Hasideans?

[Ephraim Ben Noach]

Anyone have any info on this group?

[muman613]

This is the group of Jews to which Judah Maccabee belonged to.. From the 'Book of Maccabees' which is not a part of our Tanach, yet it is still considered historical...

http://www.shechem.org/torah/macabim/2.html

"Those of the Jews who are called Hasideans, whose leader is Judas Maccabeus, are keeping up war and stirring up sedition, and will not let the kingdom attain tranquillity.


[7] Therefore I have laid aside my ancestral glory -- I mean the high priesthood -- and have now come here,
[8] first because I am genuinely concerned for the interests of the king, and second because I have regard also for my fellow citizens. For through the folly of those whom I have mentioned our whole nation is now in no small misfortune.
[9] Since you are acquainted, O king, with the details of this matter, deign to take thought for our country and our hard-pressed nation with the gracious kindness which you show to all.
[10] For as long as Judas lives, it is impossible for the government to find peace."


[40] And each said to his neighbor: "If we all do as our brethren have done and refuse to fight with the Gentiles for our lives and for our ordinances, they will quickly destroy us from the earth."
[41] So they made this decision that day: "Let us fight against every man who comes to attack us on the sabbath day; let us not all die as our brethren died in their hiding places."
[42]
Then there united with them a company of Hasideans, mighty warriors of Israel, every one who offered himself willingly for the law.


[43] And all who became fugitives to escape their troubles joined them and reinforced them.
[44] They organized an army, and struck down sinners in their anger and lawless men in their wrath; the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety.

[Zelhar]

Don't you mean the Hassidim of today ?

[Ephraim Ben Noach]

Don't you mean the Hassidim of today ?

No, the ones Muman brought up. I came across the name, but their was not a lot of info.

[muman613]

I also found the following mention of the Hasidean's in this PDF from yeshiva university.

http://www.yutorah.org/togo/chanuka/articles/chanuka_to-go_-_5772_dr_feldman.pdf

Hasidim (Hasideans)

Tcherikover30 argues that resistance to Hellenization had developed in Jerusalem, led by the Hasidim, who drove Jason out of the city and tried to restore the status quo that prevailed under Onias III. They were not, however, a separate organized group. This revolt caused Antiochus to sack Jerusalem on his way back from Egypt. Indeed, the Hasidim were the strongest defenders of the Jewish religious tradition. They were apparently the chief scribes and authoritative interpreters of the commandments of the Torah, but the identification of the Pharisees as heirs of the Hasidim is unfounded. According to 1 Maccabees 2:42, at the beginning of the revolt by Mattathias, a company of Hasidim joined Mattathias. They were an exceedingly forceful group, each one offering himself willingly in defense of the Law. Only after more than a thousand persons were burned to death in a cave because they did not wish to resist Antiochus, did the Hasidim see the folly of their policy and join the rebellion; but as soon as the Jews received religious freedom, the Hasidim withdrew from the Hasmoneans and refused to participate in the struggle for political independence. The fact that the Hasidim withdrew from the Maccabean fighters and regarded the struggle as a religious one only constitutes a fundamental split in the Jewish response to Hellenism and to the struggle for political independence, comparable to the attitude of Neturei Carta in Jerusalem in modern times.
                                                           
30 Tcherikover (op. cit.) 186-203. Cf. Philip Davies, "Hasidim in the Maccabean Period," Journal of Jewish Studies 28 (1977) 127-140, who argues that the Hasidim were not a separate sect but rather all Jews who were concerned to preserve their law and traditions in the face of Hellenism.

[Ephraim Ben Noach]

I don't know anything about this site, but I found this interesting.

http://cojs.org/cojswiki/The_War_Scroll,_the_Hasidim,_and_the_Maccabean_Conflict,_Russel_Gmirkin.

If anyone was interested in reading this... You have to add a period to the end of the url, the link will not pick it up.