Illuminations 2016

Student Editor: Elianna Schwartz ‘17 Artwork by: Gabrielle Amar-Ouimet ‘17 Faculty Advisor: Ms. Miriam Krupka

‫הארות‬

ILLUMINATIONS Volume 19

Chanukah 5777, 2016

The Chanukah Story Through a Different Lens

The True Miracle(s) of Chanukah

Elianna Schwartz ‘17, Editor

Matthew Hirschfeld ‘17

It is commonly accepted that the story of Chanukah is not mentioned anywhere within Tanakh. For most of us, knowledge of this holiday comes strictly from what we learn about in the Talmud.

There are earlier, extra-biblical sources for Chanukah as well. Maccabees Books 1 and 2 are well-studied books that recount the story of the Hasmonean victory over the Greeks. A more obscure source is Megillat Antiochus, also known as Megillat Chanukah. According to Rav Saadia Gaon, this work was composed by members of the Hasmonean dynasty. Yet

In masechet Shabbat, on Daf 21b, the Talmud deals with a fundamental question which almost all Jews contemplate during Chanukah or the days leading up to it. The Talmud asks a simple seeming question: Why do we celebrate Chanukah?

The Talmud responds as follows: The reason we celebrate Chanukah is because when the Greeks entered the Beit Ha’Mikdash (Temple) , they defiled all the oil that had been designated for the lighting of the menorah. After they had succeeded in this military skirmish, the Hasmoneans searched through the

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Canonization and the Books of the Maccabees: Why Were They Excluded?

Jessica Fuzailof ‘17

Editor’s Note: We usually like to include a book review in each edition of Illuminations. Sometimes it’s a more modern book on the holiday or something that has been recently published. We asked Jessica to do something a little different and write her review on the Book of Maccabees instead of a more current selection. We thought that as a lesser known title, an introduction to the book would be appreciated!

While Chanukah is an annual celebration for the Jews, few are familiar with the texts associated with the holiday.

The Books of the Maccabees have been given almost no focus by Jews throughout the centuries; in fact, the original Hebrew text has long since been lost, and our oldest surviving copies are written in Ancient Greek. The authorship of the books is uncertain, but they are generally considered reliable despite their apocryphal status.

The First Book of Maccabees centers on the Hasmonean dynasty, and emphasizes that God chose the priestly family to save the Jewish people. Second Maccabees focuses on the revolution against Antiochus IV Epiphanes and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor. Both books describe the Jewish revolution, yet neither is included in Tanakh. For some reason, the Council of Jamnia, where Tanakh was presumably finalized and canonized, excluded the

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Maccabees’ narrative.

There are numerous theories as to why the Books of the Maccabees were not included, although few are fully satisfying. One of the more feasible possibilities is that the rabbis at Jamnia were working off of an unofficial list that had been accepted and simply never finalized. The Books of the Maccabees were too new to have been included on this list, and the Council of Jamnia merely canonized a preexisting list without giving thought to adding more recent texts. This theory is problematic (Continued on page 3)

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considering the inclusion of the Book of Daniel, which most scholars date to the time of the Maccabean Revolt, around 165 BCE. Another theory is that, pragmatically and politically, the scholars at Jamnia were not inclined to publish books advertising a revolution given their own circumstances. There may have also been a hesitation to canonize books that glorified the Maccabees, who were not of the Davidic dynasty, taking the kingship.

The reality is, however, that the Maccabean narrative would hardly have been the only problematic one in Tanakh.

Esther’s heroine intermarries; Shir haShirim’s content raises some red flags as well. In fact, many books in Tanakh have their own tricky issues, none of which prevented canonization in other cases. What, then, was wrong with these books?

There may be an entirely different reason for the exclusion of the Books of the Maccabees. The eight-day holiday of Chanukah centers around two miracles: the Jewish military victory, and the oil that lasted for eight days and nights. The rabbis and the Talmud have favored the miracle of the oil, making God’s role and the Temple the stronger emphasis of the holiday. Rashi on masechet Shabbat, Daf 21b., credits the oil miracle as the reason for Chanukah’s holiday status, and makes no mention of the rebellion. The problem

is that the account of this miracle is written in the Talmud, but nowhere else. Neither First Maccabees nor Second Maccabees makes any reference to the cruse of oil. They do not challenge the story, but they do not acknowledge it either. This is particularly striking because Second Maccabees records several miracles, including the appearance of angels, and yet makes no mention of this most famous one. The rabbis wanted a holiday that directly acknowledged God’s role in the Jews’ successful overthrow of the Greeks and the purification of the Temple. Perhaps for this reason, they chose to emphasize the miracle of the oil, thereby crediting God with direct involvement, over the military victory. Perhaps the Books of the Maccabees’ omission of the oil story is responsible for the lack of canonization.

