I. Background
In the winter of 166 BCE, agents of the Greek government arrived in Modi’in and called for Jews to bring sacrifices (possibly of pigs) to Zeus and in honor of Antiochus IV. This proved the last straw in the Greek campaign to force assimilation to Hellenic culture and led to the revolt of the Maccabees. When the first Jew came forth to accede to the Greek demand, Matityahu struck him down and announced: “Whoever is with G-d, follow me.” Matityahu and his Maccabee followers lived in the desert and fought a guerrilla war. Eventually, they triumphed over the Greeks, leading to the restoration of the Temple and the holiday of Chanukah.

The story of the revolt is told in the Books of Maccabbees, which, in the Christian conception, are part of the Old Testament or Apocrypha, but which were not canonized by Chazal in Tanach. (As summarized in Wikipedia: “The story of the Maccabees can be found in the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles in the deuterocanonical books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. Books of 3 Maccabees and 4 Maccabees are not directly related to the Maccabees.”)

Book 1, covering the period from Antiochus’s assumption of the throne to the death of Shimon, son of Matityahu, was written in Hebrew, but the only extant manuscripts are in Greek. Book 2 was written in Greek and focuses on Judah Maccabee and his victories. Because Chazal were ambivalent about the Maccabees, the Hebrew originals of Book 1 were not passed on. Ironically, it was the Hellenized Jews who preserved the Greek text. As part of the background of Chanukah, Book 1 describes the Greek prohibition on circumcision and Torah study. Scholars generally view the volumes as historically credible. (See source sheet I(A).)

A second historical source is Megillat Ta’anit, written in the First Century, which itemizes 36 days upon which we may not fast because of their festive quality. The eight days of Chanukah are among those days.

• What was the problem with the impure oil found by the Hasmoneans? Assuming it was impure because it had come into contact with death, why did they not apply the principle of tum’ah hutra b’tzibbur (the laws of ritual impurity are waived for public worship). (It might be said that this principle applied only to the inauguration of the Temple and not to its rededication.)
• We have another halachic principle of oness rachmana patrei: if it is beyond your power to perform a mitzvah, you are exempted. So why did the Hasmoneans not light the menorah with whatever pure oil they had and then leave the menorah unlit until new pure oil had been obtained?
• The Hasmoneans themselves must have been ritually impure, because they had been killing enemies in battle, and they were the ones who set up the menorah. (It might be said that they handled the oil with sticks rather than directly with their hands.)
• Halacha does not decree a particular size or intensity of the flame in the Temple, so why did the Hasmoneans not use thin wicks to conserve oil? (It might be said that they did not think of this in the heat of the moment.)

The presence of this complex of questions, even if each is susceptible of an answer, suggests a broader approach to the issue of impurity. A similar approach was arrived at independently by Professor Daniel Sperber and Rav Avigdor Neventzal. Volume 5 of Professor Sperber’s seven-volume Minhagei Yisrael is dedicated to Chanukah. In that volume, he concludes that the impurity mentioned in the Talmud was not related to death but rather to idolatry. Inasmuch as the vessels and furniture in the Temple had been used for idolatry, they were thereafter ineligible for ritual or any other use.

Megillat Ta’anit says that the Hasmoneans entered the Temple with seven spears of iron, which they covered with wood and drove into the ground, lighting oil in each and using them as lamps (source sheet II(B)). There is archaeological evidence that soldiers would use spears in this way to illuminate their encampments. The use in the Temple of spears — which, after all, had just been used in battle — as a makeshift menorah in lieu of the original menorah suggests that the concern was not related to tum’at met (ritual impurity from contact with death). Instead, the Hasmoneans were repelled by the use of the Temple for idolatry (source sheet II(C) (excerpts from Sperber); see also Books of Maccabees (pigs brought as sacrifices; prostitution in Temple)).

III. 25 Kislev
Book 1 of Maccabees describes the rededication of the Temple and replacement of its vessels (source sheet III(A)). What is the significance of 25 Kislev? It took time to build all the items being replaced in the Temple, so it cannot be that everything was ready on the first day that the Temple was reclaimed. We see in Megillat Ta’anit (source sheet III(B)) that the Maccabees took back the Temple over a month before 25 Kislev, on 23 Cheshvan. Professor Sperber concludes that the makeshift “spear” menorah was lit on 23 Cheshvan (and on the ensuing seven days) and that the Temple was rebuilt over the next month (with some saying over the next 13 months). If so, why do we celebrate the miracle of the oil on 25 Kislev? Because Chazal would not decree two separate holidays for the same events, and the miracle of the oil is now folded into the celebration of the rededication of the Temple.

The 25^th of Kislev may have other significance. The Midrash says that the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed on that date. The dedication of the Mishkan was postponed till Nisan, the month of the birth of Yitzchak, who was offered as the first sacrifice. Thus, Kislev was “owed” a dedication, and that is when we celebrate Chanukah.

What is more, in antiquity, pagan festivals of light were gathered around the winter solstice. The Romans celebrated December 25 as the birthday of the unconquerable Sun. The Persians lit bonfires around the solstice, sending birds heavenward with torches made of dried grass.

Not only is the winter solstice a time of darkness, but the end of a Hebrew month would be additionally dark, as the moon waned. Thus, 25 Kislev was a time of “double darkness.”

Just as the Rambam argued that the surrounding culture had animal sacrifices so Judaism redirected that impulse toward the service of G-d, the Jewish festival of lights redirects the pagan winter solstice impulse toward sanctity. Even more, the Book of Maccabees identifies 25 Kislev as the date on which the Greeks first defiled the Temple three years earlier, so perhaps the rededication on Chanukah was timed to coincide with that date.

Why is Chanukah celebrated for eight days? We know of the miracle of the oil, but there is another reason suggested by Book 2 of Maccabees (source sheet III(E)): to make up for the recent holiday of Sukkot that the Jews had been unable to celebrate in the Temple by carrying the lulav and arava.

Rabbi Kermaier concluded by saying that when we think of Chanukah, we should consider important forms of symbolism:

• The season that antiquity associated with darkness was redeemed, through the prism of the Torah, as a Jewish source of light.
• Weapons of war — the spears that were lit as the makeshift menorah — were redeemed as sources of light.

Rabbi Kermaier closed with the hope that weapons of war will soon be transferred to sources of light for the Jewish people.