Celebrating Hanukkah in the middle of Shabbat TB Shabbat 21

Celebrating Hanukkah in the middle of Shabbat TB Shabbat 21

There is a Talmud tractate for all our holidays except for Hanukkah! 99% of the discussions on Hanukkah can be found in the second chapter of massechet Shabbat. There is a logical connection why. As long as were talking about Shabbat lights we might as well discuss the laws concerning Hanukkah lights. But that begs the question why there’s no dedicated tractate to Hanukkah. This is the answer I learned why there is no tractate Hanukkah. The rabbis hated the Maccabees. During the early second Temple period there were two major Jewish sects, the Pharisees and the Sadducees (the other famous sect was the Essenes or the Dead Sea sect). The Pharisees and Sadducees understood Jewish law completely differently. For the most part the Maccabees and their descendants the Hasmoneans were Sadducees and followed Sadduceean understanding of the law and the Pharisees hated them for that. Although they could not eliminate the holiday of Hanukkah, when the Pharisees rose to power they minimized it. Consequently, we don’t have a massechet Hanukkah.

Hiding on today’s daf TB Shabbat 21 is a major theological debate that you might not be aware of. The Gemara explains the reason why we celebrate Hanukkah for eight days. It’s the story of the miracle of the oil.

“The Gemara asks: What is Hanukkah, and why are lights kindled on Hanukkah? The Gemara answers: The Sages taught in Megillat Ta’anit: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the days of Hanukkah are

eight. One may not eulogize on them and one may not fast on them. What is the reason? When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary they defiled all the oils that were in the Sanctuary by touching them. And when the Hasmonean monarchy overcame them and emerged victorious over them, they searched and found only one cruse of oil that was placed with the seal of the High Priest, undisturbed by the Greeks. And there was sufficient oil there to light the candelabrum for only one day. A miracle occurred and they lit the candelabrum from it eight days. The next year the Sages instituted those days and made them holidays with recitation of hallel and special thanksgiving in prayer and blessings.” (Sefaria.org translation)

This Gemara isn’t the only historical source for the holiday of Hanukkah. I’m just going to share with you the other familiar source, the prayer Al Hanisim in our prayer book.

“In the days of Mattityahu, son of Yohanan, the High Priest, the Hasmonean, and his sons, the wicked Greek kingdom rose up against Your people Israel to make them forget your Torah and to force them to transgress the statues of Your will…You champion their cause, judged their claim, and avenged the wrong. You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and the arrogant into the hands of those who were engaged in the study of your Torah. You made for Yourself great

and holy renown in your world, and for Your people Israel you performed a great salvation and redemption as of this very day. Your children then enter the holiest part of your house, cleansed Your Temple, purified Your sanctuary, kindle lights in Your holy courts, and designated these eight days of Hanukkah for giving thanks and praise to Your great name.”

Notice in this prayer which we say three times a day in the Amidah as well as each time we say Grace after meals for the eight days of Hanukkah there is no mention of the miracle of oil! The miracle of Hanukkah was the military victory of a small band of Jews over the mighty Syrian Greek Empire.

This is the great theological debate that has ramifications for us today. Do we have the power to create new Jewish holidays in our calendar year? The Gemara says no. The only reason why we celebrate Hanukkah is because God caused a great miracle of the oil. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to celebrate this holiday at all. The prayer Al Hanisim argues that we do have the power to create and observe new holidays.

Is Israel Independence Day a holiday? Do we recite hallel with a blessing, “Praised are You O Lord our God King of the universe who has commanded us to recite the blessing over the recitation of the hallel” for Israel Independence Day? The ultra-Orthodox following the Gemara’s understanding don’t observe Israel Independence Day at all because there was no miracle performed directly by God. I, on the other hand, believe we have the power to introduce new holidays. I celebrate Israel Independence Day as a holiday as important as Hanukkah and recite all the appropriate blessings.