• News
    • Business
    • Canada
    • Health
    • International
    • Israel
  • Perspectives
    • Ask Ella
    • Ask The Love Rabbi
    • Features
    • Jewish Parenting Wisdom
    • Opinions
    • Ideas
    • Letters
    • Personal Essays
  • Food
  • Culture
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • The Arts
    • Books & Authors
    • Canada 150
    • Jewish Learning
    • June 1967
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Events
    • Contests
  • Supplements
    • Spotlights
  • Other Communities
    • En Français
    • Russian
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre
  • Log Out
Search
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre (eCJN)
  • Log Out
  • Newsletter
  • FaceBook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
CJN - Canada’s largest Jewish newspaper
April 20, 2018 - 5 Iyar 5778
CJN - Canada’s largest Jewish newspaper
  • News
    • Toronto public school responds to anti-Semitic incident

      ‘The world has lost a bright light’: Prominent chabad couple’s son dies at 15

      Crowdfunding campaign raises $3 million for Toronto day schools

      Holocaust museum postpones exhibit over concerns about Polish law

      Canadians to go to Israel for 50th anniversary of Grade 10 year spent abroad

      AllBusinessCanadaHealthInternationalIsrael
  • Perspectives
    • Israel & the Internet: Circa 1948 – April 19, 2018

      Tales from the fascist book club

      The 70 faces Of Israel

      Documenting Israel’s birth

      Liba Augenfeld – the survivor who brought her love of Yiddish with her

      AllAsk EllaAsk The Love RabbiFeaturesJewish Parenting WisdomOpinionsIdeasLettersPersonal Essays
  • Food
    • The Shabbat Table: A special post-Passover garlic shlissel challah

      Everyone gets gooey at downtown matzah bake

      Making matzah balls unites a modern Jewish family, says Phyllis Feldman

      The easy way out of Passover

      Bannock and matzah: our breads of affliction

      Taste of Pesach 2: A successful sequel to a delightful debut

  • Culture
    • Blending Caribbean sun and Jewish history in Curacao

      Novella splendidly blends math and literature

      Segal Centre features more Jewish content in 2018-19 season

      Popular Israeli podcast comes to the stage

      Mollie Jepsen – the Vancouver skier who won gold at the Paralympics

      AllArts & EntertainmentThe ArtsBooks & AuthorsCanada 150Jewish LearningJune 1967SportsTravel
  • Events
    • Chai Lifeline’s Restoring Hope contest (Closed)

      The CJN Prize (CLOSED)

      BRITISH YIDDISH AND KIDDUSH CONTEST (closed)

      The CJN Prize for Young Writers Contest (closed)

      JEWISH MUSIC WEEK 2016 (closed)

      AllContests
  • Supplements
    • Home Beautiful

      CJL Magazine

      Passover Greetings

      Passover Greetings

      MTL Celebrations

      AllSpotlights
  • Other Communities
    • Quel avenir pour les Juifs de France ?

      Israël dans la grande poudrière du Moyen-Orient

      Une entrevue avec Enrico Macias

      L’héritage de Shimon Peres: “Aucun rêve n’est impossible”

      L’intelligence artificielle au service de la robotique

      AllEn FrançaisRussian
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre
  • Log Out
Home Perspectives Opinions What Chanukah teaches us about Jewish history
  • Perspectives
  • Opinions

What Chanukah teaches us about Jewish history

By
The CJN
-
December 4, 2012
390
0
SHARE
Facebook
Twitter

Ah, the smell of frying latkes clinging to our clothes, the temptation to eat one more sufganiyah. Nothing says Chanukah like food. However, there is also a holiday attached to this feast-ival, one that has interesting questions attached to it. Here are two, plus a minhag.

First question: in all the texts on this celebration, where are the Maccabees?

We pride ourselves on being a people bound by our history. We should turn then to the historical, rather than the aggadic. As Yosef Yerushalmi has written in his book Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, “It was ancient Israel that first assigned a decisive significance to history and thus forged a new world view whose essential premises were eventually appropriated by Christianity and Islam.”

If we accept this, then we must also accept that we do not merely mythologize our history, but acknowledge both the good and the bad. So it should be with Chanukah.

So, when we recite, “In the days of Matityahu, son of Yochanan the High priest,” we throw history out the window. The Maccabees – later the Hasmonean dynasty – were not high priests and indeed had risen up not just in opposition to the Greeks but also to the Hellenizing Jewish elite of the country, including the High Priest Menelaus. The rabbis of the Mishnah were at pains to write those Hasmoneans out of history, since, once in power, they took over not just the high priesthood, to which they were not entitled, but also the kingship, reserved for descendants of the Davidic line, which they were not.

As the Hasmoneans became Hellenized, the Pharisees and the later rabbis did all they could to downplay their military victories and re-imagine Chanukah as the result of the miracles done for Israel by God. Hence the candles represent eight days of miraculous light in the rededicated temple until new, consecrated oil could be prepared.

Second question: where are the women in the story? Here I cite Rivy Poupko Kletenik, whose class on the topic “Judith the Obscure” I recently attended. I am using her translations and her conclusions. Any errors are mine.

Who lights the Chanukah candles? The Talmud Shabbat 23a, mandates: “A woman definitely lights, as Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says, women are obligated in the Chanukah candles, for they, too, were in that miracle.” Rabbi Yehoshua’s opinion is repeated in Talmud Megilla 4a.

The Rashbam in the Tosefot explains that “the critical part of the miracle was done through [the women’s] hands, in Purim through Esther, in Chanukah by Yehudit.”

According to Rivy Kletenik’s analysis, the apocryphal story of Judith migrated in the Middle Ages into the miracle of Chanukah, based on the phrase “they too were in/included in the miracle.” In the story, Judith goes to the camp of a besieging army led by General Holofernes. She induces a drunken slumber in him and beheads him. She returns to the besieged city and announces her deed, which then is proclaimed to the now leaderless army. They flee, and the Israelites are saved!

Thus did a Jewish historical novel (perhaps the first) migrate into Chanukah.

That inclusion of a woman in the miracle of Chanukah, long stretch or not, is a delightful new learning for me.

Finally, a minhag. The commentators gave women another gift: it became custom for women to refrain from work while the candles were burning. (Note to self: get longer-lasting candles.) That is a custom I will be incorporating into our celebrations from this point on.

As we enjoy both our customs and our history, this is a welcome holiday, coming as it does at the darkest time of the year, filling our homes with light, joy and gladness – and presents for the kids.

SHARE
Facebook
Twitter
The CJN

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Blending Caribbean sun and Jewish history in Curacao

From the Archives: Yom ha-Atzmaut

Toronto public school responds to anti-Semitic incident

  • Popular
  • Recent
Subscribe to the CJNSubscribe
RSS FeedView
5,518FansLike
856FollowersFollow
10,094FollowersFollow
196SubscribersSubscribe
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe / Member Centre (eCJN)
  • eCJN Archives
  • Supplements
  • Media Kit
  • Advertising Terms
  • Premiums

One on One at Comicon with Leo Leibelman

Purim 2018 on Toronto's streets

Baba Fira's CJN Prize Awards invite

  • News
  • Canada
  • Israel
  • International
  • Opinions
  • The Arts
The award-winning Canadian Jewish News (CJN) is Canada’s largest, weekly Jewish newspaper with an audited circulation of nearly 32,000 and read by more than 100,000 people each week.
© Copyright 2018 Canadian Jewish News
  • Comments Policy
  • Community Links
  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe
  • Admin

Week in Review...

Comes Right to You

Sign up for our Weekly Newsletter

X