Question
The Maccabean victory that gave rise to Chanukah did not endure: the freedom it

"What is Chanukah?" (Talmud Shabbat 23b) A strange question when everybody already knew the answer.

achieved lasted less than a century. So, why should later generations regard the event as worth celebrating?


Answer
The sages recognised the problem when they asked the question, "Mai Chanukah?" - "What is Chanukah?" (Talmud Shabbat 23b) A strange question when everybody already knew the answer. But their explanation is important both for what it says and what it does not say.


They said that when the Greeks entered the Temple and defiled the oil, the Hasmoneans succeeded in finding only one cruse of undefiled oil. A miracle occurred and the oil in the cruse burned for eight days.


What the rabbinic explanation does not say is that nationalism had triumphed, freedom had been regained and political goals had been achieved. No one needed to tell the rabbis that these were the facts of life, but neither did anyone need to remind them that the victory was not permanent.


What the rabbis were asking was, "What is the significance of Chanukah in every set of circumstances?" And their answer was to emphasise the miraculous power of faith and hope.


The Maccabees could have said, "There is not enough pure oil to rekindle the light; it is not worth trying." What they did was to take what little they had, and to have faith that God would support their efforts. A paradigm of Jewish history: sometimes we lacked physical freedom, but our spiritual and cultural freedom were unbounded.


Today, there is a new challenge. Almost every Jew in the world lives in conditions of physical freedom. We have to ensure that we do not allow our spiritual and cultural freedom to diminish because of complacency or indolence. However little we sometimes have to build on, we have to have faith that we will succeed.


The Mad King


Question
Why did some of Antiochus's subjects call him "The Mad King"?


Answer
Leaders all have their detractors. In the case of Antiochus, they employed a play on words. Instead of Epiphanes ("god manifest"), theycalled him Epimanes ("mad one"). It may be that he showed signs of instability or, more probably, they thought his policies irrational.


One wonders why his madness, whatever its nature, expressed itself in hatred of Jews. It is likely that his endeavours to unify his kingdom with Hellenistic cultural norms were frustrated by Jewish non-compliance.


The Jews objected to the externalities of Hellenistic life, such as sporting competitions in which athletes competed naked, causing embarrassment to men who had been

His endeavours to unify his kingdom with Hellenistic cultural norms were frustrated by Jewish non-compliance.

circumcised. Jewish reservations about Hellenisation went further, however. Jews could not worship a pantheon, or substitute human reason for Divine revelation. They could not deify shape and beauty, and downplay goodness and morality.


If the Jews had gone along with the king's edicts, it would have been they who would have been mad.


The Princes


Question
Why are the Chanukah Torah readings about the princes of the Israelite tribes and not specifically about the festival itself?


Answer
Because Chanukah is not Biblical, there cannot be any direct Scriptural readings about the festival. However, the sages (see Mishnah Megillah 3:6) chose passages from parashat Naso, which deal with the gifts the princes brought to the dedication of the Tabernacle. The gifts are stated as being for "chanukat ha-mizbe'ach," - "the dedication of the altar." The key word, "dedication," is, of course, the theme of the festival, which marks the re-dedication of the sanctuary after the enemy had been defeated.