Variations on the Hanukkah Theme (1958)

View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

The Menorah and the Mizbeiach (1956)

I. A) Two pieces of sacred furniture in the Temple play major roles – not as props but as protagonists, as stars – in the great Jewish drama of Ḥanukkah. B) They are the menorah and the mizbe’aḥ – the candelabrum and the altar. C) Briefly: when the Maccabees returned to the desecrated Temple some 2,120 years ago, they rededicated the mizbe’aḥ and relit the menorah. The dramatic miracle – which is the climax of this historical episode – relates to the menorah and the oil. D) Both were focal points of the Jewish victory.

Chanukah

Half the Hanukkah Story (1967)

Two themes are central to the festival of Hanukkah which we welcome this week. They are, first, the nes milhamah, the miraculous victory of the few over the many and the weak over the strong as the Jews repulsed the Syrian-Greeks and reestablished their independence. The second theme is nes shemen, the miracle of the oil which burned in the Temple for eight days although the supply was sufficient for only one day. The nes milhamah represents the success of the military and political enterprise of the Maccabees, whilst the miracle of the oil symbolizes the victory of the eternal Jewish spirit. Which of these is emphasized is usually an index to one’s Weltanschauung. Thus, for instance, secular Zionism spoke only of the nes milhamah, the military victory, because it was interested in establishing the nationalistic base of modern Jewry. The Talmud, however, asking, “What is Hanukkah?,” answered with the nes shemen, with the story of the miracle of the oil. In this way the rabbis demonstrated their unhappiness with the whole Hasmonean dynasty, descendants of the original Maccabees, who became Sadducees, denied the Oral Law, and persecuted the Pharisees.Yet it cannot be denied that both of these themes are integral parts of Judaism. Unlike Christianity, we never relegated religion to a realm apart from life, we never assented to the bifurcation between that which belongs to God and that which belongs to Caesar. Religion was a crucial part – indeed, the very motive! – of the war against the Syrian-Greeks. And unlike the purely nationalistic interpretation of Hanukkah, we proclaim with the prophet (whose words we shall read next Sabbath), “For not by power nor by might, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.” In fact, the Maccabeean war was to a large extent not a revolution against alien invaders as much as a civil war against Hellenistic Jews who wanted to strip Israel of its Jewish heritage. Hence, Hanukkah symbolizes a victory through military means for spiritual…

Vayeshev Chanukah