Sources: http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2006/11/ human-initiative-and-divineprovidence.html http://www.myjewishlearning.com/ article/omitting-the-maccabees/ The text of the Books of the Maccabees.

Talmud Masechet Shabbat Daf 21b.

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A Jewish Diet?

Elisheva Gold ‘17

The holiday of Chanukah, like many Jewish holidays, is full of customs to eat certain foods. On Chanukah the widely known minhag is to eat latkes and sufganiyot. This, as the Ziv Haminhagim1 explains, is to remember the Chanukah miracle of the oil. However, there is a lesser known minhag on Chanukah to eat not only latkes and sufganiyot but also cheese. Where does this minhag come from?

The Rama (in the Shulchan Aruch, O.C. 670:2) explains that this minhag comes from the miracle of Yehudit, which happened through dairy.

The Kol Bo (Hilchot Chanukah 44:9) explains the miracle of Yehudit and how this leads to eating cheese on Chanukah. Yehudit, the daughter of the Kohen Gadol, Yochanan, fed a Greek king cheese in order to make him thirsty, leading him to get drunk and fall asleep. Once asleep, she took his sword and decapitated him. She then took his head to Jerusalem where the Greek soldiers fled upon seeing that their king had died. Because of this great miracle, according to the Kol Bo, there is a minhag to eat cheese on Chanukah.

The story of Yehudit, told slightly differently in the Book of Yehudit, is the source for not only eating cheese on Chanuka but also, according to some, the reason that women are required to light the Chanukah candles. The gemara (Shabbat 23a) states that women are required to light Chanukah candles because “‫ ”שאף הן היו באותו הנס‬- that even

they were in the miracle.” Rashbam explains that this means that women, through Yehudit, were the cause of the miracle.

Yet Yehudit’s story is not one that is widely taught, and is rarely referenced in rabbinic sources before the Middle Ages. As Mrs. Deena Rabinovich2, a professor at Yeshiva University, asks, why does this story not come up in earlier writings and why is it connected to Chanukah? She offers the explanation that Yehudit serves the role of someone who, with complete faith in Hashem, risks her own reputation for the good of the greater nation. Because of that selflessness, it emerged as a Chanukah story. Mrs. Rabinovich also uses this answer to explain why it came up during the Middle Ages; it was a time when people again had to face this risk, and ultimately Yehudit became a symbol of sacrificing yourself for the greater good of the Jewish people.

Sources: 1 Shmuel Pinchas Gelbard, “Rite and Reason: 1050 Jewish Customs and Their Sources” 2 Mrs. Deena S. Rabinovich, “A Tale of Two Women” http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/ lecture.cfm/783722/mrs-deena-rabinovich/a -tale-of-two-women/

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What Makes a Holiday a Holiday?

Danielle Ben David ‘17

The Rambam's Mishneh Torah is seen as one of the most prominent books of halacha. However, the way he structures his Mishneh Torah regarding the halachot of Chanukah raises some questions. Usually the Mishneh Torah only includes laws and basic explanations, but in the case of Chanukah, the Rambam includes the story of Chanukah as well. ”In the time of the Second Temple, when the Greeks ruled Israel and canceled their religion and would not let them engage in the Torah and the commandments...” ( Hilchot Megillah Perek 3) So a question arises. Why is there a need for the elaboration? What is different in the halachot of Chanukah that is not found in other halachot?

Every other holiday, like Shavuot, Sukkot and Pesach, is portrayed in the Torah SheBichtav (Written Torah), but the Torah SheBaal Peh (Oral Law) portions of these holidays discuss the halachot in extensive detail. However, with Chanukah, the Torah Shebaal Peh is not only extensive, but clearly has more of a purpose than just the discussion of the halachot that pertain to the holiday.

In the Talmud, Chanukah is told with its backstory as well as the halachot. By including the story in his analysis, the Rambam stresses the fact that the story of Chanukah was not told in the Torah and how we have passed the story down

through oral tradition. Thus, even the Rambam felt an obligation to include it in the Mishneh Torah.

Additionally, the Rambam chose to write about the laws of Purim before the laws of Chanukah, even though, chronologically, Chanukah comes before Purim. So why did he choose to write them in this order? Why not simply relate them in chronological order?

