In the Book of Maccabees II, 10:1-8 we read: “The Maccabee
and his companions, with God leading them, recovered the
altars that the foreigners built near the marketplace as well as the sacred
precincts. They cleansed the
and made another altar. Then they struck flints to make fire and they offered
up sacrifices after a lapse of two years and they prepared incense, lamps and
sacred loaves. After they had done these things they bowed to the ground and
pleaded with God that they would not experience such misfortunes again but if
they should ever sin they would be disciplined by Him with fairness and not
turned over to slanderous and barbaric nations. On the anniversary of the
foreigners, on that very day, the sanctuary was purified on the twenty-fifth of
the month which is Kislev. And they kept the eight days with gladness, as in
the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) remembering that not long before they had
held the Feast of Tabernacles when they wandered in the mountains and dens like
beasts. Therefore they bore branches and fair boughs and palms also and sang
psalms unto Him that had given them good success in cleansing His place. A
measure was passed by the public assembly that the entire Jewish people should
observe these days every year.”
We see from here that the first Chanuka was celebrated to
make up for the fact that they were unable to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot
that year due to the war. This explains why the holiday was eight days, why
they carried palm branches (lulav), offered sacrifices and sang Hallel.
At the end of this first Chanuka (late Sukkot celebration) it
was decided that they would continue to celebrate at that time each year in
honor of the rededication of the Beit HaMikdash (
In the Talmud, Shabbat 21b we see the famous dispute between
Beit Hillel and Beit Shannai. Do we increase the amount of candles that are lit
each night (do we light one on the first night, two on the second etc.
following the philosophy of Beit Hillel) or do we light all eight candles the
first night and then decrease by one candle each night (seven on the second,
six on the third etc. following the philosophy of Beit Shammai)?
We follow is Beit Hillel’s approach, “maalin bakodesh vilo
moridin”, “in sacred matters we elevate and do not lower the degree of
sanctity”.
Why is Beit Shammai’s view also valid (even if we don’t
follw it)?
Beit Shammai’s view was that we should have a continual
decrease from eight lights to one to correspond to the bull sacrifices of the
Sukkot festival (on Sukkot a total of seventy bulls were sacrificed: thirteen
were sacrificed on the first day, twelve the next day etc.).
Beit Shammai’s thought was to include another parallel
between Sukkot and Chanuka.
It is interesting that today throughout the world Chanuka is
celebrated more than Sukkot even though Sukkot was the Biblical holiday that
Chanuka was derived from.
This Chanuka, let’s take the opportunity to teach about what
Chanuka and Sukkot have in common and bring Sukkot into the consciousness of
the entire Jewish nation.
After all who would turn down another holiday?