Chanuka...
- Dearth of literature for Chanukah… no Megilla, not in Canon of Tanakh.
- No Messechet of Chanukah – couple of pages hidden in Messechet Shabbat
- We know little of Chanuka history from Chazal...
So what do we know?
Part 1 - Origins of Maoz Tzur
The author of Ma’oz Tzur is known only by his personal name, Mordecai, preserved in an acrostic formed by the first letter of its first five stanzas. Textual evidence suggests that Ma’oz Tzur was written in early thirteenth-century Ashkenaz, after violence from multiple waves of Crusades and blood libels had greatly affected the old center of Jewish Ashkenazi life in the Rhineland Valley. As well as causing the loss of life and the destruction of Jewish homes and institutions, the threat of grave danger impelled many to take the lives of friends, family members, and themselves. We see several responses to such external and internalized violence arising over the course of the twelfth century and into the thirteenth, and I would suggest that Ma’oz Tzur is to be included among them.
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(כו) חֲשׂוֹף זְרוֹעַ קָדְשֶׁךָ וְקָרֵב קֵץ הַיְשׁוּעָה.
(כז) נְקֹם נִקְמַת דַּם עֲבָדֶיךָ מֵאֻמָּה הָרְשָׁעָה.
(כח) כִּי אָרְכָה לָנוּ הַשָּׁעָה וְאֵין קֵץ לִימֵי הָרָעָה.
(כט) דְּחֵה אַדְמוֹן בְּצֵל צַלְמוֹן, הָקֵם לָנוּ רוֹעֶה שִׁבְעָה.
(26) Bare Your holy arm and hasten the time of salvation –
(27) Take retribution against the evil nation on behalf of the servants
(28) For the hour of deliverance has been too long delayed; there seems be no end of the evil days
(29) Push away the Red One in the lowest shadow and establish for us the seven shepherds.
Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice, With exultation springing, And, with united heart and voice And holy rapture singing, Proclaim the wonders God hath done, How His right arm the victory won; Right dearly it hath cost Him.
Byron wrote to his fiancée: [I wrote] words for a musical composer who is going to publish the real old undisputed Hebrew melodies which are beautiful & to which David & the prophets actually sang the “songs of Zion;”...
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Part Two - Literary genius
Author of encyclopaedic knowledge: How well did the author know Tanakh and Talmud
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Approach One - Chanukah is not a celebration of a specific Historical event rather Jewish history as a whole...
Chanukah is not commemorating historical events, rather the fact that we are living through history… Chanukah reminds us that history continues to unfold in front of our very eyes.
Jewish Sovereignty was restored – Rav Yehuda Amital, 1983
During the days of Chanuka, we add into our prayers the words:
“Your children came to the Holy of Holies of Your House, and cleared Your Sanctuary, and purified Your Temple, and kindled lights in the courtyards of Your Sanctuary…”
An interesting question arises in the wake of this historical episode: what happened next? What happened after the purification and rededication of the Temple and the miracle of the cruse of oil that lasted for eight days?
The answer is to be found in Sefer Chashmonaim:
And it was, when the nations around about heard that the altar had been rebuilt and that the Temple had been re-dedicated as before, they were incensed. And they conspired to annihilate the descendants of Yaakov who were in their midst, and began putting Jews to death and killing them… And the nations that were in Gilad were gathered against Israel who were on their border, to wipe them out, and they fled to the fortress of Datima… And they put about a thousand men to death there… They gathered against them from Acre and from Tyre and from Sidon, and the entire Galilee of the gentiles, to wipe us out… (Chashmonaim 1:5)
The situation, both in Eretz Yisrael and outside of the land, was very difficult. The war continued. Four of Matityahu’s sons were killed in battle. It was hard for them to exercise sovereignty.
The reason for this is clear, as we find in the Rambam's ruling that kohanim may not rule as kings. Their "realm" is limited to the priesthood alone. Moreover, there is an established principle: "Anyone who claims, 'I am a descendant of the Chashmonaim,' is known with certainty to be a slave, for none of them remained other than one child, and he perished" (Bava Batra 3b).
Already in the days of Yehuda Maccabee, there were some ugly practices in Eretz Yisrael. Already then, the internecine battles, which ultimately led to the destruction of the Temple, were evident. The clear impression arising from the historical facts that are known to us (including from Greek works dating to this period) is that Am Yisrael had nothing to be proud of during the period following the victory of the Chashmonaim. On the contrary - the great light that came about through the Chashmonaim, which we mention every year at this time, was only temporary. Hence, we must ask, why the great celebration?
