Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Beginning the World

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/,
וגם בדואר אלקטרוני    ניתן באתר  http://dyschreiber.blogspot.co.il




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