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On the 25th day of the Hebrew month Kislev (November or December) Antiochus entered into the Holy Place of the Temple of G-d and set up the Abomination of Desolation. This abomination is the one spoken of by Daniel the prophet in Daniel 11.31…

“And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation.”

In Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book 12 chapter 7, we read that Antiochus stopped the daily sacrifices. It was at this time that he set up the Abomination of Desolation. Antiochus then had a statue erected of the Greek god Zeus (called Jupiter by the Romans), he had the face of Zeus removed and his own face put in its place. This is spoken of in Daniel 11.37…

“He shall regard neither the gods of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all.”

From the year 168 B.C.E. and on all the statues of Zeus was the head of Antiochus. After erecting the statue had a sow pig, the biggest, ugliest and fattest pig he could find sacrificed on the alter of G-d.

The Abomination mentioned of earlier was not the slaying of the pig, although that was terrible in the eyes of the Jews. It was not as bad as having an idol in the Holy Place of the Temple of G-d and having sacrifices offered to it, that would be an abomination to G-d and any pious Jews.

After pillaging the city he took about ten thousand captives with him. He forbade the Jews to worship G-d in the customs of their fathers. He forbade the circumcision of their children and if any child was found to be circumcised they would crucify the mothers and kill the child and hang it around the mothers neck while she hung upon the cross.

Many of the mothers would go mad before they died. They also would throw the circumcised children over cliffs to kill them as their mothers were made to watch and ten the mothers were killed.

They forbade the reading of the Scriptures. If anyone was found with a copy of the Scriptures they perished miserably. To those Jews that followed his decrees he treated well as was prophesied by Daniel in 11.32a…

“Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery;…”

The pious would not forsake the Holy Scriptures, as seen in the latter part of the above mentioned scripture…

“… but the people who know their G-d shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
Daniel 11.32b

But they had no desire to die either, so they came up with a game called dreidel The way they would deceive the Greeks and the impious Jews would be to appear as if they were gambling. The Greeks did not allow the scriptures to be read but they did very much promote gambling.

The pious Jews would gather in small groups and play the game of dreidel The Jews forbid gambling so they played the game for nuts so as not to offend G-d. When a Greek or an impious Jew was around they would play dreidel but when they would leave, the pious Jews would remove a hidden scroll of scripture and study as someone stood watch.

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