Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D
This year, Hanukah begins on Wednesday night, Dec. 25, 2024.
The history behind Hanukah is, briefly, this: In the second
cent. BCE, Antiochus IV, the Syrian king, set out to conquer Egypt. While he
was fighting there, Jason, who was deposed from his position as the Jewish High
Priest , left the Ammonites with whom he had taken refuge, and
attacked Menelaus, in Jerusalem, in order to regain the High
Priesthood. A civil war broke out between the two, and Jason successfully
entered Jerusalem. King Antiochus was furious. On his way back from Egypt, the
king attacked Jerusalem, imposed restrictions on Judea, and eventually
desecrated the Temple. In reaction, a priest by the name of Mattathias, and his
sons (called the Maccabees), fought against the Syrians, and were able to clean
and rededicate the temple of Jerusalem to the worship of one God in the year
165 BCE. This rededication is called Hanukah (“dedication” in Hebrew).
The First Book of Maccabees (c.mid-2nd cent. BCE),
states that Hanukah ought to be celebrated for eight days but does not indicate
the reason for it (see, 4:59). It is in the Second Book of Maccabees (c.125
BCE) that we find a rational explanation: It happened that on the same day
on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners, the purification of
the sanctuary took place, that is, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month,
which was Kislev. And they celebrated it
for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the feast of booths,
remembering how not long before, during the feast of booths [Sukkot], they had
been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals. (10: 6). So,
Hanukah was really like a delayed Sukkot that lasts seven days plus Atzeret, a
one day festival (See, Lev. 23: 33-36; cf. v.39).
The first reference to the lights of Hanukah appears in the writings
of Josephus (1sr cent. CE) who calls the festival “Lights” by saying: I
suppose the reason was this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us and that
hence the name given to that festival. (Antiquities, 7:7).
In it only in the Talmud, which was edited in
Babylonia in the 5-6th centuries CE that the so-called “miracle” makes
its appearance (under Persian influence?): What is [the reason of] Hanukah? For our Rabbis taught: On the
twenty-fifth of Kislew [commence] the days of Hanukkah, which are eight on
which a lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden. For when the
Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the
Hasmonean [i.e. Maccabees] dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they
made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the High
Priest, but which contained sufficient for one day’s lighting only; yet a
miracle was wrought therein and they lit [the lamp] therewith for eight days.
The following year these [days] were appointed a Festival with [the recital of]
Hallel and thanksgiving. (BT
Shab. 21b, Soncino).
Later on a midrashic text (c. 9th
cent.) provides another explanation: When the Hasmoneans defeated the Greeks,
they entered the temple and found there eight iron spears. They stuck candles
on these spears and kindled them. (Pesikta Rabbati 2: 5).
The festival of Hanukah proclaims many
important values, such as courage, dedication, thanksgiving, and above all, the
right to be different. These are the values we need to stress, and not the
miracle of oil which is not rational, historical or even believable in our
time.
SONSINO’S BLOG, rsonsino.blogspot.com
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