The Rambam seems to understand the situation differently. I would like to emphasize his interpretation, with its special significance for our own era:
During the Second Temple Period, when the Greeks ruled, they issued decrees against the Jews, denying their faith, and did not permit them to engage in Torah and the commandments. And they appropriated their money and their daughters, and they entered the Temple and broke in, and defiled the holy things, and caused the Jews great anguish. And they subjected them to harsh oppression, until the God of our fathers had mercy on them, and delivered them from their hands, and saved them. And the sons of Chashmonai, the Kohanim Gedolim, prevailed, and killed them, and saved Israel from them, and appointed a king from among the kohanim. And Jewish sovereignty was restored for more than two hundred years, until the destruction of the SecondTemple. (Hilkhot Chanuka 3:1)
The Rambam views the great achievement of the Chashmonaim as the very fact that Jewish sovereignty was restored until the time of the destruction. To his view, Chanuka is celebrated not only to commemorate the miracle concerning the oil, but also to commemorate the appointment of a Jewish king and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty for two more centuries. And this, despite the fact that the Jewish state that was thus established was extremely limited in its independence and its leaders were very far removed from Torah.
Approach Two - Maoz Tzur is a reminder of the partnership between the Jewish People and G-d...
One Tefilla, lots of examples...
Who is speaking?
(א) מָעוֹז צוּר יְשׁוּעָתִי לְךָ נָאֶה לְשַׁבֵּחַ.
(ב) תִּכּוֹן בֵּית תְּפִלָּתִי וְשָׁם תּוֹדָה נְזַבֵּחַ.
(ג) לְעֵת תָּכִין מַטְבֵּחַ מִצָּר הַמְנַבֵּחַ.
(ד) אָז אֶגְמוֹר בְּשִׁיר מִזְמוֹר חֲנֻכַּת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ.
(1) Refuge Rock of my salvation, to you it is a delight to give praise:
(2) Restore my House of prayer, so that there I may offer you thanksgiving
(3) when You silence the loud-mouthed enemy,
(4) then will I complete, with song and psalm the altar's dedication.
(ז) וַהֲבִיאוֹתִ֞ים אֶל־הַ֣ר קׇדְשִׁ֗י וְשִׂמַּחְתִּים֙ בְּבֵ֣ית תְּפִלָּתִ֔י עוֹלֹתֵיהֶ֧ם וְזִבְחֵיהֶ֛ם לְרָצ֖וֹן עַֽל־מִזְבְּחִ֑י כִּ֣י בֵיתִ֔י בֵּית־תְּפִלָּ֥ה יִקָּרֵ֖א לְכׇל־הָעַמִּֽים׃
And let them rejoice in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
Shall be welcome on My altar;
For My House shall be called
A house of prayer for all peoples.”
אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי יוֹסֵי:
מִנַּיִן שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מִתְפַּלֵּל?
שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר:
״וַהֲבִיאוֹתִים אֶל הַר קָדְשִׁי וְשִׂמַּחְתִּים בְּבֵית תְּפִלָּתִי״,
״תְּפִלָּתָם״ לֹא נֶאֱמַר,
אֶלָּא ״תְּפִלָּתִי״,
מִכָּאן שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מִתְפַּלֵּל.
מָעוֹז צוּר יְשׁוּעָתִי
לְךָ נָאֶה לְשַׁבֵּחַ.
תִּכּוֹן בֵּית תְּפִלָּתִי
וְשָׁם תּוֹדָה נְזַבֵּחַ.
צוּר יִשְׂרָאֵל קֽוּמָה בְּעֶזְרַת יִשְׂרָאֵל וּפְדֵה כִנְאֻמֶֽךָ יְהוּדָה וְיִשְׂרָאֵל, גֹּאֲלֵֽנוּ ה' צְבָאוֹת שְׁמוֹ קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' גָּאַל יִשְׂרָאֵל:
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PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE ROCK OF ISRAEL (TZUR YISRAEL), WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS DAY, SABBATH EVE (EREV SHABBAT), THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708, 14TH MAY,1948.
Who were the Seven Shepherds?
Should Assyria invade our land
And tread upon our fortresses,
We will set up over it seven shepherds,
Eight princes of men,
״וְהָיָה זֶה שָׁלוֹם אַשּׁוּר כִּי יָבֹא בְאַרְצֵנוּ וְכִי יִדְרוֹךְ בְּאַרְמְנוֹתֵינוּ וַהֲקֵמֹנוּ עָלָיו שִׁבְעָה רוֹעִים וּשְׁמֹנָה נְסִיכֵי אָדָם״. מַאן נִינְהוּ ״שִׁבְעָה רוֹעִים״? דָּוִד בָּאֶמְצַע, אָדָם שֵׁת וּמְתוּשֶׁלַח מִימִינוֹ, אַבְרָהָם יַעֲקֹב וּמֹשֶׁה בִּשְׂמֹאלוֹ. וּמַאן נִינְהוּ ״שְׁמֹנָה נְסִיכֵי אָדָם״? יִשַׁי, וְשָׁאוּל, וּשְׁמוּאֵל, עָמוֹס, וּצְפַנְיָה, צִדְקִיָּה, וּמָשִׁיחַ, וְאֵלִיָּהוּ.
3 - 1 - 3
Universal - David - Particular (R’Zarum)