Sending an ask because you've asked nicely: I believe you've said once you have something of an obsession with the Hasmoneans. Care to elaborate on it? Do you know what caused you to take a special interest in them?
ahh!
i have a weird relationship with the Hasmoneans, i never know quite how to call it
as a kid there were two Jewish stories that stood out to me, the story of Hanukkah and the story of Honi the circle-drawer (see my pfp; Honi just doesn't come up as easily but i used to talk about him a lot here especially before i discovered jumblr).
at first the main reason i liked the story of Hanukkah was because of Hanukkah itself, i had a music teacher who taught us a lot of Hanukkah songs, including ones that are more little-known, and these just clicked on in a sense i cant really explain why they mostly just felt very hopeful and empowering in a sense.
then at some point i learned about the Hasmonean kingdom. and what i like to refer to as "Hasmonean politics": power dynamics, Prushim and Tzedukim, the great rebelion (yeah it technically was after the Hasmoneans time but a lot of the background that was behind it is based in the system that the Hasmoneans have set in place).
and at first i took it as a story (i kinda still do in a way). an extention to the story of Hanukkah. a sequel, if you will, the "how they lived after". and what i liked about this story is that it made sense. it wasnt like modern-day politics which i gave up on engaging with, with all elements that should be used together being treated as opposing. no, in my initial engagement with the Hasmoneans and the Hasmonean kingdom it was like everything is set in the right place, organized, theres a clear stance each "party" has (which of course, is mostly because summing up history in that way is easier, and applying this to present day is impossible as it's still going).
and the thing is, later on, i was able to connect those little things that made sense with the present day, making better sense of the present day as well. Hasmonean kings slowly turned more towards Greek-like names, which represents how in general Greek was a foreign emperial language with influence on local peoples. just like how these days, people in Israel combine English into Hebrew much more than i'd like (with the irony of me typing this out in English), as English is an "international language".
then theres the controversies. take the end of it all as an example. a group that wanted to fight, a group that wanted to "play it safe". you can see the logic behind each. then how we burnt our own supplies (according to tradition). how we're always and only defeated when we betray ourselves.
this were very simplified black-and-white terms i made back then. it also helped me cope with antizionism, because it was the perfect secular explanation to pur continued existant in the Aretz - we are the Hebrew who were forcefully removed from their homeland before, then returned and settled under the name of the kingdom of Hashmonai, and then were forced out once again. and it went with me, when my army service became no longer an option i could say "i'd make a better Hebrew than an Israeli" which of course is very different from the Hasmoneans it's its own thing but connecting all of these dots felt kinda comforting for me ig.
the bottom line is, the Hasmoneans are an evidence of Hebrew independence in Eretz Yisrael which can be viewd from a more secular perspective (then of course so was Judea in a sense, but Hashmonai always felt to me more similar to what Israel is today, in a weird sense).
there's so much more to it. i could talk about the mass conversion of the Edomeans, and how it demonstrates what can happen when a Jewish regime loses its way. i could talk about how the fall of Hashmonai (not really Hashmonai but forgive me for the simplification, im referring to the destruction of the second temple mostly) represents everything that Israel should be affraid of (in my humble opinion).
i could talk about social and economical classes. the higher and lower city in Jerusalem (these are probably not the right English names but thats the best i can do im affraid). the Cohanim, how there were probably viewed as "free eaters" by some (sounds kinda familiar, but also very different).
the problem with the way i view these things is that i view them in a very story-like way. which does make a lot of things i have to say inaccurate
but yeah tldr it developed as some sort of a weird coping mechanism ig
