeks, all naked.
The Jews asked the Syrian-Greeks for help against the Hebrew Hasmonean Maccabees. As we read above, this turned into a bloody civil war. The Maccabees won. We get the Chanukah story. The Rabbinic Talmudic Jews, escaped with Greek Syrian help to the Island of Delos (where one can see the ruins of their synagogue) and to Hierapolis, {Modern Turkey} where one can see rows of Jewish Tombs in the city's Necropolis with Greek and Hebrew writings on them.
Jews lived in the ancient city of Hierapolis and formed a significant community. The presence of this community is confirmed by abundant funerary inscriptions found in the necropolis and other areas. These inscriptions indicate a community that was economically integrated into the city, with individuals making provisions for burial and, in some cases, donating to local craft guilds, while also maintaining their Jewish identity, as shown by the term "Ioudaios" (Jew) and the presence of the menorah symbol on some tombs.
Historical sources suggest a large Jewish community, with some estimates reaching as high as 50,000 by 62 BCE, following an initial settlement of 2,000 families sent by Antiochus the Great.
Funerary inscriptions: A substantial number of funerary inscriptions have been discovered, mostly from the northern necropolis. These inscriptions provide evidence of Jewish life in the city.
Jewish identity: Some inscriptions explicitly identify individuals as "Jewish" or "Judean" (Ioudaios) and contain warnings against burying others in their family tombs, as seen in the case of Aurelia Glyconida.
Economic integration: The inscriptions show that Jewish residents were integrated into the city's economy. For instance, one inscription from the Jewish Encyclopedia mentions an individual who donated money to the local purple-dyers and carpet-weavers guilds to decorate his tomb on specific Jewish feast days.
Menorah symbols: Menorah symbols have been found engraved on tombs, sarcophagi, and a column, which serves as a visual representation of the Jewish presence.
Social connections: One inscription details the relationship between a wealthy Jewish family and the local Roman elite. It mentions the "head of the synagogue" and a prominent Roman woman, Julia Severa, who supported the Jewish community, suggesting a successful integration and positive social connections between the groups.
The Jewish calendar's treatment of particular local commemorations changed over time. The corpus called Megillat Ta'anit listed many local days of joy (and forbade fasting/ mourning on them), but this corpus was later effectively nullified for many of those days (the Talmud and later Gaonic literature discuss this process). By the early medieval period the 13th of Adar became associated with the Fast of Esther and the obligations surrounding Purim. Scholarly work indicates that the establishment of the Fast of Esther on 13 Adar and the gradual nullification of older local festival observances (including Yom Nicanor) were completed by the early medieval/Geonic period (roughly 7th–9th centuries CE). In other words, while Yom Nicanor continued to be remembered in some sources into the Gaonic era, its status as a communal festival was effectively abandoned as the Purim/Esther cycle and its fast became standardized.
It should be noted that circa 60 BCE the Hasmonean Hebrews invited Rome to come to Judea to help them govern. The Romans never left and supplanted the Hebrews.
The Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Temple following Judas Maccabeus's victory over the Seleucids. According to rabbinic tradition, the victorious Maccabees could only find a small jug of oil that had remained pure and uncontaminated by virtue of a seal, and although it only contained enough oil to sustain the Menorah for one day, it miraculously lasted for eight days, by which time further oil had been procured.
During the era of the Hasmonean kingdom, Hanukkah was observed prominently; it acted as a "Hasmonean Independence Day" to commemorate the success of the revolt and the legitimacy of the Hasmonean rulers. Diaspora Jews celebrated it as well, fostering a sense of Jewish collective identity: it was a liberation day for all Jews, not merely Judean Jews. As a result, Hanukkah outlasted Hasmonean rule, although its importance receded as time passed. Hanukkah would gain new prominence in the 20th century and rekindle interest in its origins in the Maccabees.
The Jewish victory at the Battle of Adasa led to an annual festival as well, albeit one less prominent and remembered than Hanukkah. The defeat of Seleucid general Nicanor is celebrated on 13 Adar as Yom Nicanor.
The traumatic time period helped define the genre of the apocalypse and heightened Jewish apocalyptical . The portrayal of an evil tyrant like Antiochus IV attacking the holy city of Jerusalem in the Book of Daniel became a common theme during later Roman rule of Judea, and would contribute to Christian conceptions of the Antichrist.
