December 2000 - כִּסְלֵו .. טֵבֵת תשס״א Kislev..Tevet 5761

Did you know that the sages and rabbis of the Talmud were not crazy about the holiday of Chanukkah? In twenty volumes of Talmud there is not a single chapter and certainly not an entire tractate dedicated to Chanukkah. In fact there are only passing mentions of this tradition in other contexts. For example the order of lighting the candles is included in the discussion of Shabbat candles. Why would the sages try to ignore such a popular holiday? By and large the rabbis of the Mishna and later the complete Talmud were opposed to war and especially messianic wars. These sages had lived through two devastating messianic wars against Rome, 68 - 72 and 132 - 135 CE. In 70, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and in 135, after the death of Bar Kochba, the Romans destroyed the rest of the Holy City. The sages must have known that the Maccabbean revolt headed first by Mattathius the priest and then by his son, Judah Maccabbee, was a messianic war. [In the Torah the high priest was anointed, meshiach, and in the NaKh the Davidic king was anointed. Therefore in the early centuries the meshiach, (= messiah) could be a priest like Mattathius and Judah, or Davidic royalty like Bar Kochba.] While the Maccabbean revolt against the Syrian Greeks was ultimately successful, the two first century revolts against Rome were devastating. The rabbis simply did not want to encourage more wars. From the retrospect of history we can compare the Maccabbean revolt to the unsuccessful revolts against Rome. The Maccabbees managed to unify the nationalists, the pietists and the supporters of the Zadokite priesthood in their battle to rid the enemy from their country and the Holy City. The secret of their success may have been the priestly position of the leaders of the nationalists. This allowed the nationalist battle to become a popular religious crusade. The major difference between this revolt and the revolts against Rome was that the latter were lead by a royal messiah, rather than a priestly messiah. Perhaps the nationalist desire to drive out the occupation army of Rome was not enough. The people may have associated the Davidic messiah with TaNaKh promises by God to the Jews, but without the priestly support the religious motivation was not sufficient. [In the first century, the upper class priests of Jerusalem, and especially the High Priest in the Temple, were Hellenized and therefore much more committed to Rome than to their countrymen.]

Besides the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, these messianic wars created a schism between the Jews who fought and died and the Jews who believed that their messiah had already come. The latter group believed that Jesus was their messiah, and that he had died fighting Rome, so they sat out the wars against Rome. Of course this division led to the creation of Christianity and the centuries of oppression that followed. As a result messianism was eliminated from the Mishna (circa 200 CE) and the Talmud (circa 600 or 1000 CE). The sages and rabbis of the Talmud did not want to encourage future messianic wars.

As I sit writing this my mind wanders to the terrible events in Israel and Palestine during the past weeks. I think of the religious war of the Maccabbees for Jerusalem, and I think about the religious war of the Palestinians for El Kuds. Both are guerrilla wars against a superior army. Both blend political and religious objectives but are led by religious leaders. In both no one can win. In the Maccabbean revolt the Syrian occupiers just left and went home. Today the Israelis cannot go home. They are home. But the Palestinians can not give up because this is a religious and political necessity for them.

The rabbis and sages of the Talmud did not want us to glorify the Maccabbees. They did not want to glorify might and arms. So in their wisdom they turned the focus of Chanukkah to the theme: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Eternal God of Hosts”, (Zech 4:6). So this year as we light each candle on the chanukkiyah, let us pray that both Israelis and Palestinians depend less on might and power and more on God's Spirit to resolve our differences and bring a secure peace for all peoples.

—Rabbi Harry A. Manhoff, Ph.D.

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