Al HaNissim: A Chanukah Prayer Revised to Include 1 Maccabees

thetorah.com, 2019

1 Maccabees recounts how Mattathias instigated a rebellion against the Greeks out of zealotry against Jewish idolatry. Later midrashim tell how Mattathias’ daughter Channah goaded her father and brothers into fighting the Greeks to protect her from being raped by the local governor. Rachel Adelman, "Channah, Daughter of Mattathias: Instigator of the Maccabean Rebellion" TheTorah.com (2019).https://thetorah.com/article/channah-daughter-of-mattathias-instigator-of-the-maccabean-rebellion

2014

This dissertation conducts a close literary analysis of a variety of Talmudic-era prayers in order to develop a method of interpretation, called the “literary-intertext” method. Drawing on literary theory and the work of intertextuality in biblical and midrashic fields, this method offers a literary reading of prayer texts based on the juxtaposition with biblical intertexts.

Whenever we hear the phrase “Pirsumei Nisa” (publicizing the Miracle), we immediately tend to think about the lighting of Hanukkah. From the time of the Talmud up until our days, the lighting of the Hanukkiah has been the most paradigmatic example of a commandment whose main purpose is to spread a miracle. Despite this fact, there are other commandments too that, according to the Babylonian Talmud, also involves Pirsumei Nisa. This is the case of the reading of the Megillah during Purim, the recitation of the Hallel in the festivals and drinking the four cups during the Pesach Seder. Throughout this paper we will try to trace the origin of Pirsumei Nisa, its meaning in Talmudic literature and its expansion and interpretation in the Rishonim and in the post-Talmudic halakhic literature. The main goal, however, is to understand why especially in these three festivals (Passover, Hanukkah and Purim) we have this special claim of the rabbis of Pirsumei Nisa and why over these specific commandments. What do Passover, Hanukkah and Purim have in common? What do the commandments which the Talmudic dictum Pirsumei Nisa is applied have in common? Why is the commandment of Pirsumei Nisa on Hanukkah more popular and better known than in Passover? These are some of the questions that will lead our study.

Every Yom Tov has its famous questions that show up repeatedly in writings and shiurim. Chanukah, too, has its share of well-known questions. In this article, I would like to deal with one famous question that has some not-very-famous answers. A few years ago I dealt with this topic on the Seforim Blog (here). More recently in Ami Magazine (# 50) I returned to some of the topics related to this. This post contains new information as well as corrections that were not included in those earlier articles.

2013

This thesis challenges the position that the serek texts are primarily prescriptive and legal, as they have been customarily defined. It argues that the term serek should be reconceptualized according to descriptive analysis, with the purpose of creating what C. Newsom terms a ‘Gestalt structure.’ In order to achieve this, four serek texts (M, S, Sa, and D) will be analyzed at three literary levels—semantic, textual and hypertextual—explaining how the elements at these levels interact as cohesive wholes, thus serving to create a more complete picture of this group of texts as a literary unity. Thus, while the separate, constituent semantic, textual and hypertextual parts must be analysed as separate elements, the fundamental questions posed regarding these elements will be different in a Gestalt paradigm as compared to a traditional, definitional analysis. Going from the micro to the macro, the first chapter will look at the serek texts through the ‘microscope’ of close philological...

Hebrew; Ph. D. diss., The Hebrew University of …, 2002

The Third Book of Maccabees is not considered to have great historical or literary value and, therefore, has not frequently been discussed in the literature. Moreover, even despite the growing academic preoccupation with Jewish Hellenistic literature, this book has remained marginal. The purpose of this study is to examine the historical significance of III Maccabees, that is to determine its place from the point of view of the Weltanschauungen prevalent in Hellenistic Jewry and the historical context in which it was composed. The basic assumption of the study is that the preliminary stage in a historical discussion of any written source, be it historiographic or fictional, is the examination of its nature and its goals. Hence, literary analysis of III Maccabees must proceed before any historical conclusions may be reached.

Ce document est une recherche sur les mentions explicites au Messie dans la littérature rabbinique.

A de rares exceptions près, nous sommes tous très ignorants des nombreux détails se rapportant à l’Arche d’Alliance. Il m’a donc semblé nécessaire de collecter ceux-ci à travers les Ecritures et, plus largement, la littérature rabbinique, puis d’en tirer ainsi une vision plus détaillée de ce qu’était l’Arche, de ce qu’elle représentait, ainsi que de ses pérégrinations.

I wrote this paper in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an MA in Humanities at York University. Note 135 should be replaced with the following: The ruling was signed 18 Adar, 5716 (=1956) and appeared in 'Dos Yiddishe Vort' 3, no. 24 (Nisan 5716), 4. The ban was signed by Avraham Yoffen, Avraham Kalmanowitz, Aharon Kotler, Gedalia Schorr, Dovid Lifshitz, Chaim Mordechai Katz, Yaakov Kamenetsky, Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, Yitzchok Hutner, Mendel Zaks and Moshe Feinstein.