Who Was Judah Maccabee Anyway?

by Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf. Close your eyes and picture Arnold Schwartzenegger: His Uzi has just jammed, he's got one arm in a sling, he's about to take on 300 bad guys all at once - and he's wearing a yarmulka. That's who Judah Maccabee was! Two thousand years ago, one family led by one man stood between the mighty Greek army and the conquest of the Jewish people. The family was the Hasmoneans, and the man was Judah Maccabee.