As popular culture's favorite Jewish holiday approaches, it's a good idea to ask the question of why we light Hannukah candles. Ask any Jew today, and a good many non-Jews, and you'll get an answer which is something like, "a flask of oil was found with only one days worth of oil and it lasted for eight days, long enough for new oil to be made." But, if you asked a Jew shortly after the victory over Antiochus, would they give the same answer? What about one several hundred years later, in the first century CE? What about the rabbis of the Talmud? This is the topic of this week's post.
Hannukah in the Book of the
Maccabees
The best source we
have about the events concerning Hannukah are in the book of the
Maccabees. There are several versions online. Here's one in English. The English is just as good as Hebrew here, since the original
Hebrew is lost, and both would be translated from the surviving versions in Greek. There
are several books of the Maccabees, but the first one is the
important one. Let's see what it says about the rededication of the
temple, the original Hannukah.
The rededication
is described in 1 Mac. 4:36-61 and is too long to quote here in full, but
feel free to read it in the link above. The menorah is mentioned
exactly once in the rededication in verses 49 and 50. (It's also
mentioned earlier when it gets carted out along with everything else
by Antiochus.) The two key verses are:
As is obvious upon first reading, there is no mention about difficulties regarding lighting the Menorah. No talk about kosher oil, and miraculous long burning oil. They recaptured the menorah, brought it into the temple, and lit it. C'est fini.49 And they made new holy vessels, and brought in the candlestick (menorah), and the altar of incense, and the table into the temple. 50 And they put incense upon the altar, and lighted up the lamps that were upon the candlestick (menorah), and they gave light in the temple.
In addition to 1
Maccabees, there is also the book of 2 Maccabees, which describes the
creation of the holiday. A version of the text in English can be
found here.
The orginal was written in Greek, probably in Alexandria, and like most of
the works of the Egyptian Jews, it is not held in high regard by Jews
today. Nevertheless, it also describes the events of Hannukah, and
is one of our early sources for the observance of the holiday in the years immediately after the event. The purification is in chapter 10 and
is similar to what is in 1 Maccabees. Some excerpts are given here.
3 They purified the sanctuary, and made another altar of sacrifice; then, striking fire out of flint, they offered sacrifices, after a lapse of two years, and they burned incense and lighted lamps and set out the bread of the Presence... 5 It happened that on the same day on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners, the purification of the sanctuary took place, that is, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month, which was Kislev. 6 And they celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the feast of booths, remembering how not long before, during the feast of booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals. 7 Therefore bearing ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place. 8 They decreed by public ordinance and vote that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year.
As you can see,
there is no mention about the miracle of the oil in this one either.
In both places the holiday seems to resemble Sukkot both
in length and in practice. As far as these books are concerned, the eight day length is chosen to mimic that holiday. If the writers of the books of
Maccabees knew about this miracle, they declined to mention it at all.
It's not clear when exactly the book of Maccabees was written, but
it's certainly the earliest references we have to Hannukah.
Hannukah in the First Century CE
At this time, the
holiday had already been established. We know this because of the
writings of Josephus who testifies to the practice. He writes about
it in Antiquities 12.7.6-7. Again some excerpts.
"So he chose some of his soldiers and gave them an order to fight the men that guarded the upper city until he has purified the Temple. When therefore he he had carefully purged it he brought in new vessels -- the menorah, the table and the incense altar, which were made of gold, and hung up the veils at the doors and restored the doors themselves. He also took down the altar and built a new one of stones that he gathered together, and such as had not been hewn with iron tools. And on the twenty-fifth day of the month Kislev, which the Macedonians call Apellaios, they lighted the lights that were on the menorah, and offered incense upon the altar, and laid the loaves upon the table, and offered whole burnt offerings upon the new altar...Indeed, they were so very glad at the revival of their customs and, after so long a time, having unexpectedly regained their right to worship, that they made it a law for their posterity that they should keep a festival celebrating the restoration of their Temple worship for eight days. And from that time to this we celebrate this, which we call the Festival of Lights, because, I imagine, beyond our hopes this right was brought to light, and so this name was placed on the festival. (my emphasis)
Josephus mentions that it was called
the festival of lights, but makes no mention about the lighting of
candles for the holidays, or indeed the miracle of the oil. He even makes a guess as to why it's called the festival of lights, and the guess has nothing to do with the menorah that he mentions earlier! Furthermore, Josephus was a sympathizer and supporter of Judaism. If Josephus wanted to de-emphasize the insurrectionist nature of the holiday, which would prevent the Roman from cracking down on it, basing the holiday on a miraculous reestablishment of candle lighting seems like it could provide an innocuous reason for celebration. It seems clear to me, Josephus did not know the story about the magical oil, or if he did, he didn't think much of it.
Hannukah in
Talmudic Times and Later
The first reference we have to the
miracle we all know about comes all the way in the 5th century CE.
It is from the Hebrew commentary to Megillat Ta'anit, which
can be read here. There
are a couple reasons mentioned for the Hannukah observance. My translation from the Hebrew
commentary is as follows:
"When the Greeks entered the temple, all the oil had been made impure, and when the Hasmoneans overcame them, and drove them out, they checked and did not find but one jar of oil that had the seal of the kohen gadol (high priest) that was not made impure and not used. It had but one day, but a miracle occurred and it lasted for eight."