The persecution of the Jews under Antiochus, and the Maccabees response, would influence and create new trends in Jewish strains of thought with regard to divine rewards and punishments. In earlier Jewish works, devotion to God and adherence to the law led to rewards and punishments in life: the observant would prosper, and disobedience would result in disaster. The persecution of Antiochus IV directly contradicted this teaching: for the first time, Jews were suffering precisely because they refused to violate Jewish law, and thus the most devout and observant Jews were the ones suffering the most. This resulted in literature suggesting that those who suffered in their earthly life would be rewarded afterward, such as the Book of Daniel describing a future resurrection of the dead, or 2 Maccabees describing in detail the martyrdom of a woman and her seven sons under Antiochus, but who would be rewarded after their deaths.
As a victory of the "few over the many", the revolt served as inspiration for future Jewish resistance movements, such as the Zealots. The most famous of these later revolts are the First Jewish–Roman War in 66–73 CE (also called the "Great Revolt") and the Bar Kochba revolt from 132 to 136 CE. After the failure of these revolts, Jewish interpretation of the Maccabean Revolt became more spiritual; it instead focused on stories of Hanukkah and God's miracle of the oil, rather than practical plans for an independent Jewish polity backed by armed might.
The Maccabees were also discussed less as time went on; they appear only rarely in the Mishnah, the writings of the Tannaim, after these Jewish defeats. Rabbinical displeasure with the later rule of the Hasmoneans after the revolt also contributed to this; even when stories were explicitly set during the Maccabean period, references to Judas by name were explicitly removed to avoid hero-worship of the Hasmonean line.
The books of Maccabees were downplayed and relegated in the Jewish tradition and not included in the Jewish Tanak (Hebrew Bible); it would be Christians who would produce more art and literature referencing the Maccabees during the medieval era, as the books of Maccabees were included in the Catholic and Orthodox Biblical canon.
Medieval Christians during the Carolingian era esteemed the Maccabees as early examples of chivalry and knighthood, and the Maccabees were invoked in the later Middle Ages as holy warriors to emulate during the Crusades . In the 14th century, Judas Maccabeus was included in the Nine Worthies, medieval exemplars of chivalry for knights to model their conduct on.
The Jewish downplaying of the Maccabees would be challenged centuries later in the 19th century and early 20th century, as Jewish writers and artists held up the Maccabees as examples of independence and victory. Proponents of Jewish nationalism of that era saw past events, such as the Maccabees, as a hopeful suggestion to what was possible, influencing the nascent Zionist movement. A British Zionist organization formed in 1896 is named the Order of Ancient Maccabeans, and the Jewish sporting organization Maccabi World Union names itself after them. The revolt is featured in plays of the playwrights Aharon Ashman, Ya'akov Cahan, and Moshe Shamir. Various organizations in the modern state of Israel name themselves after the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans or otherwise honor them.
UNDERSTANDING THIS IS WHY THE LOST HOLIDAY OF YOM NICANOR IS WORTHY OF OUR TIME TO BE STUDIED.
Primary ancient sources
• 1 Maccabees (chapter 7), which gives a narrative of the Caphar-Salama action and the Battle of Adasa.
• 2 Maccabees (chapter 15), which retells the events with slightly different emphases and moralizing detail.
• Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Book 12, ch. 10), which preserves the Maccabean tradition.
• Rabbinic references: Megillat Ta'anit and Talmudic discussion (see Taanit 18a and related passages) that mention the 13th of Adar as Yom Nicanor and later debates about commemorations and fasts.
Select modern studies & secondary literature
• Bezalel Bar Kokhba, Judas Maccabaeus: The Jewish Struggle Against the Seleucids (Cambridge).
• Daniel R. Schwartz, commentaries on 1–2 Maccabees.
• Scholarly summaries in reference works (encyclopedia entries, articles on the Maccabean revolt and on Megillat Ta'anit).
Short bibliography of webpages consulted (for this summary)
• Wikipedia — "Nicanor (Seleucid general)" and "Battle of Adasa"
• 1 Maccabees (Bible translations; e.g., NRSV / Catholic editions)
• TheTorah.com — articles on Yom Nicanor and on the Fast of Esther
• Steinsaltz/Daf on Taanit 18 (discussion of the Talmudic references to the day)
• Jewish press and blog pieces summarizing the shift from Yom Nicanor to the later Fast of Esther
By Rabbi Dr Arthur Segal, December 1. 2025,
Hilton Head Island, SC
