c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Memo to Mel Gibson:

I hope your psychological counseling is going well following your anti-woman and anti-Semitic outbursts of last summer.

The word around Hollywood is that you want to do a film about the five Maccabee brothers and their followers. They were the Jewish freedom fighters of ancient Israel who defended their land and religion 2,174 years ago. Their story forms the basis for Hanukkah.

Judah Maccabee, a brilliant military strategist, led a successful three-year guerrilla campaign against the Greco-Syrian regime of Emperor Antiochus IV. Like many other ruthless rulers in history, Antiochus demanded a repressive uniformity from his conquered peoples. He especially imposed his imperial will upon the independent-minded Jews with royal edicts aimed at destroying Judaism by banning the study of Torah, ritual circumcision, the observance of the Sabbath and other rituals.

Mathathias, the father of the Maccabee band of brothers, began the armed struggle by killing some of Antiochus’ soldiers as well as a Jew who performed an obscene act of idolatry.

What happened next will be one of the big moments in your film: “And Mathathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying: `Every one that hath zeal for the Torah, and maintaineth the covenant, let him follow me.”’ (I Maccabees 2:27).

Victory came when Judah’s fighters recaptured Jerusalem and cleansed the Jewish Temple of the pagan objects and idolatrous statues _ including Zeus _ placed there by Antiochus. The Maccabees rededicated the Temple to the service of God, and that great moment in Jewish history is commemorated at this time of the year with the joyous holiday of Hanukkah (Hebrew for “Dedication”).

This year, the eight-day festival begins the evening of Dec. 15 and is marked each night by lighting candles in the menorah (candelabrum), the exchange of gifts, special prayers, food and songs.

Mel, Judah was your kind of guy, similar in some ways to the Scottish hero William Wallace whom you portrayed in “Braveheart.” In fact, Judah is the only non-American soldier honored with a statue at West Point.

The Hanukkah story is described in the two Books of the Maccabees that are part of the Catholic Bible, but are surprisingly absent from the Hebrew Scriptures.

It seems clear that Jesus celebrated Hanukkah. Hanukkah is specifically mentioned in John 10:22-23: “The feast of the Dedication was then taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter … ”

Remember the Maccabees’ struggle happened about 165 years before Jesus was born. Some Christian and Jewish scholars argue that without Judah’s successful campaign against Antiochus, Judaism might have been wiped out and with it the vibrant Jewish religious community into which Jesus was born.

Your movie might stress this fascinating equation: No Hanukkah _ No Christianity.

However, the Maccabee story is not unique. It has been repeated many times throughout history. A powerful “outside force” _ think King George III from your other film, “The Patriot,” _ unsuccessfully seeks to put down an insurrection conducted by vastly outnumbered rebels who intimately know the geography of their country and are supported by their own people. The war of attrition usually lasts several years _ three for the Maccabees, seven for the Americans _ until the large standing armies become weary, distracted or simply worn down.

If you produce a Maccabee film, be sure to include the fact that for nearly 700 years, the ancient rabbis remained uneasy celebrating a military victory. Perhaps that’s the reason the Maccabees are not in the Hebrew Bible; the rabbis emphasized spiritual holidays like Rosh Hashana (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) or Passover.

But the Jewish people hungered for a festival of freedom, a moment in history when the Jerusalem Temple was reclaimed and Judaism preserved. The people won the day and that is why Hanukkah is commemorated each year.

One final point: Hanukkah is not “the Jewish Christmas” even though both festivals are celebrated during the same month. Each holiday, each religious tradition stands on its own.

If you make the movie, I’m certain you will film it where the Hanukkah story took place: “on location” in Israel where you will have a chance to personally meet lots of Israeli Jews, the “modern Maccabees.”

KRE/JL END RUDIN

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

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