The Jewish Holidays; Hanukkah, with Rabbi Edward M. Gershfield

living with our neighbors involved not only tolerance which has become a somewhat negative word but understanding since knowledge is the only basis for true understanding riverside radio has undertaken to bring you authentic information about one group of our neighbors the jews in collaboration with the jewish theological seminary of america we have arranged a series of programs which will tell you about the jewish holidays and the jewish way of life there's concerns itself with the festival of hanukkah the festival of lights before you you're our speaker on the program we'd like to play for you some music associated with this holiday it comes from a recording entitled hanukkah at home produced by the national women's league of united synagogue of america the soloist is counter robert h segal with the academy choir and the king or string ensemble conducted by kantar paul come on the selection we hear is entitled who can read tell the things that the follow us and

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oh oh oh and oh ah the speaker on our program today as rabbi edward m gershwin you rabbi deerfield is an instructor and helmand in the school to dhaka at the jewish theological seminary of america and he is also a television programme editor of the eternal light rabbi deerfield will tell us about hanukkah the festival of lights commemorating the victories of the maccabees over the greeks and the rededication of the temple in jerusalem rabbi deerfield is a graduate of the university of manitoba in canada and was ordained as rabbi by the jewish

theological seminary of america he also holds two master's degrees one from columbia university and classical languages and another from teacher's college at columbia university in nineteen sixty five rabbi garish will receive a doctor of philosophy degree from oxford university where he specialized in jewish and roman law now with his discussion of hanukkah here is rabbi gershwin the jewish festival of hanukkah is celebrated annually for eight days beginning with the twenty fifth day of the lunar month his slave the festival usually occurring in december unlike the other major festivals in the jewish calendar it is a secular holiday in the sense that it includes no prohibition of work a characteristic which it shares with a festival of forum the name hanukkah means renewal or rededication and

refers to the rededication of the altar in the temple in jerusalem performed by the maccabees when they successfully revolted against the greek rulers of palestine in one hundred and sixty five b c e the prescribed rituals for the festival fall into two general groups the first is the ceremony of lighting lamps are cannibals in the home on each evening of the festival together with the reciting of special blessings and hymns it is from this ceremony that the holiday received even in ancient times its name of the festival of lights the blessings praise god for the miracle which he rocked for our forefathers at the season of the year and for his kindness and permitting us to live to celebrate once again this joyous occasion the blessings are sung to a special melody and sound like this

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you the loser jennifer after the candles are lit the entire family sings hymns of praise including a very well known one called ma always sewer which relates the desperate straits of the jewish people during the persecutions of the jewish religion under the hellenistic ruler antiochus and the glorious victory which the maccabees achieved and labeling them to rededicate the temple and its altar to the worship of the lord the traditional tune is one which was originally adapted from a medieval german folk

songs and was known among german jews as early as fourteen fifty curiously it was also used by luther in his church music and also appears in english kimball's nevertheless it is inseparably associated with hanukkah he says the money is he's made it it is

any good era arrow the second prescribed observance of the holiday is in the prayer services for the day which include the reciting of a group of songs songs one hundred thirteen to one hundred eighteen called the hull ale or songs of praise daily readings from the book of numbers and the pen to joke which described the gifts of the princes of the israelites in the desert at the dedication of the altar in the tabernacle and thirdly brief mention of the events to be commemorated which are inserted into the regular prayers as follows in the days of the hasmoneans never fires son of joe heim on the high priest and his sons when the mic with his power of greece rose up against by people israel to make them forgetful of my law and to

force them to transgress the statutes of i will then gets valentine abundant mercy rise up for them and the time of their trouble thou didst lead their causes thou didst judge their suit thou didst avenger they're wrong without the liver it's the stronger into the hands of the week the many into the hands of the few the impure into the hands of the pure the wicked into the hands of the righteous and the arrogant into the hands of them that occupy themselves with by law for thy self the bits to make a great and holy name and by world and four by people israel felt that stewart a great deliverance and redemption as at this day and they're upon by children came into the eye most holy house claims like temple purified by sanctuary kindle delights in by holy courts and appointed these eight days of hanukkah in order to give thanks and praises and to thy

great name aside from the prescribed ceremonies hanukkah is the occasion of much merriment and the holiday is always associated in the minds of jews with gay at and good cheer the children especially look forward to hanukkah for them they're customarily given gifts of money called in yiddish hanukkah gelt and they are permitted to play special games particularly a game of chance played with a four sided top called under great goal in which regrettably many a boy and his hanukkah gelt are soon parted in recent years hanukkah has become the occasion of celebrating the revival of the jewish state in israel and the name of the maccabees has become associated with athletic competitions and sports festivals in order to have a clear understanding of the significance of the festival of hanukkah it is necessary to look more closely at the historical events which it commemorates when the great

