Reading the Text

As I mentioned on the first night, I decided to read the Books of the Maccabees this year. I'm someone who likes text study, and was curious to really see the basis for the story of Hannukkah.

At this point, I've made it through 12 of the 16 chapters of Book One and I'm about done. The part of the story that pertains to the holiday is told in the first 4 chapters. The rest is just bloody warfare. I think I'll skip to Book Two, which is a second retelling of the story. The introduction to the book in my translation calls the second version "more emotional, more rhetorical, more stilted, and more obviously propagandistic." I'll see.....

There are a couple of things I read in Book One that caught my mind. Mattathias, patriarch of the Maccabee clan, slaughtered a Jew who was offering false sacrifice as well as an official who was forcing his people to make the sacrifices. "Thus he showed his zeal for the Law, just as Phineas did to Zimri." (Book One 2:36) The Phineas (which I transliterate as Pinchas) story of bloodletting in the Torah is one of those I struggle with each year.

When Judah Maccabeus was gathering his troops, "he ordered those who were building houses or planting vineyards or betrothed to women or were afraid, every one of them to return home, as the Law provided." (3:56) That put a smile on my face because I knew what he was doing and why. (See Deut 20:5-9)

When the Temple was reclaimed, the altar was so desecrated that Judah and his clan didn't just clean it up they rebuilt it and all the utensils involved with that area. I've always had this image of the inner sections of the Temple being cleaned up, scrubbed--not totally rebuilt. For some reason, this makes a difference to me. It gives the story different symbolism, different meaning. It makes room for a different message. It's good drash material.

For all the stuff that's there that I didn't care to read, at least there is something I expected to find. There was an eight day celebration of the rededication of the altar. "And Judah and his brothers and all the congregation of Israel decreed that the days of the rededication of the altar should be observed at their season, every year, for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth of the moth of Chislev, with gladness and joy."(4:59) No candles, no light, but a yearly celebration was in place. There's the celebration that was merged with the ancient rituals to create Hannukkah.

The dreidel game was a European addition to the Hannukkah rituals--a popular 16th century Christmas game that infultrated into Jewish culture. But no matter, it's here to stay, so today's offering is a virtual dreidel game. Enjoy!!



Get your own Dreidel at ChaiSpace!