"Hanukkah"

• The *Hanukkah holiday ( "hanukah") begins on the 25th of Kislev (for the list of Jewish months see lesson three) and continues for eight days.
• It is the only festival not mentioned in the Bible which has survived down through the ages.
• Before the destruction of the *Temple ("beit hammiqddash") there were other holidays, which are mentioned in a book named "*Megillat Ta'anit" (),known simply as the "Megilla" (), when it was forbidden to fast, or even to eulogize; all these days were connected with the *Hasmonean "Priest-Kingdom", and the victories over the Hellenists.
• Today, celebrates the reconsecration of the , the *Altar ("mizbeah") and the implements used in the after the desecration and impurity wrought by the Emperor Antiochus, as well as the miracle of the lamp which burned for eight days, although there was oil enough for one day only.
• The reasons for the survival of this unique "Hasmonean" festival could be:
  • It was the first Hasmonean holiday,
  • It was the only one to celebrate a religious victory (all the other Hasmonean holidays commemorated military victories).
• After the end of the Hasmonean "Priest-Kingdom", and in the time of the Sages
  ("hazal"), the time of the *Mishnah and the *Talmud ), the popularity of the Hasmoneans declined, possibly because:
  • The priestly family performed the function of a King, which had been reserved for the house of David,
  • Some Hasmonean Kings were extremely despotic.
• The *Sages "hazal" afforded the holiday of a much broader historical background than the victory of the Hasmoneans alone; they mentioned seven kinds of Hanukkot:
  • (inauguration) of the world after Creation;
  • of the Tabernacle by Moses (Num. 84:7),
  • of the of the First "beit hammiqddash(Chron. II 7:9),
  • of the Second at the time of Ezra (Ezr. 6:17),
  • of the Jerusalem wall at the time of Nehemiah (Neh. 12:27),
  • of the after cleansing by the Hasmoneans,
  • and the of the future, i.e. of the next world ("Ha'olam haba"), when the Lord will look for Jerusalem with *candles. ("nerot") (*Pesiqta Rabati 2:5 page A. see also Zef. 1:12)
• "hazal" also mentioned, that some of the lights were kindled as for the Hasmonean :
  • At Creation, stars and lights were placed in the sky.
  • Even the of the next world will be with lights, as it is written: "and the light of the moon will shine as the light of the sun and the light of the sun will be seventy fold" (Jes. 30:26, Pesiqta Rabati 2:7 page B).
• ordained that the section of the Bible connected with the sacrifices at time of the inauguration of the Tabernacle (Num. 7) should be read at : every day, one paragraph connected to the sacrifices of that day. On the last day, the rest of the chapter and the chapter of the lamp (Parashat beha'alotcha) should be read to emphasize that is not only the holiday of the event of the Hasmonean victory, but also the celebration of the inauguration of the and the miracle of the lamp.

  

• Today, the main characteristic of is the act of kindling the candles "nerot", in remembrance of the miracle of the flask of oil which was enough for one day, but continued burning for eight days.
  
• The first sources do not mention the flask of oil -- and do not even hint at kindling lights; in the Books of Maccabees the inauguration of the new Altar ("mizbeah") is the central issue of the holiday.
• Fire is mentioned in the second Book of the Maccabees (10:3) - not the fire of "nerot", but fire from stones of the during the inauguration of the .
• *Josephus Flavius was aware that had something to do with fire, but did not know the reason of the miracle of the flask of oil.
• The story of the flask of oil is first mentioned in the " Talmud", Shabbat 22 page B.
• A testimony to Jewish custom of kindling lights in the windows is seen in a sarcastic and rhetorical description by the Roman poet, *Persius, in the first century CE.
• The oldest source for kindling as a commandment for is in a *Bereita in the , (Baraita Shabbat 12 page B). There we find a discussion between the school of *Hillel and the school of *Shamai.
  • The school of Shamai recommended kindling eight lamps on the first day of and every subsequent day one less.
  • The school of Hillel taught that on the first day of , one light should be kindled and on every succeeding day of one more, as is usual today.
• The origin of the "Shammash" , the light we kindle in addition to the lamps of , which in contrast with the time of the Talmud, today forms part of the Hanukkiya may be found in the ban on profane use of the lights, so that, if there was no other lamp or fire ("medurah") in the house, an additional candle was lit for general use (Baraita Shabbat 22 page A).
• Much research has been carried out into the habit of lighting ; some have tried to connect it with idol worship by surrounding nations, but no explanation of the existence of such worship has been proven.
• In the Roman era, there was a holiday on the 24th of December, the day of the rebirth of the lord of the sun (Sol invictus), but this festival was inaugurated later than the custom of kindling at .

Some linguistic annotations about the word :

• The root of the word is .
• In no other semitic language is the root so well established as in Hebrew, meaning that it exists in the basic verb stem, , with some regular derived patterns such as the name of the action on the pattern XeXuXXah like "peulah" (action) (the in the word is because the does not accept a mobile "shwa") and "ge'ulla" (salvation). We have the pattern XaXiX which is the subject of that action, thus "hanikh" meaning someone who is inaugurated or trained - (pupil); as "nasi" the one who is lifted or exalted (president). In this pattern, we find many other words with the same syntactic function: even "navi" (prophet) but for the latter, the basic verb stem does not exist in Hebrew, and the word is connected with the Babylonian basic verb stem "naba'u" (to call), thus the Hebrew prophet is someone who is called.
• The root exists in ancient Egyptian as hnk.t but this is not a semitic language.
• In Arabic, we find this root , but does not exist in the basic verb stem; in the Quran the root appears only once in the verb stem VIII and means "to destroy" or "annihilate" (Q 16:62[64]), and even in the extensive traditional literature (the Hadith) the root is very poorly represented in the meaning of "taking some thing in the mouth" ( from the word "hanak" (palate - compare with Hebrew "hanikhayim" - "gums"). In later periods more Arabic words from this root appeared with meanings related to that of the Hebrew, as "hunk" (taught by experience), but it would require further and more detailed investigation to come to any conclusion about the development of words from this root in Arabic.
• In the Hebrew Bible, only the basic verb stem exists, while in the language of other verb stems are also represented as "hinnekh" (to educate) for example:
  
  "detne Rabba bar Shemu'el, tinnoqot ein me'anin otan beyom hakippurim aval mehanekhin otan shana o shetayim samukh lepirqan" (as taught Rabba the son of Samuel, you must not mortify children on the Day of Atonement, but you must educate them for one or two years close to their adulthood [ie. 13 years old]) ( Yoma, 82a).
• Finally, a part of the name of this department "hinukh" (education) comes from the same root as the word .

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  The following words are explained on separate pages:

"beit hammiqddash".

"mizbeah".

"nerot".

The Mishnah.

The Talmud.

"megillat ta'anit".

"hazal".

Josephus Flavius.