Or more specifically, which miracle do you believe in? And who cares if it didn’t happen? And what is really the message behind Chanukah?
I- Why celebrate the miracle of the oil?
We all know the old nutcracker about the oil that was meant to last for one day but ended up lasting for eight; allowing more pure oil to be made. This, of course, provides a neat (if fictional) explanation of why Chanukah is eight days long. Equally, I assumed that this was indeed the miracle that we are thanking HaShem for. This, to my surprise wrong as explained in this post on the Hirhurim blog. For example, Rav Shlomo Auerbach says:
"The primary purpose for lighting the Chanukah candles is in order to praise the Holy One Blessed Be He for the great miracles which He performed for our forefathers in the military victory. Therefore, when lighting the candles one is to concentrate on thanking God for the military victory."
It is the military victory that we thank HaShem for in Al Hanisim, Haneirot Hallelu and She-ashe Nissim blessing.
Yet it is entirely understandable how the military victory has got played down in Chanukah folklore for several reasons. Firstly, the Maccabbees/ Hasmoneans (the military heroes) became Sadduccees who opposed rabbinic authority. Equally, it was political infighting between the Hasmonean rulers that let the Romans in and led to the ultimate exile of the Jewish people. It may be the zealots and ‘patriots’ who are the most vociferous in demanding action against and fighting our enemies. [The Maccabbees certainly weren’t fighting for ‘religious freedom’ that some liberals claim Chanukah is all about]. Yet, religious or military zealots can never run or maintain a society.
As such, whilst the rabbis certainly appreciated what they did for us, were not so keen on glorifying the Maccabees per se. We can hardly be simply celebrating the political freedom they helped us achieve when, for millenia, we did not have it. It would be hard to be sincere about the military victory in exile, when it was they who helped cause the exile! This can also help us understand why the books of the Maccabees- pretty much the only source for the Chanukah story- were never incorporated into Tanach and remained part of the apocrypha.
Instead, the rabbis wanted to emphasise something spiritual instead. They wanted a timeless message of eternal value, rather than a time-bound and ephemeral one. This was found in the re-dedication of the temple. After destruction by an enemy power and enemy ideology, we picked ourselves up and re-dedicated ourselves to G-d. What’s not to celebrate?!?!?!?
And they happened to celebrate it by telling a cute story about oil…
II- But who believes in miracles nowadays?
With the advent of Zionism, the military victory has again risen in provenance. After all, this was the action of humanity- how humanity fought for themselves and not sat back in the passivity of exile. Whereas the pious wait for miracles and allow themselves to be oppressed, the new and strong breed of Jew takes his destiny in his own hands. And who believes in these fairy stories in the age of enlightenment anyway? The precise problem with Chanukah is its miraculous nature and needs to be adapted. Or so the narrative goes.
But honestly, when you closely assess it, does anyone really believe in this miracle of Chanukah? Are religious people- or at least the more rational sort- hypocrites in talking about this stuff when it is not something they would be comfortable defending? And by rational sort, I don’t mean any particular denomination (I include vast majority of Chareidim). Nor am I talking about heretical types. I’m talking about G-d-fearing Jews who believe that the world and its happenings show signs of G-d’s involvement. Nevertheless, they would find it hard to sincerely believe in something that their everyday experience tells them is ‘impossible’. G-d directs things but doesn’t do so by performing cheap conjuring tricks. Sure, they will come in different sorts of rationalisation about how we must believe the words of Chazal or how G-d can do anything. But will this be anything more than an abstract principle?
There has been a fierce debate about this on comment posts to blogs. Comments range from “I can't find anyone in my MO shul that really believes in the miracle. The most I could get was people who thought that it maybe happened” to “Don't be ridiculous. Maybe a few academic types might not believe in it but the vast majority in the MO world do.” Some say that even secular people believe it whilst others think they treat it like Father Christmas.
My own personal opinion is that most people have not put that much thought into it! They don’t really disbelieve it or really believe it either. They don’t self-consciously treat it like Father Christmas or a fairy tale, nor viscerally feel the miracle as ‘reality’. Nor do they care. The story is told and the message is derived from it. Religious Jews quite sensibly ask “What can I learn from this?” and “What were they trying to teach?” and find the more philosophical or historical questions relatively unimportant. If pressed, there would be a variety of different responses but people will gladly get back to giving a dvar Torah. Their other answer will be, at most, a hurdle to be cleared and a conundrum to be solved and have no real bearing on their practice or their emunah.
