A little-known Hanukkah story rated R for violence TB Taanit 18

With today’s daf TB Taanit 18 we finish the second chapter of our massekhet. Megilat Taanit, a second Temple document, is the subject of today’s daf. It contains days which the sages prohibited fasting and eulogizing. For example, “As it is taught in Megillat Ta’anit: On the twenty-eighth of Adar good tidings came to the Jews, that they would not be restricted from Torah study, and they declared this date a commemorative day. The baraita proceeds to describe the events of this day. As on one occasion the wicked empire, Rome, issued a decree of apostasy against the Jews, that they may not occupy themselves with Torah study, and that they may not circumcise their sons, and that they must desecrate Shabbat. What did Yehuda ben Shammua and his colleagues do? They went and sought the advice of a certain Roman matron [matronita] whose company was kept by all the prominent people of Rome.

“ She said to them: Arise and cry out [hafginu] at night. They went and cried out at night, saying: O Heaven! Are we not brothers? Are we not children of one father? Are we not the children of one mother? How are we different from any other nation and tongue that you single us out and issue against us evil decrees? Their cries were effective, and the authorities annulled the decrees, and they made that day a commemorative holiday.”(Sefaria.org translation)

In the course of the discussion two days are explicitly mentioned. One is Nicanor’s Day. I chose to write about Nicanor’s Day because it is part of the Hanukkah story that the majority of us don’t know anything about and we light the third candle on the Hanukkiah. “What is the origin of Nicanor’s Day and what is the origin of Trajan’s Day? As it is taught in a baraita: Nicanor was one of the generals [iparkhei] in the Greek army, and each and every day he would wave his hand over Judea and Jerusalem and say: When will this city fall into my hands, and I shall trample it? And when the Hasmonean monarchy overcame the Greeks and emerged victorious over them, they killed Nicanor in battle, cut off his thumbs and big toes, and hung them on the gates of Jerusalem, saying: The mouth that spoke with pride, and the hands that waved over Jerusalem, may vengeance be taken against them. This occurred on the thirteenth of Adar.” (Sefaria.org translation)

We learned back in TB Rosh Hashana 18ball those rabbinic holidays were annulled except Hanukkah and Purim.