While legislating the holiday of Purim, the Rabbis decided that any event that celebrates the Jewish people being saved from danger can become an official holiday. Therefore, the holiday of Purim established the precedence for the establishment of Chanukah, and without Purim, Chanukah would not be a holiday. For this reason, the Rambam decided to precede the laws of Chanukah with the laws of Purim. Additionally, he stresses the connection between Chanukah and Purim, stating that only those who have the mitzvah to give thanks to Hashem on Chanukah, are required to do so on Purim. This establishes a direct correlation between the nature of the halachot of Chanukah and the halachot of Purim.

From the Rambam’s decisions regarding Chanukah in the Mishneh Torah, we see how Chanukah is not only treated specially in his work, but also how unique the story of Chanukah is that it has been taught via oral transmission for hundreds of years.

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The Class of 1957 would like to acknowledge the memory of

SAUL EISENBUD, Class of ‘57

HAPPY CHANUKAH!

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The Underdog Wins in Again: The Maccabean Revolt and the Six Day War Eliana Doft, Class of 2016 Eliana is currently studying at the Hevruta gap-year program at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

“You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few…”

On Chanukah, we insert this declaration into the amidah and birkat hamazon to celebrate the victory of the outnumbered Jewish Maccabean army against the powerful Seleucid Empire.

However, there are those who would use similar language to describe a war that took place in the same region, almost 2,000 years later; the Six Day War. Like the miracle of Chanukah, the Six Day War showed the strong delivered into the hands of the weak.

And like the victory of the Maccabees, Jerusalem was restored to the Jews.

Therefore, if God’s hand was indeed so evident in both wars, is there anything we can learn by comparing the two “miracles”?

Rabbi Mayer Schiller, a professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, believes that the Six Day War and the Maccabean revolt are incomparable because the Maccabean event took place during the times of the Tanakh and, therefore, falls into the realm of the holy and transcendent. Since the Six Day War took place during modern times, after the era of “God’s revealed will,” it is impossible to attach the same significance to this admittedly magnificent event.

Rabbi Walter Wurzberger, professor of philosophy at Yeshiva University, disagreed. He held that just as Chazal attached messianic significance to the Maccabean revolt by choosing a messianic haftorah from the prophet Zecharia for Shabbat Chanukah, so too we should think about any event that occurs in the State of Israel in messianic, miraculous terms. Chazal thought the victory of the Maccabees was miraculous even though the results of the victory were temporary. So as we contemplate the long-term military and political ramifications of the modern day Six Day War, we may still believe in its miraculous nature.

The weeks leading up to Chanukah have been full of excitement in Jerusalem. Sufganiyot line the windows of every bakery. Children walk home from school with handmade chanukiyot and dreidels. Advertisements for parties and concerts fill up the bulletin boards. Reminders of God’s miracles are slowly appearing every day as we approach the chag. However, God’s hand is not always evident to us in day-to-day life. His presence is not necessarily discernible, often requiring our faith to help us perceive and understand. But there are moments in history where God more explicitly reminds us that He remains our protector. And for this reason, modern day miracles may exist. Perhaps this is the spiritual takeaway of the Six Day War and its connection to Chanukah.

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wreckage and were only able to find one little jug of oil on which the kohen gadol’s seal remained intact. The oil contained in that one jug was sufficient to last only one day. Through miraculous intervention, however, it lasted eight days. In honor of this miracle, the Sages have instituted the recitation of hallel and the giving thanks on these days.

This explanation for the observance of Chanukah, which all Jews learn at a very young age, seems quite logically valid. Firstly, the extension of the oil to last eight days when there existed enough to last only for one is an undeniable miracle of God. Secondly, the mitzvah on Chanukah is to light the menorah for eight days. Therefore, the reason we celebrate Chanukah must be connected to the lasting of the oil for eight days.

This reason, though, along with the statement of the Talmud, seemingly contradict the event for which we express gratitude in the prayer, Al Hanisim (about the miracles), which was written hundreds of years prior to the Talmud. In Al Hanisim, we do not even mention the fact that the oil last for eight days. Rather, we thank G-d for the miracle of the war – for delivering the Greek armies into the hands of our ancestors. We pray during the special insertion into the amidah, “You fought their battles, judged their judgments, took their revenge. You put the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few…”.

Thus, according to Al Hanisim, the miracle of Chanukah was that God delivered us from the Greek armies. Yet, according to the Talmud, we celebrate PAGE 8

Chanukah because of the miracle of the oil’s miraculous lasting for eight days.

