המחלקה לחינוך יהודי-ציוני, חטיבת האופק, תחום ליווי שליחים                                                                         א' בכסלו תשס"ו, 2 בדצמבר 2005

Why do we celebrate the festival of Hanukka?

An examination of how the festival of Hanukka developed enables us to discover the evolving story of the Jewish people across the centuries.

According to 1 Maccabees (written by an Eretz Yisrael Jew in the Hashmonaim army) the festival of Hanukka celebrates independence. Jerusalem has been liberated. The Jewish people have been liberated from the heavy taxes imposed on them by the army of Antiochus. The festival of independence stresses Jewish sovereignty and the rebirth of the Hashmonaim state.

Why eight days? The last sovereign of the Jews, who celebrated the consecration of the Temple, was King Solomon. Moshe dedicated the Tabernacle for eight days (seven days + 1). Judah Maccabee followed in the same tradition.

According to 2 Maccabees (written by an Egyptian Jew in the Hashmonaim era), Hanukka is a religious festival. There is no allusion to a national holiday. This does not interest the author. He is not skilled in these details. He seeks to re-inspire the Jewish people to worship in Temple. During the Maccabean war, the Jews did not celebrate Succot, so another festival was added.

Why eight days? To parallel Succot.

In the Mishna, which was compiled and sealed in 200 AD, there is barely a reference to Hanukka as a festival. Curiously, the Mishna refers to all the Jewish festivals but leaves out the festival of Hanukka. Where is it mentioned? In Order Nezikin (Tractate Baba Kamma), the Mishna discusses the question: "What happens if I light a fire outside, a camel passes by laden with flaxseed, and the flaxseed catches fire. Who is responsible?" The Mishna says - "If this happened on Hanukka, then the owner of the camel is responsible because he should have known that there were candles there."

What do we learn from this? That there was Hanukka. It was even something normative. The Mishna knew and acknowledged this. But the Mishna does not tell us what this festival is about.

Where does one in fact find such a reference? In the Babylonian Talmud, where the question is asked: "What is Hanukka? Why does one light eight candles? The answer given is: "Because of the miracle of the cruse of oil." There, in the Talmud which was written during the dark times of the Babylonian exile, we learn about the "small cruse which gave us eight days of oil." This is the best-known story of all the stories about the festival. The story is about a cruse of pure oil which was meant to last for one day but, in the absence of any other oil, a miracle took place for the Hashmonaim and the oil lasted for eight days.

Why eight days? Because the oil burnt for eight days (though the miracle lasted for only seven days, since the oil burnt without a miracle for one out of the eight days).

Most noteworthy is what is missing in the story of the cruse of oil. There is no allusion to the wars of the Hashmonaim. No allusion to the heroism of the fighters. No reference whatsoever to national independence. Some say that there was an attempt here to conceal the miraculous rebellion of the Hashmonaim state? There are those who say that there was a conscious tendency to suppress the memory of the rebellion. It is said that, when the Mishna was compiled, following the Bar-Kochba revolt, there was an attempt to appease the Roman empire. By what means? By re-writing the history of the Jews - we are not at all a rebellious people, we are not at all lovers of freedom, we hate wars. It was in this atmosphere that Rav Yehuda HaNasi compiled the Mishna. We "hid" the rebellion? Us? Rebellion? No way!

Thus a new story was born, a story that did not threaten any empire and enabled the celebration of Hanukka without disturbance. This is the version that is imbued with the character of exile and lacks all reference to independence.

Only with the return to Zion by the Zionist movement, did the national consciousness recount anew the stories of the Hashmonaim. The people began to sing battle songs about the heroism of the Maccabees: "A miracle did not happen to us, a cruse of oil we did not find." Bialik wrote a number of poems about the heroism of the Maccabees, in comparison to his generation: "The last generation of bondage and the first of redemption." The miracles and wonders became: "On the miracles and wonders which the Maccabees brought about."

