The 13th of Adar wasn’t always the Fast of Esther.
For nearly a thousand years, this date was known on the Hebrew calendar as Yom Nikanor, commemorating a major Judean victory over the Seleucid-Greek Empire.
The story of Yom Nikanor provides us with deeper insights into the personality of Yehuda Maccabi, as well as the internal politics of both Jerusalem and Antioch at the time.
In Israel today, there’s a movement from below to revive Yom Nikanor as a festival on our calendar. At least on the night before the fast.
