On working out naked in Jason's Jerusaelm

CULTURAL CLASH: Jewish priests wrestling naked: How sports shook ancient Judean society. In Jerusalem before the Hasmonean Revolt, priests shocked their community by abandoning Temple duties to wrestle nude at the gymnasion; this vivid clash between Greek athleticism and Jewish tradition exposed deep cultural and religious fault lines (Shmuel Munitz, Ynet News).

“The gymnasion symbolized Jerusalem’s transformation into a Hellenistic city, with even priests engaging in a foreign culture,” said Dr. Haim Kaufman, an expert in Hebrew sports history who taught for years at the Levinsky-Wingate Academic Center. After Alexander the Great’s conquests, a wave of Hellenization swept through occupied territories, blending local and Greek cultures.

In the second century BCE, under the Seleucid Empire, founded by King Seleucus I, a Hellenized high priest named Jason (originally Yehoshua or Yeshua) spearheaded reforms, culminating in the establishment of a gymnasion in Jerusalem, infuriating traditional Jews.

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