Merry Krismiss to All the Kofrim

An alternative to corrupting Chanukah

It is well known that Chanukah is the holiday of the Torah sheBaal Peh, the Oral Tradition. Unlike Purim, it is not recorded in Biblical cannon, but is purely a creation of the Sages. And it celebrates the victory of holy Torah scholars over the Modern Hellenists, which included both Greek non-Jews as well as secularist Jews. As we recite in Al Hanisim

מָסַרְתָּ גִּבּוֹרִים בְּיַד חַלָּשִׁים וְרַבִּים בְּיַד מְעַטִּים וּטְמֵאִים בְּיַד טְהוֹרִים וּרְשָׁעִים בְּיַד צַדִּיקִים וְזֵדִים בְּיַד עוֹסְקֵי תוֹרָתֶךָ

You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and the degenerates into the hands of those who cling to your Torah

We all know the rest of the story. When the priestly Hasmonean family of righteous Torah scholars succeeded, with the help of God, in expelling the Hellenists, they entered the Temple and found that it had been defiled. The Hasmoneans worked hard over the course of eight days purifying it, but could not find a pure jar (or academics like using the archaic word “cruse”) of oil for the Menorah, except for one with an unbroken seal of the High Priest, demonstrating that it had never been defiled. Despite there only being enough for one day, the oil lasted for eight days.

Cruz of oil

In recognition of this physical, moral, and spiritual victory, signified by the pure, miraculous light of the Menorah, the Sages instituted eight days of rejoicing, Hallel, and lighting of candles in each home to commemorate this tremendous salvation.

Now, the miracle of the oil is not just a nice little story that happens to be associated with the holiday of Chanukah, which someone could claim is similar to many Aggados and Midrashim about the Exodus or the Purim events, and which may therefore be taken figuratively. It is clear from the Gemara that this miracle was the impetus of the holiday itself, and especially the enactment to light Chanukah candles. That is, although the primary celebration of Chanukah is the victory over the Hellenists, as we say in Al Hanisim, the miraculous signification of purity is what led the Sages to enact the holiday in the first place. The fact that this miraculous signification of purity happened with the Menorah in particular is highly significant, since the Menorah represents the Wisdom of Torah in our tradition, which is the guiding light of our lives. The pure light of the Torah is precisely that which was victorious over the Modern secularist Hellenists. (See the Maharal in Ner Mitzvah which explains all of this.)

Conversely, it is highly fitting that those who reject the Torah sheBaal Peh deny this miracle in particular. The claim that no miracle occured was first proposed by a 19th century maskil, Chaim Zelig Slominsky, who himself based it on a laughable misreading of the Rambam. However, the primary evidence brought by advocates of this position is the fact that the Books of Maccabees and Josephus, whom were closer in time to the events than the Braisa cited in the Talmud Bavli, do not mention the miracle, but give other reasons for the holiday. Therefore, they conclude that the miracle of the oil was a revisionist myth that emerged centuries later, and was superimposed onto the holiday by the Sages of the Talmud.

Let us examine these sources. Here is what 1 Maccabees says about the celebration of Chanukah:

For eight days they celebrated the rededication of the altar. With great joy they brought burnt offerings and offered fellowship offerings and thank offerings. They decorated the front of the Temple with gold crowns and shields, rebuilt the gates and the priests” rooms and put doors on them. Now that the Jews had removed the shame which the Gentiles had brought, they held a great celebration. Then Judas, his brothers, and the entire community of Israel decreed that the rededication of the altar should be celebrated with a festival of joy and gladness at the same time each year, beginning on the twenty-fifth of the month of Kislev and lasting for eight days. (1 Maccabees 4.28-59)

And this is 2 Maccabees, of different authorship:

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. 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. They decreed by public edict, ratified by vote, that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year (2 Maccabess 10:6-8).

And this is what Josephus writes:

And so Judah and his fellow citizens celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the Temple for eight days, and omitted no sort of pleasure, but everyone feasted upon very rich and splendid sacrifices; and they honoured God, and delighted themselves with psalms of praise and the playing of harps. Indeed, they were so very glad at the revival of  their customs and, after so long a time, having unexpectedly regained their right to worship, that they made it a law for their posterity that they should keep a festival celebrating the restoration of their Temple worship for eight days. And from that time to this we celebrate this, which we call the Festival of Lights [phôta], because, I imagine, beyond our hopes this right was brought to light [phanênai], and so this name was placed on the festival. (Antiquities 12.7.6-7) 

As you can see, there is no mention of the miracle of oil.

But guess what?

Despite the reference to a holiday of Chanukah, there is also no mention of Hallel, of Al Hanisim, or of lighting the Chanukah candles either. No halachos at all. Does this mean that all of the halachos were also only instituted centuries later?

The answer is yes. According to the proponents of this view, the entire holiday as celebrated currently is an invention of the Talmudic sages, and has nothing to do with the Hasmoneans. This is consistent with the position of the Maskilim, among whom Graetz was one of the most prominent, who see the Torah sheBaal Peh and the entire concept of an Oral Tradition as fictitious, a late invention.

However, Torah Jews, who by definition believe in the Oral Tradition, would reject this perspective.

What then of the Books of Maccabees and Josephus?

