By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, Jewish Sound Columnist
Dear Rivy,
Two issues, both Hanukkah related. Every year we host our family’s Hanukkah party, which is lovely and we are happy to do it. Issue number one: I feel as if most of my family knows nothing about what Hanukkah is really about other than latkes and presents. Second, once we all do this party — serve the food, pour the drinks — then there is really nothing to do but sit around and talk. What could we do that would maybe help folks know what Hanukkah is and at the same time not be heavy handed and even maybe fun?
My friend, you have come to the right place. It’s time for the all-time family favorite game — “Hanukkah True or False!” where players are read eight (yes, eight!) short “facts” and must then determine if the Hanukkah information is true or false!
Let the games begin! See below for answers.
- True or False? The Maccabees were the first in Jewish lore to observe a wintertime Festival of Lights.
- True or False? The story of how Judith, the pious widow who beheaded Antiochus IV when he was about to lay siege to Jerusalem, is recorded in the Book of the Maccabees. Ultimately, this led to the victory of Judah Maccabee over the Greco Syrians. Go Yehudit!
- True or False? The Maccabees, heroes of the Hanukkah story, though celebrated in the songs and prayers of the holiday, have a complicated legacy.
- True or False? According to the Book of the Maccabees we celebrate Hanukkah on the 25th of Kislev because of the miracle of the oil and the Maccabean victory on the battlefield.
- True or False? The ancient culinary custom most clearly connected to Hanukkah is the eating of cheese.
- True or False? The Mitzvah of Lighting the menorah can be fulfilled by lighting one candle each night.
- True or False? The dreidel is a Jewish version of the teetotum, a European gambling toy.
- True or False? Early Zionists embraced the Hanukkah story in building up the Zionist ideal of physical strength and might in the hearts of the young fighters in the early years of the state.
Answers:
- False. Adam, the first human, and Eve were the first. According to the Talmud, Avodah Zara, as the first humans experienced the first calendar year they thought that the world would be dark forever. They were distraught.
Our rabbis taught that when primitive Adam saw the day getting gradually shorter, he said, “Woe is me, perhaps because I have sinned, the world around me is being darkened and returning to its state of chaos and confusion; this then is the kind of death to which I have been sentenced from Heaven!” So he began keeping an eight-day fast. But as he observed the winter equinox and noted the day getting increasingly longer, he said, “This is the world’s course,” and he set forth to keep an eight days festivity. In the following year he appointed both as festivals. He fixed them for the sake of heaven, but the heathens appointed them for the sake of idolatry.
Connection to Hanukkah? Your call!
- False. The story of Judith is captured in the Greek apocryphal work called, not surprisingly, The Book of Judith. Its setting is actually earlier, though anachronistically depicted, and the general she slays is a Persian commander named Holofernes. In the Hebrew, midrashic and Jewish versions, the story is set in the Hasmonean period with Judith slaying an unnamed general. The Book of the Maccabees tells the story of the Hasmonean battles against the Greek conquerors for Judea from 175 BCE to 134 BCE. It describes the salvation delivered by Mattathias and his five sons.
- True. Though they are of course, the heroes of the Hanukkah story, as per this classic depiction in the Al HaNisim prayer:
In the days of Matityahu, the son of Yochanan the High Priest, the Hasmonean and his sons, when the wicked Hellenic government rose up against Your people Israel to make them forget Your Torah and violate the decrees of Your will. But You, in Your abounding mercies, stood by them in the time of their distress.
But the story does not end in 165 BCE. Though the Maccabees started out as leaders pure of heart and singular in mission, their appointing themselves as kings along with their own familial priesthood left a bitter taste in the mouths of later Jewish authorities. The Hasmonean rule that lasted for approximately 130 years began with noble intent. Leaders such as Yehudah, Yonatan and Elazar ended with, ironically, more Hellenistic-influenced leadership under the likes of Hyrcannus, Menalaus, and Aristobulus.
Sometimes a name can tell a tale. Torah rule mandates the strict separation of leadership families: Davidic dynasty for kingship and Aaronic dynasty for priesthood. Never the two shall mix — hence their legacy is mixed. There is no Talmudic Tractate Hanukkah and their kings’ names not used as were other kings in legal documents for dating purposes.
- False. Though the miracle of the oil is center stage in the Talmud Shabbat and the miracle of the battle in the Al HaNisim prayer, according to the Book of the Maccabees we celebrate Hanukkah, meaning dedication, on the 25th of Kislev, because of the rededication of the Temple. There is no mention of the miracle of the oil or a miracle on the battlefield. From Book of the Maccabees, Chapter 4:
Then Judas appointed certain men to fight against those that were in the fortress, until he had cleansed the sanctuary… And when, as they consulted what to do with the altar of burnt offerings, which was profaned…and made up the sanctuary, and the things that were within the temple, and hallowed the courts. They made also new holy vessels, and into the temple they brought the candlestick, and the altar of burnt offerings, and of incense, and the table…Now on the five and twentieth day of the ninth month, which is called the month Casleu, in the hundred forty and eighth year, they rose up betimes in the morning…And so they kept the dedication of the altar eight days and offered burnt offerings with gladness, and sacrificed the sacrifice of deliverance and praise…Moreover Judas and his brethren with the whole congregation of Israel ordained, that the days of the dedication of the altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu, with mirth and gladness.
- True. Not Potato Latkes! Oy vey! Cheese it is — fed to the beheaded general by Judith to induce thirst and then drunkenness and sleep. Pull out your Shavuot cheese cake recipes.
- True. Though not the best possible way, it is acceptable.
- True. We added the Jewish flavor, reminding us of the tradition that though forbidden by the Greco Syrians, Jewish children persisted in learning Torah. When discovered by the enemy they swiftly, replaced a demeanor of study with that of play, employing the use of tops in the service of their commitment to learn Torah.
- True! Early Zionists identified strongly with the Maccabees who fought heroically to maintain a Jewish State more than 2,000 years before. Consider even our current worldwide youth Maccabiah games! And don’t forget this less-than-subtle poem by Avigdor Hameiri;
Awaken youth and straighten your head
Open your eyes sleepy head,
Know, our future is hidden in your blood,
The should of the nation is in your fresh body,
Maccabee, Maccabee,
Strengthen the muscles and make the blood courageous.
Maccabee, Maccabee.
Be the leader for the glory of the nation.
Rivy Poupko Kletenik is an internationally renowned educator and Head of School at the Seattle Hebrew Academy. If you have a question that’s been tickling your brain, send Rivy an e-mail at rivy.poupko.kletenik@gmail.com.