I include myself in the above category. Whether it is historically accurate is not something I have put a great deal of thought into. There is no reason to deny that it happened but if it didn’t happen: Nu? A Kasha! Time to tell the story!
But what’s the good of a story that is not (necessarily) true…
III- The Oil Miracle? Nope, never heard of that!
Funnily enough, this particular miracles has no particular Jewish provenance. It is one story amongst many as why we light the candles and celebrate for eight days- and a late one at that! It is mentioned in the Talmud but there is no mention of it in earlier sources. It is not in the book of the Maccabees nor is it talked about in early Rabbinic works.
As for the question as to why we light the candles, we have an earlier explanation that has got nothing to do with the miracle of the oil. For example in Pesikti Rabbati it says:
"Why do we kindle lights on Hanukah? Because when the sons of the Hasmoneans, the High Priest, defeated the Hellenists, they entered the Temple and found there eight iron spears. They stuck candles on them and lit them."
And in Megillat Ta’anit:
"Why did the rabbis make Hanukah eight days? Because . . . the Hasmoneans entered the Temple and erected the altar and whitewashed it and repaired all of the ritual utensils. They were kept busy for eight days. And why do we light candles? Because . . . when the Hasmoneans entered the Temple there were eight iron spears in their hands. They covered them with wood and lit candles on them. They did this each of the 8 days."
The reason in common with the oil story is that it is all about the rededication of the temple and the re-establishment of our religious service in opposition to the will of the Greeks. This motive is also readily apparent for the reasons given why Chanukah is eight days long. A reason given in the books of the Maccabees themselves is that it is a direct imitation of Sukkot (+ Shemini Atzeret) which the Greeks had very recently stopped them celebrating. Everything the Greeks had tried to quash was re-established and through human endeavour and dedication!
Believing is a particular miracle of course or events does not touch on the truth of Chanukah…
IV- The Miracle and the Message
This is why we technically only celebrate the miracle of the military victory. It was miraculous because it was not the Maccabees but the right hand and outstretched arms of Hashem that won the war. This might, wrath, and violence is- and rightly so- only the domain of Hashem. We do not celebrate the violence itself but lies in what the miracle allowed us to do. Only through the miracles of a military victory could the Jews complete their mission but this was not itself physical or military, but spiritual. It was not in G-d’s hand but in ours, so that we could dedicate ourselves to Hashem.
Even in the miracle of the oil, we rationed out the oil over the 8 days. There was no passive waiting around for a miracle but instead, we made contingency plans. We put our effort in and G-d miraculously rewarded us by keeping them alight the whole day. So even here where there IS a miracle, we don’t thank Hashem for it. We thank him for the miracle (victory) that allowed us to sanctify his Name.
Yet, I feel the point is even more special with the non-miraculous stories. It is not a miraculous intervention to return us to the same point we left off at. No, everything that was bad was turned around and used by us as a renewed opportunity to do good. Yes, the menorah was completely destroyed but the they dedicated the spears to be used as a menorah. Yes, they couldn’t celebrate Sukkot that year but they used it as an opportunity to dedicate 'even ‘secular time’ to G-d.
This message even comes through in the time of year and how long Chanukah is. It happens around the Winter Solstice, about which the Talmud says:
R. Hanan b. Rabba said: [The festival of] the Kalends [Roman New Year] is observed on the eight days following the [Winter] Solstice; [the festival of] Saturnalia on the eight days preceding the Solstice. As a mnemonic, use "From the back and the front you have afflicted me", etc. (Tehillim 139:5).
The Romans and the Greeks celebrated eight day festivals and ‘established them for idolatry’, whilst the Jews came along and established a Winter Solstice festival and ‘dedicated it for the sake of heaven’.
I think this is the supreme highlight of Judaism. We could take the form of the Roman “symposium” and turn it into a Seder night, and take the “Afikoman” (after dinner debauchery) and turn it into a praise of G-d (hallel). Where our enemies see the physical world as detached from the service of G-d, we use as a dediation. So who cares whether oil lasted for eight days or not? At Chanukah we thank G-d for the miracle, but it is we who light the lights!