alexander died in the year three hundred and twenty three bc at the age of thirty three and having no more worlds to conquer his vast empire fell apart and became the scene of prolonged warfare among his ambitious generals palestine past to and fro between the control of the ptolemaic dynasty of egypt and the set uses of syria and finally became securely part of the city using empire when it was conquered by the suicide ruler antiochus the third in one hundred ninety eight bc one of the great ambitions which hadn't killed alexander and his conquests was his desire to disseminate greek civilization and the same urge was felt by the ruler who ascended the syrian thrown in one hundred seventy five bce antiochus the fourth surname at tiffany's began a vigorous campaign of hellenized aisha in the road his domains

including a sweeping prohibition of the observance of the jewish religion and the establishment of the cultivars use in the temple in jerusalem and these efforts and titus was not without support within the jewish community some segments of the population especially among the upper classes had become very attracted by the magnificence of greek culture and we're making strenuous efforts to adapt their lives to their new model even at the cost of abandoning many of their jewish traditions they have gone as far as to build a greek style gymnasium in jerusalem to submit to painful operations to obliterate the marks of circumcision and to participate and public events in honor of pagan deities even the temple priest druid had become dominated by these jewish colonists in the meantime the poorer classes and more traditionalist elements especially the rural folk and the villagers who had continued to speak their old language and live strictly according to the dictates of the word of

god has revealed and the toro became outraged at the excesses of the helen nighters and the sudden violent persecutions and tigers the fourth spark them to open revolt the story of the uprising under the leadership of the maccabees is related in the apocryphal first two books of the maccabees mattathias a priest in the village of modi in on the road from jerusalem to jaffna in the rebellion of dramatic beginning by slain with his own hand a jew who publicly performed an act of pagan worship and then he also slew the agent of the syrian government who hadn't placed him to do it many of his countrymen rally to his cause with the force of say you said arms forced modifiers to flee his home and with his five sons he began a guerilla campaign it should be noted that the rebels were not what we today might

call nationalists they did not question the authority of the syrian government to rule over them for that they had endured for many years they certainly did not fight for political freedom or indeed for any political motive at all they were pretty claiming their intention to continue in their life of obedience to the dictates of the word of god and they would not be deterred from their course by the fiats of any earthly ruler after the death of another fires the military campaigns were led by his third son judah who was sir named the mccabe the word is of uncertain origin but probably means the hammer alluding to his pounding of the syrian forces a similar concept lies behind the name of the medieval frankish ruler charles martel as time went by the guerillas game victories much to the surprise of everyone their religious fervor turned them into formidable fighters and the

syrians temporarily relaxed their persecutions however in one hundred sixty five bc judah and his supporters made a renewed attempt to inject completely the pagans from the control of jerusalem and the temple and that winter he was successful on the twenty fifth day of the month of kids live three years after the first uprising you learned his man we dedicated the altar in the temple to the worship of god according to the torah in the words of the first book of maccabees at the corresponding time of the month and on the corresponding day on which the gentiles had profane that on that day it was dedicated to fresh with songs and harps lutes and with cymbals and all the people fell upon their faces and worshiped and gave praise on to heaven and to him who have prospered them and they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days and offered bring offerings with gladness and sacrifice the sacrifice of deliverance

and praise and the dead the forefront of the temple with crowns of gold and with small shields and dedicated a fresh the gates and the chamber's and furnished them with doors and there was exceeding great gladness among the people and the reproach of the gentiles was turned away and jude and his brother in and the whole congregation of israel ordained that the days of the dedication of the altar should be kept in their seasons year by year for eight days from the twenty fifth day of the month of kids live with gladness and joy the syrians had not accepted defeat this final and fighting broke out again in the course of which judo was killed it was not until around one hundred forty bc that judy's brother simon was able to proclaim the state of political independence it may be noted but the very act of proclaiming an

annual observance of a festival in honor of the rededication of the altar was in itself the most radical departure from traditional for since biblical times there had not been created any new festivals also the idea of creating an annual celebration of the great victory even a religious one seemed out of place in jewish tradition while it was a common occurrence in hellenistic life thus it might seem paradoxical but the overcoming of the helen risers was marked by the institution of a characteristically hellenistic observance yet it laid the foundations for later generations to adapt hellenistic or other non jewish elements into judaism but only upon the secure foundation of jewish tradition in other words hellenistic culture could be absorbed into judaism but judaism was not going to be allowed to dissolve into hellenism the political and military events which led up to the victory over antiochus were relegated to

