By Ozzie Nogg, Special to JTNews
You can read the Torah from beginning to end and not find a word about Hanukkah.
There are paragraphs devoted to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Pesach and Shavuot. Even Purim eventually made it into the Bible by way of The Writings. But for the story of the Feast of Lights, you must refer to the apocryphal Books of the Maccabees, written long after the Bible was “put to bed.”
So why do we celebrate Hanukkah if it has no basis in the Bible? Did someone with chutzpah just add a holiday, willy-nilly, despite the admonition that “nothing may be subtracted from the Torah and nothing added to it?”
Well, no, not exactly. Here’s a non-verbatim version of what happened:
In the days following the Maccabean victory, the spiritual leaders of the time got together and said, “Look. Wondrous things have happened. The little guys won and a teeny cruse of oil lasted for eight days. We don’t need a prophet to tell us that a miracle happened here — a miracle that should be commemorated. Let’s use our rabbinic muscle and make the annual observance of Hanukkah a law!”
Next, to legitimize their pronouncement, these sages pointed to the verse in Deuteronomy that says, “According to the Law which they shall teach you, so shall you do.” Translation? The “they” meant all rabbis — past, present and future. And the masses got the message. We can celebrate Hanukkah because the rabbis told us to and the rabbis’ words are law. And so, based on this creatively manipulated “hechsher,” the observance of Hanukkah became as binding upon us as if it had been handed down at Sinai.
But lest anybody quibble, the rabbis took steps to make Hanukkah even more kosher. Guided by the tradition that says everything is alluded to in the Torah, they searched the scripture for clues — no matter how far-fetched — that would prove that the Feast of Lights had been ordained in the Bible all along. Here’s some “evidence” they turned up:
In the Creation story we read yehi or — “let there be light.” The letters in yehi add up to 25. So, yehi or means “25 lights.” Interpretation? There will be light on the 25th day. And when does Hanukkah start? On the 25th day of Kislev!
The 25th word of the Torah is or — light. (Now surely this is no mere coincidence…)
In Leviticus, right after a description of the Festivals, comes a verse about the eternal light burning with pure olive oil. And since this verse follows immediately after the explanation of Sukkot, the sages said, “Aha! The Torah is telling us that one day an annual festival will follow Sukkot and it will be celebrated with lights of olive oil and this surely proves that the Torah anticipated Hanukkah.”
Each morning of Hanukkah, the Torah portion tells of the sacrifices brought to the dedication of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. They included 12 silver dishes, 12 silver basins and 12 golden pans — 36 vessels total. And what is the total number of candles (minus the shamash) lit during the eight days of Hanukkah? Thirty-six! And how many times does the word “light” appear in the Torah? Thirty-six!
And there you have it. By reading cleverly between the Torah’s lines (and with miraculous gematric gymnastics), the rabbis made their case and Hanukkah was established as a holiday.
But a holiday needs observance, so the rabbis told the people how to celebrate this new festival: how to kindle the lights, (from left to right or vice-versa), how many, at what time, and in what location, and also for how long and in what kind of hanukkiah. A hanukkiah of gold was decreed best, but in a pinch (or possibly to accommodate people of modest means) one could use walnut shells. Hannukiot made of eggshells were a no-no, and hollowed-out potatoes were frowned upon since this was a waste of good food.
Establishing the ritual was not without rabbinic debate, but on one point all agreed. Kindling and seeing the Hanukkah lights is a mitzvah of such importance that one must, if necessary, beg or even sell one’s clothes to buy oil for the lamp. But how do we capture its meaning and the miracle of its lights?
In poetry and prose — with humor, scholarship and philosophy — writers have produced a vast collection of Hanukkah literature. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Herman Wouk. Chaim Potok, Emma Lazarus and Ruth Brin. Howard Fast. Sholom Aleichem. Peretz, Bialik and Theodore Herzl. All tried to capture the meaning in the miracle of Hanukkah. The late Daniel Persky wrote one of the nicest interpretations of the hanukkiah’s symbolism. In essence, he said:
God, the source of light, is the kindler — the Shamash.
The first candle that God kindled was His people, Israel.
The second candle was kindled on Mt. Sinai when the Torah was given.
The third candle is the Shabbat. It was kindled for us by God to be the crown of our week.
The fourth candle represents our Holy Days and festivals. God gave us their joyous light to illumine our past and to light our way to the future.
The fifth candle that God kindled for us is the land of Israel, goodly and pleasant.
The sixth candle is the Hebrew language. The holy tongue by which God created the world. The language of our prophets. The language of our prayers.
The seventh candle is our literature, from Genesis to today. The treasure of our culture. The ethics, verses, rituals and legends.
The eighth candle is the Messiah, who will be anointed with oil. It is the candle of hope.