So
there we are, the origin of the stories. The same story appears, essentially
verbatim in the Talmud (Shabbat 21b)
But there's more in the
text of Megillat
Ta'anit. It also asks again why eight days, and it gives a different answer. The answer (again, my translation):
"In the days of the Greek kings, the Hasmoneans entered the temple, and built he altar, and cleaned it, and built tools, and it took them eight days. And how did they light the candles? In the days of the Greek kings, the Hasmoneans entered the temple, with seven spears of iron in their hands and they grabbed wood with them and lit with them the Menorah."
Later
on, in the 9th century CE, the Pesikta Rabbati (ch 2) asks
the same question. My translation is as follows:
"And why do we
light candles on Hannukah? In the time when the children of the
Hasmonean high priest defeated the Greek kings, as it is written, "I
will stir your sons, Israel against your sons, Greece (Zech 9:13).
they entered the temple, and found eight iron spears and they fixed
them and lit in them."
So it seems that
even relatively late, at the end of the 1st millennium CE, it was unclear to people what was the correct
reason for lighting candles! The Pesikta Rabbati thinks that it should be eight days because they used eight iron spears as a makeshift menorah.
Where did the
Practice of Lighting Candles Actually Come From?
Based
on the above sources, it seems very unlikely that there was a
tradition of lighting candles on the holiday immediately after the event. It seems from the sources above, that the tradition of
lighting candles came first, even though it's not explicitly mentioned in Josephus. The explanations of the practice in
light of Hannukah miracles came later.
But where could the practice come from? For this we turn back to the
Gemara.
The
section in masechet Shabbat mentioned
above is the only section in
the Talmud which
clearly references Hannukah, but there's a passage in masechet
Avodah Zarah that should catch
your attention. Page 8a (my translation):
"Rav Hanan bar Raba said, Kalends is 8 days after the turning (solstice), Saturnalia is 8 days before, this is symbolized by, 'from the back and from the front you have afflicted me (Psa. 139:5).' Our Rabbis taught, when Adam saw that the days were getting shorter he said, "Oy vey, maybe because I messed up, the world is getting dark, and it will return to chaos, and this is the death, decided for me from heaven." He then made an 8 day fast, when he saw the turning of Tevet, and saw a day that was longer, he said, 'It's the way of the world', and he made an 8 day holiday. In the following years he made each of them festivals. He did it for God, but they (Romans) do it for idolatry."
This idea of a festival to mark the time when the days start getting
longer is common. Many cultures have solstice festivals around the
new year, and Romans were no exception. The Talmud's Rabbis were
not quite accurate with their understanding of Roman culture. The Kalends
were the first day of the new month, and there was one for every
month. They were not an eight day holiday. Similarly, Saturnalia
varied in length from three to seven days, but never eight. What was
eight days long and at this time of year? As we've seen earlier, the original Hannukah celebration was eight days. Why would the Rabbis make such an obvious
connection between Saturnalia and Hannukah?
Perhaps we can glean some more info if we look at the Roman festival
of Saturnalia itself. Fowler in his book "Roman Festivals" (p 272)
describes the giving of gifts on the Saturnalia holiday. He says:
"...among [the gifts] the wax candles (cerei) deseve notice; as they are thought to have some reference to the returning power of the sun's light after the solstice."
So the Romans had a holiday,
around the solstice, in which special candles played an important
role. He also describes the holiday as incredibly popular quoting
Seneca (p. 270) as saying, "All Rome would go mad on this
holiday."
Now
we can try to piece together the origin of the Hannukah candle-lighting custom,
putting all the evidence together with a bit of reasonable
speculation. Just like during the actual time of Hannukah under the
Greeks, some Jews probably adopted some popular Roman cultural
elements (we saw this earlier with the attempt to make fake foreskins). It seems reasonable to assume that many Jews participate in the most popular holiday, Saturnalia. It's also
possible that the Saturnalia celebration rivaled the normal Hannukah
celebration, already established around this time. This, did not sit well with the Rabbis, as you might
imagine. But, it would be difficult to abolish such a popular Saturnalia
celebration by fiat. So instead, they merged it with Hannukah.
Alternatively, it's possible that popular culture did the merging and the Rabbis just had to provide an explanation of why Jews are now lighting candles.
Nevertheless, having a holiday that originated among the pagan Romans was anathema to the Rabbis, so they produced their own stories about why candles are lit. This explains why the stories about finding a magical jar of oil or lighting eight spears are so much later than the rest of the Hannukah story. The Rabbis even went a step further, taking the Jewish version of Saturnalia and projecting it back to Adam, thereby justifying the observance of even that. Also note that this reason for an eight day holiday has nothing to do with insurrection against a ruling power. Something the Rabbis sitting under the thumb of Rome were definitely cognizant about.