The answer is that this is really a question of reliability. Both Books of Maccabees are of anonymous authorship, the second one itself being an abridgement of a lost work written by a Hellenist, Jason of Cyrene. We know nothing else about these authors, how they derived their information, and to what extent they adhered to halachic Judaism, which would be very important to how they approached Chanukah. Their lack of mention of any halachos would seem to be a big red flag against their reliability. Josephus was Hellenist, born into a Sadducee family, and even worse, came two centuries after the events of Chanukah. Based on his other writings, we know Josephus was an am ha’aretz. For example, he writes that a Jewish army cannot fight on Shabbos, unless in self-defence. And it seems that he didn’t know of the concept of matrilineal descent in Judaism.

Therefore, although they may be otherwise valuable historical sources, there is no reason to trust these authors when they conflict with our Oral Tradition, whether about the observance of Chanukah, the miracle that was the impetus for the holiday, or on any other Torah matter. And although it is completely possible that these authors were simply ignorant of the miracle of the oil, it is also possible that they heard of it but did not believe in it, or that they did not attribute to it or understand its significance given their own particular sectarian an/or cultural inclinations. The Ramban writes about the miracle of the fiery furnace, from which Avraham emerged unscathed

ומפני זה לא הזכיר עוד הכתוב הנס הזה כי היה צריך להזכיר דברי החולקים עליו כאשר הזכיר דברי חרטומי מצרים ולא נתבארו דברי אברהם עמהם כאשר נתבארו דברי משה רבינו בסוף

It is on account of this that Scripture no longer mentions this miracle [of Abraham] for it would have had to mention the words of those who differed with him, as it mentioned the words of the Egyptian magicians, and Abraham’s words were not as openly verified to them as were ultimately the words of our teacher Moses, [which were established by ten clearly revealed miracles]. (Ramban Bereishis 11:28)

Similarly, it is entirely possible that there were those who disputed the veracity of the miracle of the oil even on the very day it happened, but we would trust our Sages who transmitted the Oral Tradition over such cynics. Either way, it is clear that the aforementioned authors didn’t grasp the idea of Chanukah as well as our Sages.

In our current era too, there were many authors who omitted mention of the miracle of the oil in their writings about Chanukah (Modox censorship!), thanks to their Modern Orthodox leanings. Our great Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav HaGaon Melech Shapiro, composed a list of these illustrious authors, which include Rabbi Joseph Hertz, Rabbi Isidore Epstein, Rabbi Zev Yaavetz, and Rabbi David Bar-Hayim. Will some future generation bring evidence from these figures that Chanukah has nothing to do with the miracle of the oil? Who knows. The upshot is that the Chanukah miracle is a perfect litmus test of those who trust our Oral Tradition versus those who completely or partially reject it. When they are willing to go with the testimony of unknown authors or Hellenists over Chazal and our entire Mesorah since then, we see where their sympathies lie. The light of the Torah versus the darkness of secularism. How very fitting for Chanukah!

But it doesn’t end there. As the Maharal and many of our great rabbis explain, the miracle of the oil imparted a Divine message that the victory was from God, who saw the purity of heart of the Hasmoneans, and who inspired them to purify His Temple. Those modern Hellenists who reject the miracle tend to reject the attribution of victory to God as well, but credit it to the might of the Maccabee warriors. There is a popular Chanuka song in the Modern Orthodox world called מי ימלל (“Who will relate?”) that goes like this:

מי ימלל גבורות ישראל,

אותן מי ימנה?

הן בכל דור יקום הגיבור

גואל העם.

שמע!

בימים ההם בזמן הזה

מכבי מושיע ופודה

ובימינו כל עם ישראל

יתאחד, יקום ויגאל.

Who will recount the mighty [deed]s of Israel

-Who will count them?

Behold, in every generation will rise the hero

Who redeems the nation.

Listen!

In those days at this time

A Maccabee (Judah) was a savior and redeemer;

and in our days the entire nation of Israel

Will unite, arise and be redeemed.

As you can see, this song co-opts the verse in Tehillim מי ימלל גבורות ה (“Who will relate the mighty deeds of God?”) and replaces it with “Who will relate the mighty deeds of the nation of Israel?” It co-opts the verse in Nishmas that refers to God asמלך מושיע ופודה (“King who delivers and redeems”) with מכבי מושיע ופודה (“The Maccabee delivers and redeems”). It states that in every generation, a mighty hero will arise to Jewish nation. There is no mention of God in the song, and as we see, it is specifically formed so as to remove God.

How great was the wisdom of the Sages who carried the candle of Torah, lighting our way in the darkness, who instituted the holiday of Chanukah, and who conveyed to us the depth behind it. Without them, Chanukah would become just another Godless state victory celebration, a salute to the physical prowess and military power of the mighty Jewish warriors, exactly as it has become for the secularist “New Jews”. Chazal’s account of the miracle perfectly compliments the theology expressed in Al Hanisim of “the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and the degenerates into the hands of those who cling to your Torah”.

Finally, there was another Jew who famously rejected the Oral Tradition of the Rabbis, and who has a rather different winter-time holiday in his memory. Can you guess who he was? I humbly propose that instead of corrupting the holiday of Chanukah, these modern-day Hellenists who reject the Oral Tradition celebrate his holiday instead.

Happy Holidays!