Hanukkah History PUB:

The vagaries of the Jewish experience are all manifest in the story of Chanukah. Some, such as religious persecution and factional tensions, are so familiar that we are almost inured to them. Others may make us pause as we ask ourselves: " What is the appropriate degree to which we should embrace secular culture? " Then there are others, which at first glance seem irrelevant or simply tangential, yet upon further consideration can be interpreted as watershed moments. Into this category are the seemingly innocuous or non-targeted bureaucratic decisions that have great potential to wreak havoc on Jewish life and sustainability. The Syrian Greeks, of course, did not invent anti-Semitism. Besides Pharaoh who enslaved us and Haman who tried to kill us, there was Manetho, an Egyptian priest of the third century BCE, who maintained that the Jews were enemies of mankind and should be annihilated. His retelling of the Exodus story has the Jews not escaping to physical and spiritual freedom but rather as a collection of diseased individuals (lepers, actually), expelled from Egypt in order to preserve the body politic. Nevertheless, when Antiochus IV specifically outlawed Jewish ritual practices such as brit milah (circumcision), Shabbat observance, dietary laws, and the Temple liturgy, he earned the ignominious distinction of being the first ruler in history to implement a religious persecution. Once the Jewish religion itself was targeted (not just the Jewish people), the focal point for Jewish ritual practice—the Temple Mount—became the obvious target. Antiochus and his Jewish supporters enacted a program to eradicate the particular and non-inclusive character of the sacred space. The Syrian Greeks first removed the walls and gates that had separated the Temple Mount from the city, and, in deliberate violation of traditional precepts, planted trees, which transformed the Temple Mount into a Greek-style sacred grove. The final straw occurred on the 15 th of Kislev 167 BCE when the Jews learned that an " abomination " —most likely a matzeva (standing stone)—had been erected near the mizbeach (altar). 1 The Temple Mount now resembled an 1 " Now on the 15 th day of Kislev. .. they erected an abomination of desolation upon the altar " (1 Maccabees 1:54).

When religious traditions travel they tend to adapt to their new surroundings. Like new products seeking to penetrate a foreign market, they often undergo a process of modification and re-packaging that makes them comprehensible and inviting to their potential clientele. This can often be a subconscious process whereby the elements in the imported tradition that evoke more familiar local practices rise to prominence and develop further whereas others sink into the background. This article seeks to account for the development of the ritual observance of the festival of Hanukah, a festival that was brought from Judaea to Babylonia. It pinpoints the holiday’s evolution upon its reception in Babylonia. Observing similarities in ritual between the receiving community – Babylonian Jewry, and the prevalent practices found among the Zoroastrians of the region it suggests a connection between the two. This connection intimates that the ritual celebration of Hanukkah was radically and fundamentally transformed in its new religious environment as a result of its encounter with local religious custom.

The Lehrhaus, 2022

In his latest for the Lehrhaus, Aton Holzer sheds light on the hidden roots of Hanukkah–exploring the political and theological meaning of the holiday from the Second Temple period through the Talmud.

