Hanukkah and the Commandments and why we celebrate
Hanukkah and the Commandments and why we celebrate for 8 days
The New York Times 12/11/09 – David Brooks ► Tonight Jewish kids will light the menorah, spin their dreidels and get their presents, but Hanukkah is the most adult of holidays. It commemorates an event in which the good guys did horrible things, the bad guys did good things and in which everybody is flummoxed by insoluble conflicts that remain with us today.
1 Maccabees ch. 2 ► 23 There came a certain Jew in the sight of all to sacrifice to the idols upon the altar in the city of Modin, according to the king's commandment. 24 And Mathathias saw and was grieved, and his reins trembled, and his wrath was kindled according to the judgment of the law, and running upon him he slew him upon the altar. 25 Moreover the man whom king Antiochus had sent, who compelled them to sacrifice, he slew at the same time, and pulled down the altar. 26 And showed zeal for the law, as Phinees did by Zamri the son of Salomi.
I Maccabees 1: 11 ► In those days there appeared in Israel men who were breakers of the law, and ► they seduced many people, saying: "Let us go and make an alliance with the Gentiles all around us; since we separated from them, many evils have come upon us. “ ► Cf. Jer 44: 18
High Priests Sadok Shimon ha-Sadiq Onias III Meneleus (171 -161) Jason (Yehoshua) (175 -171) Jonathan the Hasmonean
Hellenistic Period 332 BCE Alexander the Great conquers Palestine ► 323 BCE Alexander dies ► § Diadochi, Ptolemy in Egypt, Seleucus in Syria ► 301 -201 BCE Ptolemaic Rule § Allowed to continue as semiautonomous 201 BCE Seleucid conquest of Palestine ► 175 -171 BCE Jason High Priest ► § bribes Antiochus IV for high priesthood § builds gymnasium in Jerusalem which becomes a polis – “Antioch” ► 171 -162 BCE Menelaus High Priest § Converts temple into pagan shrine, YHVH=Zeus=Baal Shamin 168 BCE – Bet ha. Mikdash is looted, Jews are massacred ► 167 -166 Antiochus IV decrees persecution ► 164 Judah conquers Jerusalem and rededicates the Temple ►
Why did Antiochus Persecute the Jews? 1. He was crazy, nervous, eccentric. May have hastened the persecution but not caused it. 2. He was a Great Hellenizer and unifier But only for political ends by making poleis, not cultural. The Jewish Hellenizers asked for the decrees. 4. Decrees result from a civil war. 3.
Why is Hanukah on Kislev 25?
Haggai 2: 18 היום הזה ומעלה; מיום - מן , נא לבבכם - ► שימו יסד - היום אשר - למן , עשרים וארבעה לתשיעי . הוה שימו לבבכם - היכל י ► Consider, I pray you, from this day and forward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of Hashem’s temple was laid, consider it.
I Maccabees 1 ► 54 Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding towns of Judah, 55 and offered incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. 56 The books of the law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. 57 Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant, or anyone who adhered to the law, was condemned to death by decree of the king. 58 They kept using violence against Israel, against those who were found month after month in the towns. 59 On the twenty-fifth day of the month they offered sacrifice on the altar that was on top of the altar of burnt offering.
Winter Solstice ► Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zara 8 a ► Our Rabbis taught: When Adam saw the day getting gradually shorter, he said, ‘Woe is me, perhaps because I have sinned, the world around me is being darkened and returning to its state of chaos and confusion; this then is the kind of death to which I have been sentenced from Heaven!’ So he began keeping an eight days’ fast. But as he observed the winter solstice and noted the day getting increasingly longer, he said, ‘This is the world's course’, and he set forth to keep an eight days’ festivity. In the following year he appointed both as festivals. Now, he fixed them for the sake of Heaven, but the [heathens] appointed them for the sake of idolatry.
Why is Hanukah 8 Days?
► What is [the reason of] Hanukkah? For our Rabbis taught: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev [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 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.
► II Maccabees 2: 12 - Solomon also celebrated the feast in the same way for eight days.
Like Sukkoth II Maccabees 10 Now Maccabeus and his followers, the Lord leading them on, recovered the temple and the city; 2. they tore down the altars that had been built in the public square by the foreigners, and also destroyed the sacred precincts. 3. They purified the sanctuary, and made another altar of sacrifice; then, striking fire out of flint, they offered sacrifices, after a lapse of two years, and they offered incense and lighted lamps and set out the bread of the Presence. 4. When they had done this, they fell prostrate and implored the Lord that they might never again fall into such misfortunes, but that, if they should ever sin, they might be disciplined by him with forbearance and not be handed over to blasphemous and barbarous nations. 5. 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 Chislev. 6. They celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the festival of booths, remembering how not long before, during the festival of booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals. 7. Therefore, carrying ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place. 8. They decreed by public edict, ratified by vote, that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year. 9. Such then was the end of Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes.
בבלי שבת כא ע"ב ► Our Rabbis taught: The precept of Hanukkah [demands] one light for a man and his household; the zealous [kindle] a light for each member [of the household]; and the extremely zealous, — Beth Shammai maintain: On the first day eight lights are lit and thereafter they are gradually reduced, but Beth Hillel say: On the first day one is lit and thereafter they are progressively increased. ‘Ulla said: In the West [Palestine] two amoraim, R. Jose b. Abin and R. Jose b. Zebida, differ therein: one maintains, The reason of Beth Shammai is that it shall correspond to the days still to come, and that of Beth Hillel is that it shall correspond to the days that are gone; but another maintains: Beth Shammai's reason is that it shall correspond to the bullocks of the Festival; whilst Beth Hillel's reason is that we promote in [matters of] sanctity but do not reduce.
2 Maccabees 6: 7 ► On the monthly celebration of the king’s birthday, the Jews were taken, under bitter constraint, to partake of the sacrifices; and when a festival of Dionysus was celebrated, they were compelled to wear wreaths of ivy and to walk in the procession in honor Dionysus.
Teetotum
► The original medieval dice used in Germany by gamblers was inscribed with the four letters: N, G, H, and S, which are the initials: § § Nichts (“nothing”), Ganz (“all”), Halb (“half”), and Stellein (“put in”). – Encyclopedia Judaica “Folklore”
Kedushefy ► Winter Solstice becomes religious day of hope and trust in Hashem. ► Celebration of lights becomes symbol of Hashem’s providence even in times of darkness. ► Ivy bands for Dionysis become part of rededication celebration. ► European gambling game becomes symbol of perseverance.
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