secondary importance by succeeding generations and were almost completely ignored by the rabbinic tradition of those times it is remarkable that the very name of judah maccabee is not even mentioned in all of comedic literature on the other hand the rededication of the altar is remembered and a story not known from the books of the maccabees in the apocryphal is associated with it an ancient comedic tradition relates that when the jews and to the temple and reconstituted the services as of old they searched for a supply of pure and on the filed all oil with which to light the great candor lebron the menorah but all that they could find was one crew was of olive oil with the seal of the high priest upon it containing sufficient oil to burn for only one day they lit the menorah and miraculously the oil continued to burn for eight days by which time fresh oil could be obtained in recognition of this miracle the tradition continues

they'd agreed that on succeeding years the event should be celebrated by the lighting of lamps for eight days together with the singing of songs of praise this statement of the talmud has formed the basis for all subsequent observance by jews of the festival of hanukkah in the talmud there is recorded a dispute between the school of hillel and the school of shah my concerning the manner of lighting the lamps the show mike nights held there on the first night of hanukkah one should like heat lamps and then seven on the second night and so decreasing the numbers throughout the festival well the halo lights maintained that one should light one lamp on the first night to the second and so on increasing the numbers each day until all paid are lit on the last day our present custom is to follow that of the school of hillel

except that we use an additional campbell called the shah much or help or with which to like the other chemicals pasta specials hanukkah menorah or ten that lebron has nine places fort campbell's the customs of hanukkah gelt the gifts of money to children and the dreidel games are medieval in origin thus the observance of the festival of hanukkah today is based upon the comedic traditions rather than upon the historical narratives of the books of the maccabees or of the works of josephus the jewish historian of the first century of the common era yet in our own day that has arisen the new interest and the historical events that led up to that first celebration of the rededication of the altar in the temple in jerusalem there is a tendency nowadays for us to try to read back into the times of the maccabees some of the political and religious concepts which are peculiar to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries something which we would be well advised to avoid

to some the struggle between the traditionalist maccabees and the hellenize inc progress is is an early example of the clash between the forces of traditional orthodoxy and radical reform judaism this analogy as grossly misleading for the helen rising party were not reformers at all and our sense of the word they wished to throw off their jewish way of life and to adopt instead one which they deemed much superior on the other hand the maccabees were not averse to adopting hellenistic culture where every did not clash with their traditional religious way of life others in our time have seen in the maccabees and their struggle against the seducer army's an early form of political nationalism and the struggle for national independence the maccabees are considered by them to be ancient freedom fighters waging a sort of anti colonialist war such a view to completely misrepresented the facts for political liberty was very far from the

minds of the pie tastes were willing to lay down their lives in their fight against the syrians the revolt was purely a religious one an uprising in which the jews declared that they would not allow themselves to be deterred from their obedience to the word of the lord no matter what the cost not the words of mathias according to the first book of the maccabees which he proclaimed at the moment he struck the first blow of the rebellion in moline when he was approached by the officer of the government to perform an act of pagan worship and the public place there upon that a size answered and said with a loud voice if all the nations that are within the king's dominions obey him by forsaking every one of them the worship of their fathers and have chosen for themselves to follow his commands yet wille i and my sons and my brother and walk in the covenant of our fathers

heaven forbid that we should for the sake of the law and the ordinances but the law the king we will not abate by departing from our worship either to the right hand or to the left as has been pointed out by professor silber on in his social and religious history of the jews to all intents and purposes the maccabean revolt was the first war of religion in history what is all the more remarkable about that it was the first time that an entire people had displayed a willingness to undergo martyrdom for the sake of such a non political cause in this light it can be understood that the rabbis of the palm and understood very well the deepest significance of the maccabean uprising they're a de emphasis of the military aspect of the rebellion and they're making of the miracle of the little cruz of oil which and for eight

days the center of the observances of the holiday shows that they realized that the essential message of the holiday was to reaffirm the supremacy of the word of god to the commands of all earthly rulers that man's duty to his creator stood above all other loyalties this was the message of the simple pious people who left their villages their homes and their farms to take up arms to defend the religious way of life and to lay down their lives if necessary to prevent there being torn away from their allegiance to the covenant made by their ancestors with their lord ned ned

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the speaker on today's program was rabbi edward m gear a field instructor and helmand at the jewish theological seminary of america and television program manager for the eternal light his topic was hanukkah music on the program was from the reporting hundreds at home produced by the national women's league of united synagogue of america single copy is a rabbi their skills talker available from riverside radio w rv aren't for naughty riverside drive new york or from the jewish theological seminary of america thirty at broadway new york the zip code for both institutions is one a low to seven please understand self addressed on local with your request these programs on the jewish holidays have been produced in cooperation with the jewish theological seminary of america by w army are the fm station of the riverside church in new york city