ever, their affairs were established, and though they were subjected to an easy tribute, they lived under their own laws, in the form of a commonwealth, governed by the high-priest, and the council of seventy-two elders ; and exercised among themselves the power of life and death.* Jerusalem being at length rebuilt, fortified, and repeopled., began to resume some appearance of its former splendour, and the temple was honoured by the offerings of strangers.f After the death of Nehemiah, the government of Judea appears to have been joined to the prefecture of Syria, from which the high priests received their authority.]; This circumstance induced many persons to aspire to that high office merely through ambition and avarice, who were destitute of zeal * The grand council of the nation called the Sanhedrim, which assembled in an apartment of the temple at Jerusalem, possessed the power of life and death. The Jews styled it a hedge to the laws, because the members of the council had authority to interpret it at certain times and on certain occasions, as they thought proper. Its authority extended over all the synagogues in Judea and remote countries, and no appeal could be made from its sentence. Whether this consistory of seventy elders was a perpetual, or only a temporary institution, is a subject of dispute. The Jews, and after them Grotius, Selden, Lightfoot, and several other learned Christians, maintain that it was first instituted by Moses; that the seventy-two elders appointed to assist him were its first members; and that the Sanhedrim, so famous in the latter ages of Jewish polity, subsisted after his time until the destruction of the temple. But Basnage and others hare attempted to prove that the court of the Sanhedrim was first established in the time of the Maccabees. Basnage, p. 400. Jennings' * Dr. Prideaux and other learned writers have maintained that there were not any synagogues before the captivity, as there is no mention of them in the Old Testament, hut after that period their number was very great. They were places of prayer and religious assemblies for the worship of God. The times of the synagogue service were three days every week besides fasts and festivals. The Jews also attended prayers three times every day, in the morning, afternoon, and at night. At the east end in every synagogue is an ark or chest, in commemoration of the ark of the covenant which was in the temple; and in this ark they lock up the Pentateuch, written upon vellum with a particular ink. Sec Prideaux's Connection, vol. ii. p. 534, 535, and Picurl's Iteligious Ceremonies of the Jftus. + The mode of worship adopted in the Jewish synagogues subsequent to the captivity, differed but little from the present worship of Christian assemblies; for it consisted of three parts, reading the scriptures, prayer, and preaching. Graves s Lectures on the Pentateuch. Published 1807. i We have a short but beautiful description of Ezra's first preach-* See an account of these sects in Section V. t Dan. ii. 39. + Josephus's Jewish Antiquities. * Josephus. t The temporal authority, which was united with the pontifical, made the office of high priest appear of such value to Menelaus and Jason. Prideaux, vol. ii. p. 168. t Rollin's Ancient History, vol. viii. p. 390. C * At this time the Samaritans presented a petition to the king, in which they declared themselves not to be Jews, and requested that their temple on Mount Gerizzim might be dedicated to the Grecian Jupiter, and called after his name. Ilollins Ancient History. t Frideaux, vol. ii. p. 184, 1ST. * Whiston's Josephuv vol. iii. p. 46. t Ibid. cularly to those Jews recently tortured at Jerusalem by the merciless Antiochus Epiphanes, as well as those martyred 50 years before at Alexandria by the cruel Ptolemy Philopater. Prideaux'a Connection, vol. ii. p. 193. Gillie's History, vol. iii. p. 183. + Encyclopedia. * For a particular account of the battles between the Syrians and Jews, see 1 Maccabees iii. iv. t 1 Maccabees iv. * Rollin's Ancient History, vol. viii. t 2 Maccabees ix. Josephus, vol. iii p. 69. * 1 Maccabees ix. 28 INTRODUCTION. wickedness, and expired in agonies.* The party of Judas made the most strenuous exertions against their enemies, and unanimously chose Jonathan to succeed his brother as their prince and general. Under his direction the war was conducted with such energy and success, that the Syrians, disturbed by their own intestine divisions,, solemnly engaged to refrain from further hostilities, and a treaty of peace was concluded, f Immediately after the Syrian forces left Judea, Jonathan commenced a regular government, similar to that of the ancient Israelitish judges ; be repaired the walls of Jerusalem, fortified the city, and made several important reformations in the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of his country. The increase of his reputation and success, induced the competitors for the Syrian monarchy to court his friendship ; and as Demetrius had formerly persecuted the Jews, he joined the party of his rival Alexander Bela. With the unanimous consent of the people, he accepted the high priesthood from him ; [B. C. 144.] that place having been vacant seven years from the death of Alcimus. Jonathan also formed an alliance with the Romans and Lacedemonians, and rendered himself formidable by his military achievements. But after he had governed the Jewish nation with equal pru-* By the order of prophets Haggai and Zechariah, a low wall or inclosure was built round the sanctuary to separate the holy from the unholy ; and the rule was, that within this no tincircumcised person was to enter. Alcimus, in order to give the Gentiles equal liberty with the Jews, to pass into the inner courts of the temple, ordered this wall of partition to be pulled down. Prideaux'x Connection, vol. ii. p. 264. + Prideaux's Connection, vol. ii. p 264. * Josephus, vol. T. p. 34. * Josephus, vol. v. p. 37 40. t Jbid. t^i dp 43.

This article analyzes the nexus between collective violence, temple violation, and military glory in 1 and 2 Maccabees by comparing two festivals established in the context of revolt and guerilla warfare; namely, Hanukkah and Nicanor’s Day. It argues that the accounts of the origins of these two festivals in 1 and 2 Maccabees reinforce the close connection between the violation of the temple cult and violence against the community in the memories of the Maccabean rebellion that the authors of these books promote. The article further suggests that the annual celebration of Hanukkah and Nicanor’s day was intended to provide sophisticated mnemonic legitimation of the Hasmonean claim to exercise both military and cultic agency as kings and high priests in Judea.

Revue Biblique 127,3 (2020), pp. 338-351, 2020

Despite the fact that Passover constitutes one of the most important Jewish feasts, its origins still remain somehow obscure. Biblical references indicate two incompatible traditions about the original character of Passover: a domestic ritual of common Israelites, or a central cultic ritual in the Jerusalem sanctuary. The article aims to present the hypothesis that the central royal sacrifice in Jerusalem in the late 7th century BCE evolved into the domestic feast of 'common Israelites' during the Babylonian Exile. This proposal finds support in John Van Seters' reconstruction of the process of the composition of the Exodus-narratives during the Exile. The next changes in Passover took place in the mid-5 th century BCE, linked to the process of establishing the new cultic calendar. A domestic-like feast was anchored to the fixed days of the month, and incorporated into the pilgrimage to the central sanctuary. This process is well illustrated by the testimonies from Elephantine, in the 5th century BCE. The article concludes by pointing out possible neglected political contexts of the religious reform in 5th century Jehud.