This contradiction, therefore, begs the question: Which one is correct? Why do we celebrate Chanukah?

A rather insightful solution to this glaring inconsistency is that given by Rabbi Judah Leow ben Bezalel, who is widely known among Jewish scholars as the Maharal of Prague. The Maharal writes that both reasons are true. He explains that the actual incident for which we give thanks on Chanukah is the military salvation of the Jewish people. After all, we won a war against all odds. However, it was not patent that the military victory was an act of divine intervention. To the Jews living in those times, it was not obvious that the military success constituted a miracle.

They ascribed the Hasmoneans’ feat to Jewish resilience and bravery. It was not apparent to them that G-d had delivered the Jews from the hands of their Greek oppressors. Rather, it appeared as if the military triumph came about, as Devarim 8:17 warns, through the soldiers’ “might and strength of their hands.”

To this end, the Maharal writes, was the miracle of the oil necessary; only through it did the Jews come to appreciate the miracle of the battle.

After witnessing the oil last for eight days, which was an unmistakable miracle from God, they then recognized that their success on the battlefield derived from God, as well. Hence, the Maharal’s lesson is that both were miracles. Both are celebrated on Chanukah. But it was the miracle of the oil which revealed the miracle of the (Continued on page 9)

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war to the Jews.

As astute and brilliant as is the explanation of the Maharal, it becomes rather unrealistic when reviewed in a basic historical context. The events of Chanukah took place in the second century B.C.E., approximately the middle of the era of the second Beit Ha’Mikdash. A few hundred years prior to that period, following the Babylonians’ destruction of the first Beit Ha’Mikdash, the Jewish people began to live under the reign of non-Jewish monarchies. The Jews constituted a vassal state to a foreign power. The ruling parties determined the Jews’ right to exist and their form of government.

As a result, when the Greeks infiltrated Jerusalem, the Jewish people did not even have a standing army.

Therefore, the ensuing war was not one of a superior army versus an inferior opponent. Rather, it was a war in which the most powerful empire in the world was set against a hopeless band of unorganized, unarmed, and untrained private citizens.

While the war itself lasted three years, no formal battles took place during the first year of fighting. Why were the two opposing armies not clashing violently with one another?

Because there was no Jewish army! The war consisted of no fighting other than sporadic guerilla skirmishes. A pack of Jews would sneak up on a lone detail of Greek soldiers, kill them, and take their weapons. Bit by bit, more Jews would align themselves with Judah the Maccabee. However, in every aspect and at every phase of the war, the Jews were inestimably outnumbered, PAGE 9

outgunned, and absurdly less battleready than their enemies.

Even more astonishing is the fact that nearly the entire legion of the original Jewish fighters had not even the slightest battle experience. The leaders of the rebellion were kohanim, priests, in the Holy Temple. A kohen is a Torah teacher, who guides the Jewish people in matters of spirituality. Thus, this socalled “war,” was led and fought not by soldiers, but by the rabbis! This preposterous picture can be equated to a rosh yeshivah leading his talmidei chachamim into a battle against the U.S. Marine Corp!

With this realistic, historical understanding, how could any Jewish soul not recognize the miracle of the war of Chanukah? Not even the most outrageous assessment of the situation would have predicted a Jewish military victory. How then, is it possible, as the Maharal writes, that the Jews of the time perceived these military events as anything other than overt miracles?

The simplicity of the answer to this question, perhaps, is what makes it so profound. When one is several years away and far removed, he acquires a historical vantage point. He can effortlessly place an event in context and can immediately identify it as a miracle (or not). However, to those living the events day-to-day, to those who find themselves in the heat of the battle, it is much more difficult, if not next to impossible, to see events from that perspective.

Hence, to those involved, the Jews’ military victory came across as the nature course of events. Yes, the odds were slim, but the Jews were winning.

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these are not the only sources for the Chanukah story. The Book of Daniel, Chapter 11 verses 3-39, includes a very detailed account of the events leading up to the miracle of Chanukah. The description starts with the rise of Alexander the Great, and continues through the rule Antiochus IV Epiphanes, his desecration of the Beit Hamikdash, and his decrees against the Jews.

If the history of Chanukah is indeed recorded in Tanakh, why is this not more well known, and why isn’t it mentioned in Talmudic discussions of Chanukah?