Nevertheless, having a holiday that originated among the pagan Romans was anathema to the Rabbis, so they produced their own stories about why candles are lit. This explains why the stories about finding a magical jar of oil or lighting eight spears are so much later than the rest of the Hannukah story. The Rabbis even went a step further, taking the Jewish version of Saturnalia and projecting it back to Adam, thereby justifying the observance of even that. Also note that this reason for an eight day holiday has nothing to do with insurrection against a ruling power. Something the Rabbis sitting under the thumb of Rome were definitely cognizant about.
Judaism
has a long history of adapting stuff from the cultures around it. It
was really only after the Talmud was written that things started
being set. Even then there were changes, but they were lesser in
magnitude. This adaption and merging, or to use the academic word,
syncretization, of other cultures is one of the themes I've been
attempting to bring out in
this blog. And we'll see
even more examples in the future, I'm sure.
Edit 10/23/18: A previous version incorrectly stated that Josephus mentioned the practice of lighting candles.
Edit 10/23/18: A previous version incorrectly stated that Josephus mentioned the practice of lighting candles.
Excellent discussion. A long time ago in my late teens or early twenties, when I first entered Academic Libraries I came across a discussion of Candelabras used in African religions. This shocked me - because I thought Judaism was unique. There is no question Yahweh is associated with fire.
ReplyDeleteYour post also shows a good example of myth evolution in action.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that there was a Talmudic dispute between those who wanted to light one candle the first night, two the second, etc., and those who wanted to light eight candles the first night, seven the second, etc. Could you, uh...
ReplyDelete...shed some light...
...on that dispute? It was supposed to be between Hillel's and Shammai's followers, but a quick look makes the dates really not work out on this one. Where is this story from?
I'm not at all what you mean by the dates not working out. The argument is in the same place in the Gemara as the other quote above. Shabbat 21b. It's the only place it discusses Hannukah. Hannukah is not discussed at all in the Mishnah.
DeleteCopying from the English link above:
Beth Shammai maintain: On the first day eight lights are lit and thereafter they are gradually reduced; but Beth Hillel say: On the first day one is lit and thereafter they are progressively increased.
Shammai and Hillel lived sometime around 0 CE. This is about 50-150 years earlier than Josephus who claims that by his time lighting candles on Hannukah was already in practice. However, the quote here is not from Shammai and Hillel but rather from their academies. So this debate could have began anytime between about 50 CE to the recording of the talmud in roughly 500 CE.
My guess, and it's only a guess, is that this debate postdates the Mishnah, and that at the time of writing of the Mishnah, Hannukah candles were in practice among many Jews, but not officially recognized by the Rabbis. One of course is left to wonder that if lighting candles on Hannukah is an old practice, predating Roman times, then how did Jewish people light their candles before the Hillel Shammai debate?
Google won't let me edit.
Delete"I'm not at all what" should be "I'm not at all sure what"
Apologies for randomly commenting on your old articles.
ReplyDeleteYou state a couple of times that Josephus mantioned the custom of lighting candles on Hannuka. However your quote from Josephus doesn't make that clear at all. He does call it the "Festival of Lights", but then goes on to be unsure of the reason for calling it that. Surely if they were lighting candles on Hannuka then he would say something like "...which we call the Festival of Lights, on account of our practice of lighting candles each day of the festival".
Is there another quote from Josephus (or contemporary) that specifically states the custom of lighting candles on Hannuka? If not, why do you say emphatically that the custom was around in Josephus' time? Is that just from the fact that he names it as the Festival of Lights?
No worries about the comments. I find it interesting that people are still finding and reading these articles.
DeleteAs far as Josephus, I think this is all we have, so we must make do with it. I believe I said something fairly similar to what you are suggesting. My point with bringing Josephus is that he doesn't actually really know about the candle lighting custom, or the candle-miracle story. Josephus' story is in line with what we read in the Book of the Maccabees.
What I bring from Josephus is that the holiday itself is established, not that the candle-lighting custom was established.
It appears that I did state that Josephus says the candle lighting practice was established in the comments, but I must say now that this is an error. Unfortunately I can't edit comments, so the error will stand for prosperity. It is more accurate to say that the Chanukah holiday was established in the time of Josephus, but we can't really say anything about candle-lighting.
It wasn’t from your comments, but the main article:
Delete“ It seems from the sources above, that the tradition of lighting candles came first, it's mentioned in Josephus...”
Here you seem to imply thay the tradition of lightning candles is mentioned in Josephus when it is not (and he even seems to imply he does not know about the candle lighting as he does not point to them as a reason for the name of the festival).
Ah you're right! I agree with your statement that Josephus does not mention candle lighting, and the statement is in error. The post I can edit, and I did. I also left a note on the bottom.
DeleteTruly excellent discussion of the festival. Thank you very much. You have given me more than one reason to celebrate Hannuka! The most common reason (the magic oil) is less interesting. The others are fascinating. I would add that November is the time of the olive oil harvest in Israel. Add a few days to get the olives pressed into oil and you arrive at 25 Kislev! Yet another reason to celebrate Hannuka. (Same as Pesah is at the time of the barley festival, Shavuoth the wheat and the Tishrey festivals the time of the harvest of the remaining 7 species, other than the olive (pomegranate, grape, fig and date)). The olive needed and got its own harvest celebration.
ReplyDelete