The 25th of Kislev is the
beginning of the eight day festival of Hanukkah. It commemorates two
interrelated events. One is the military victory of a Jewish culture over a
Greek culture. The other reason, perhaps more important is occurrence of an
open miracle in that one day’s supply of olive oil to light the menorah in the
Holy Temple lasted eight full days.
In fact very few Greeks were involved. The
main antagonists were King Antiochus III of Greater Syria and the Hellenized
Jews. Antiochus was a descendant one of Alexander the Great’s generals.
Initially the misyavnim (to make oneself Greek – מתיוונים)
were successful and were able to occupy the Temple. Because they despised the
laws of purity, they made a point of defiling the oil used to light the menorah
in the sanctuary.
The religious Jews called their army the
Maccabees and its leader was Judah Maccabee. The word has various meanings
among them “sledge hammer (מַקֶבֶת)” because their
intention was to smash their foes. They eventually prevailed and recaptured the
Temple. When they entered the Temple they wanted to light the menorah, however
all of the pure olive oil had been defiled except to one jar that had the stamp
of the high priest on it. It was only sufficient for one day and it would take
eight days until pure olive oil could be produced.
In spite of this they decided to light it.
Some say they split it into eight portions to be lit on the eight days. Others
say that they just lit it the way it was. In any case the one day’s supply of
oil lit the menorah for eight days. This was regarded as an open miracle. A
holiday was proclaimed and it was written in the “Scroll of Fasts” meaning that
it was among the other happy celebrations on which fasts and eulogies are prohibited.
They called the holiday Hanukkah חנוכה which has several interpretations. It
means inauguration because on that day the Temple was rededicated. Another
interpretation is חנו כ"ה meaning they “pitched
camp on the 25th”. This is because the date of the cessation of
hostilities was on the 25th of Kislev. Another interpretation is
education חינוך because the lit lamp is a symbol of
scholarship.
The miracle of Hanukkah was the last
miracle that was seen by the whole world. This is important because up until
the time of Hanukkah the world was accustomed to prophets and open miracles. With
Moshe Rabenu we saw the parting of the Red Sea. Adam the first man was a
prophet. He had no mother and father so he understood the miracle of the
creation. G-d listened to the prayer of Elijah the prophet on Mount Carmel and
before all the people sent fire down from heaven to consume the sacrifice on the
altar even after all the wood was soaked with water.
One can talk about the Baal Shem Tov, the
Baba Sali, and miracles that we have personally experienced, but they were not
witnessed everyone. The miracle of the Hanukkah candles was.
Hanukkah occurred in the year 3622 after the creation of the
world. Ezra the last prophet, who led the Jews back to Judea, passed away 174
years earlier in 3448. He was succeeded by Shimon the Tsadik, who welcomed
Alexander the Great to Jerusalem. This was in fact the beginning of the modern
era but, people still knew about miracles.
At the time of Hanukkah the memory of
miracles had a faded and people had become much like they are today. As a
result we can more easily relate to them and through them relate to the miracle
of Hanukkah. Things like the parting of the Jordan River under Joshua and the
passing through it by the children of Israel on dry land have become a legend
that we kind of believe.
The miracle of Hanukkah, though,
strengthens our grasp on the miracles of ancient times, but the story is deeper
than that. Greek wisdom is the cosmology of today meaning one looks only at the
mechanics of nature and creation from nothing is ignored, denied, or claimed to
be billions of years ago. In studying the universe Judaism looks for the hand
of G-d from the start and uses the six days of creation as its initial model.
In both cases it is a trial and error process that has yet to reach its
conclusion.
Hanukkah reaches to this as well. It is the newest of the
Jewish holidays. However it occurs at the time of the oldest of human holidays.
The Gemara (Mesechta Avoda Zara 8a) recounts that Adam the first man noted that
the days were becoming shorter. He feared that because he had sinned the world
was reverting to chaos and desolation. As a result he retired to eight days of
fasting and prayer. It happened that the conclusion was on the winter solstice
and the days started to become longer. Adam than realized this was the way of
the world and declared a feast of eight days. He also declared that both sets
of days should be holidays.
The winter solstice is basically the first day of Tevet and
it falls in the middle of Hanukkah. Therefore through Hanukkah not only can we
see the days of the Tanakh but we can get a glimpse of the Garden of Eden as
well.
לע"נ, ההדוד של האמא ,שמואל בן יואל לייב ז"ל
נלב"ע ר"ח כסלו תשמ"ד
Acknowledgements to websites:
תורת אמת, וויקיטקסטdictionary.reference.com/, http://hebrewbooks.org/,
Blogger English
http://dyschreiber.blogspot.com/2014/11/beginning-world.html
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