TRANSLITERATION
Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu laasok b’divrei Torah.
TRANSLATION
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who hallows us with mitzvot, commanding us to engage with words of Torah.
What is the connection between Thanksgiving and Chanukah?
- One source of inspiration for the fall harvest celebration was Sukkot - the Puritans were Bible readers and would have been aware of this
- Chanukah as a belated Sukkot - They could not observe the holiday at the appropriate time, after rededicating the Temple - 8 days of Chanukah (according to 2 Maccabbees has nothing to do with the oil miracle) = 8 make up days for Sukkot
From 1 Maccabbees Chapter 1
42and abandon their particular customs. All the Gentiles conformed to the command of the king,
43and many Israelites delighted in his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath.
44The king sent letters by messenger to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, ordering them to follow customs foreign to their land;
45to prohibit burnt offerings, sacrifices, and libations in the sanctuary, to profane the sabbaths and feast days,
46to desecrate the sanctuary and the sacred ministers,
47to build pagan altars and temples and shrines, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals,
48to leave their sons uncircumcised, and to defile themselves with every kind of impurity and abomination;
49so that they might forget the law and change all its ordinances.
50Whoever refused to act according to the command of the king was to be put to death.h
51In words such as these he wrote to his whole kingdom. He appointed inspectors over all the people, and he ordered the cities of Judah to offer sacrifices, each city in turn.
52Many of the people, those who abandoned the law, joined them and committed evil in the land.
53They drove Israel into hiding, wherever places of refuge could be found.
54On the fifteenth day of the month Kislev, in the year one hundred and forty-five,* the king erected the desolating abomination upon the altar of burnt offerings, and in the surrounding cities of Judah they built pagan altars.i
55They also burned incense at the doors of houses and in the streets.
56Any scrolls of the law* that they found they tore up and burned.
57Whoever was found with a scroll of the covenant, and whoever observed the law, was condemned to death by royal decree.
58So they used their power against Israel, against those who were caught, each month, in the cities.
59On the twenty-fifth day of each month they sacrificed on the pagan altar that was over the altar of burnt offerings.
60In keeping with the decree, they put to death women who had their children circumcised,
61and they hung their babies from their necks; their families also and those who had circumcised them were killed.
62But many in Israel were determined and resolved in their hearts not to eat anything unclean;
63they preferred to die rather than to be defiled with food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die.
64And very great wrath came upon Israel.
- Land of Israel located between the Seleucids Asia Minor and Asia and Ptolemies in Egypt
- Important to control that territory, trade routes go through there
ANTIOCHUS IV EPIPHANES, son of Antiochus III, ruled from the death of his brother *Seleucus IVin 175 B.C.E. until his death in 164. His reign marks a turning point in Jewish history. Striving vigorously to restore the strength of the Seleucid Empire, Antiochus founded more new Greek cities than all his predecessors. He became the champion of an intense Hellenization, more as a result of personal tendencies than as a means of reunifying the divided kingdom. To this end Antiochus paid particular attention to the Jews of Palestine. *Onias III, the high priest, was replaced in 173 by *Jason who had strong leanings toward the Hellenistic party in Jerusalem. In time the character of the Jewish capital itself was altered, with Jason undertaking "to register the Jerusalemites as citizens of Antioch" (II Macc. 4:9; on the legal status of Jerusalem under the government of the Hellenizers see V. Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (1959), 161 ff.). Jason was eventually outbid for the office of high priest by Menelaus, who proved even more servile and prepared to carry out the most extreme Hellenization of Judea. In 168 Antiochus set out on his second expedition to Egypt. Wishful thinking probably promoted the spread of false rumors regarding the king's death, and as a result, Jason, who had fled to Transjordan, returned to Jerusalem and tried to reestablish his rule. On returning from Egypt, Antiochus, convinced that a rebellion had broken out against him, stormed the city, killed thousands of Jews, and sold thousands more into slavery. In their place, and especially in the citadel of Jerusalem (*Acra ) which was erected on the instructions of Antiochus, a Greek community was set up, thus outwardly transforming the city into a foreign polis (city-state). By 167 the enforced Hellenization of the Jews reached its peak; the Jews were compelled, under penalty of death "to depart from the laws of their fathers, and to cease living by the laws of God. Further, the sanctuary in Jerusalem was to be polluted and called after Zeus Olympius" (II Macc. 6:1, 2). The nature of these decrees has puzzled most scholars and students of the Hellenistic period. Ancient polytheism for the most part was tolerant, and this particular brand of Hellenization was not applied by Antiochus to any segment of the non-Jewish population under his rule. It would seem, therefore, that religious oppression appeared to Antiochus to be the only means of achieving political stability in Palestine, since it was that country's religion, if anything, that was out of place in a predominantly Hellenized empire. It would be wrong, however, completely to disregard the nature of the king himself. His strange behavior, causing contemporaries to refer to him as Epimanes ("madman") instead of Epiphanes, obviously played a major part in the formation of such violent policies. In any case, Antiochus did not personally oversee the implementation of these policies. He died in the city of Tabae (Isfahan)
Let's take a look at a debate between Hillel and Shammai about lighting the Chanukah candles
The Sages taught in a baraita: The basic mitzva of Hanukkah is each day to have a light kindled by a person, the head of the household, for himself and his household. And the mehadrin, i.e., those who are meticulous in the performance of mitzvot, kindle a light for each and every one in the household. And the mehadrin min hamehadrin, who are even more meticulous, adjust the number of lights daily. Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel disagree as to the nature of that adjustment. Beit Shammai say: On the first day one kindles eight lights and, from there on, gradually decreases the number of lights until, on the last day of Hanukkah, he kindles one light. And Beit Hillel say: On the first day one kindles one light, and from there on, gradually increases the number of lights until, on the last day, he kindles eight lights. Ulla said: There were two amora’im in the West, Eretz Yisrael, who disagreed with regard to this dispute, Rabbi Yosei bar Avin and Rabbi Yosei bar Zevida. One said that the reason for Beit Shammai’s opinion is that the number of lights corresponds to the incoming days, i.e., the future. On the first day, eight days remain in Hanukkah, one kindles eight lights, and on the second day seven days remain, one kindles seven, etc. The reason for Beit Hillel’s opinion is that the number of lights corresponds to the outgoing days. Each day, the number of lights corresponds to the number of the days of Hanukkah that were already observed. And one said that the reason for Beit Shammai’s opinion is that the number of lights corresponds to the bulls of the festival of Sukkot: Thirteen were sacrificed on the first day and each succeeding day one fewer was sacrificed (Numbers 29:12–31). The reason for Beit Hillel’s opinion is that the number of lights is based on the principle: One elevates to a higher level in matters of sanctity and one does not downgrade. Therefore, if the objective is to have the number of lights correspond to the number of days, there is no alternative to increasing their number with the passing of each day.
The story of Joseph occupies the end of Genesis - the story begins with Jacob's family and ends with foreshadowing the tribes and people of Israel who will grow up in Egypt from the family that went there during the famine.
Connections with Chanukah - in-fighting within the family, use of power and influence
Question to focus on here: If Jacob is aware the brothers are angry at Joseph, why send Joseph to them?
When he reached Shechem,