The religious community continued to promote and recount the story of the miracle, while the Zionists promoted the heroism of the nation, the fighters and the rebels. This covert dispute reflects a profound question - on what should we place the emphasis? To whom is the credit due? To God or to the Maccabees? What is more important, the victory in battle, or the miracle of the cruse of oil? The roots of this dispute can be found already in the discrepancy between 1 and 2 Maccabbees. In 1 Maccabees, there is hardly any allusion to God. The author attributes the wondrous events to Judah and his friends. In contrast, 2 Maccabees shows no interest in the battles and heroic deeds. The author recounts a story relating to Succot. If he had thought about it (or knew about it, according to whom one asks), he would have recounted the story of the cruse of oil.

We can take the discussion even further, to a subject closer to us:

During the centuries spent in exile, the Jews could not put their battle heroism to the test. The right to stand up and fight was taken from them in all their places of exile, but no one could take away from us the heroism that was locked in our hearts: the heroism in safeguarding the image of God that is in man in all situations and at any cost. Throughout the ages, we suffered great bondage and persecution. But all these tragic stories were accompanied by wondrous descriptions of Jews who fought to safeguard the image of God in them.

Following this dark period, filled with stories of glorious heroism, we were given the privilege of coming to Israel and building a home for the Jewish people, where we would be able to defend our lives not only with spiritual courage, but also with physical courage. Some Zionist leaders tried to copy concepts of heroism belonging to foreign cultures and construct, on this basis, the image of the new Jew who would be strong, muscular, and fearless. The kibbutz movement, on its side, promoted the image of the muscular farmer, while the army was portrayed like the soldiers of King David battling bravely against Goliath. The Jewish calendar was also given a new face with the image of the brave Israeli fighter: from a festival celebrating the cruse of oil, Hanukka became a festival that celebrated the brave Maccabees. Kindergarten children changed the words of the song: "A miracle did not happen to us, a cruse of oil we did not find." From a young age, education stressed the heroism of man and society, without the need to rely on the miracles of heaven. Even the Lag Ba'Omer bonfire changed character. The bonfire, which celebrated the mysticism of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, became a bonfire honoring the fighters of the Bar Kochba revolt. The new Israeli wanted to dissociate himself from the image of the Diaspora Jew and adopt the image of the fighting Jew. Israeli society also changed character. A new generation emerged that had not experienced the War of Independence and for whom the war was no more than a chapter of history. Then the dispute began within Israeli society: is fighting a war, heroism or stupidity; is there a justification for war or not; is there anything worthwhile sacrificing our lives for?

Today, with almost sixty years of statehood behind us, we know that there are different aspects to the celebration of heroism.

There is the heroism based on the tradition of the "cruse of oil." This is the heroism of ancient, obstinate Judaism, which continues to light candles year after year, irrespective of the era and its vicissitudes. Even in the worst of times, a Jew would find a little cruse of oil. This is the strength of our survival.

There is the heroism based on the fighting tradition of the Hashmonaim and their celebration of independence. This is the heroism of the Jew who refuses to rely on foreign benefactors but is ready to sacrifice his life in order to be a sovereign in his land. This is the active Jew whose heart is filled with a sense of national mission.

We need all of this. Hanukka has many faces and I wish to present the holiday in all its aspects and illuminate it in the radiant light of a people that returned to its land and to its independence. But even with independence, we must seek to find the little cruse of oil by which we can continue to pursue lives that are full and good.

            Benny Lau serves as the Rabbi of the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem and as a Director of the
            "Bet Midrash" of the "Bet Morasha" College.
            He holds a Ph.D. in Talmudic Studies from the University of Bar Ilan.
            He lectures on the Talmud at the University of Bar Ilan and the Maale film school,
            and he is the author of a new book on the halachic thought of Rav Ovadia Yosef,
            entitled "Me Maran ve ad Maran" (From Teacher to Teacher).