For one thing, the book of Daniel is a difficult book to study. It is written in both Aramaic and Hebrew, and contains many obscure passages. Yet so do other books of prophecy, and they are quoted extensively. Another reason may be that in Daniel Chapter 11, historical figures are not referred to by name. Rather, the references are to a “melech gibor” (Alexander), a “melech hatzafon” (Antiochus III), or a “nivzeh” (hated, referring to Antiochus IV). According to Rabbi Evan Hoffman (thetorah.com), “Talmudic sages had limited knowledge of world history from the Greek period. Thus, they didn’t notice the impressive correspondence because they didn’t know the history to which the prophecy corresponded.”

According to this explanation, Talmudic scholars and early exegetes such as Rashi (1040-1105) simply didn’t have the necessary knowledge of the history of the world to be able to make the connection between Daniel 11 and the

events preceding Chanukah. This changed later on, when for example, the Abarbanel (1437-1508), aware of the history stated, “Commentators…did not know the histories of the monarchies. I found a fitting interpretation in the works of the Christian scholars which accords with the chronicles of the kings of Persia and Egypt” (Hoffman, thetorah.com quoting Abarbanel in Ma’ayanei Hayeshua).

Perhaps, though, the main reason Daniel is not quoted more often is because although the history retold in Daniel 11 is remarkably consistent with actual events up to and including Antiochus IV’s persecution of the Jews, from that point on it breaks completely with actual history and the story of Chanukah. There is no mention of a Jewish victory over the Greeks. Daniel 11 goes on to recount subsequent military action between North and South that we have no record of, and the ultimate destruction of Antiochus IV, which leads to the Messianic age.

Modern Bible scholars explain away this incongruity by saying that the author of Daniel lived during the time when these events were unfolding. As this book was written during a time of great persecution of the Jews, the author naturally pointed to the ultimate defeat of Antiochus IV and the coming of the Messiah in order to give hope to the Jews of the time. However, the author only knew the immediate past, did not know how future events would unfold, and could never have predicted a Jewish

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victory, which seemed impossible at the time. But how are we, who believe Daniel to be a prophetic work written hundreds of years earlier than the story of Chanukah, to understand this? Why would Daniel leave out the most important part of the story?

Two possible approaches are put forward by the Malbim (1809-1879) and Rabbi Yakov Medan, of Yeshivat Har Etzion. Malbim’s approach is that Daniel Chapter 11 does not talk about the Hasmonean victory because Daniel covered that topic in a previous vision in Chapter 8. The Malbim explains on Chapter 8, verse 11, “V’ad sar hatzavah higdil u’mimenu huram hatamid”, that the sar hatzavah refers “to Matityahu and his sons the Macabeem” who were responsible for allowing the return of daily sacrifice that had been disallowed under the rule of the Greeks. Chapter 11, according to the Malbim, therefore, does not need to recount the miracle of the Jewish victory again. Instead, the focus of the vision in Chapter 11 is on what will happen after the short respite the Maccabee’s victory provided, when the Jews would once again be suffering under the Roman Empire. The Malbim’s approach begs the question: why go through such great detail regarding Antiochus IV and his rise to power if that is not Daniel’s focus in this chapter?

Rabbi Medan attempts to answer this question. In a shiur available on the Har Etzion Virtual Bet Midrash, he notes the “surprisingly accurate” (www.etzion.org.il) description of Greek rule in Daniel 11. The

Greeks, according to Rabbi Medan, were the “first to wage ongoing, all-out war against observance of the covenant, adherence to the Torah and its commandments.” It is precisely because of this specific aspect of Greek persecution, under which Jews had to decide whether or not to risk their lives in order to remain observant, that this level of detail is required. “The risk and challenge that these decrees posed to Am Yisrael had significant repercussions for the nation’s religious life. Therefore, there was a need for a detailed, precise vision to last for many generations, foreseeing the test that Am Yisrael would face and providing the spiritual support needed to withstand it, as well as the hope for redemption.” Thus, according to Rabbi Medan, the purpose of Daniel’s vision is to prepare the Jewish people for the specific type of religious persecution they would face under the Greeks, and to enable them to withstand the tests of religious commitment it would entail. It is for this reason that Daniel’s prophecy goes into so much historical detail regarding the Greeks. Since perseverance is the focus of this prophecy, rather than simply the Maccabee military victory, this could be the reason that Daniel 11 is not generally associated with the miracle of Chanukah.

Have a wonderful chag!

- Elianna

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This publication is dedicated in loving memory of our parents and grandparents

Lorraine and Shepard Weinswig May the light of Chanukah illuminate their memories.

Deborah Weinswig and Maxwell Kahn Ezra and Zahava Mark Weinswig and Zsuzsi Hamburger Evan and Ryan PAGE 12