מאי חנוכה?

(During the season of Hanukkah add: And we praise You for the miracles and for the redemption and for the mighty deeds and for the victories and for the battles that You performed for our fathers in those days at this time:

In the days of Mattisyahu, the son of Yochanan the High Priest, the Hasmonean, and his sons, when the wicked kingdom of Greece rose up against Your people Israel to make them forget Your Torah and to stray from the laws of Your will, You, with great mercy stood by them in the time of their distress. You fought their fight, judged their cause and avenged them with vengence. You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous and the arrogant into the hands of those engaged with Your Torah. For Yourself you made a great and holy name in Your world, You performed a great deliverance for Your people Israel on this day. After these things, Your children entered into the Holy of Holies of Your House, cleansed Your Temple, purified the place of Your Holiness, kindled lights in Your holy courts and established these eight days of Hanukkah to express thanksgiving and praise to Your great name.)

(33) And ye shall not go out from the door of the tent of meeting seven days, until the days of your consecration be fulfilled; for He shall consecrate you seven days. (34) As hath been done this day, so the LORD hath commanded to do, to make atonement for you. (35) And at the door of the tent of meeting shall ye abide day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the LORD, that ye die not; for so I am commanded.

(1) And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel; (2) and he said unto Aaron: ‘Take thee a bull-calf for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering, without blemish, and offer them before the LORD. (3) And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak, saying: Take ye a he-goat for a sin-offering; and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt-offering;

(1) Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old; and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. (2) And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. (3) He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. (4) And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the broad place on the east;

(16) And the priests went in unto the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad to the brook Kidron. (17) Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD; and they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and on the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

(5) And at the end of all these, they fell on their faces and pleaded with the Lord G-d to say:
(6) Please G-d keeps us from such trouble that we have come.
(7) And if we have sinned against you, forbid us in your favor, and do not give us in the hands of strangers who are cursing the name of your holiness.
(8) And from the Lord it was to disinfect the house in the very day that the Gentiles had defiled him, and it was the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev.
(9) And they celebrated the feast of the Lord for eight days, as the feast of Sukkot, and remembered the days of the festival of Sukkot in the mountains and in the caves, and they departed in wilderness, like wild beasts.
(10) And they took the leabes of the stream and the leaves of the palm trees, and sang a song of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, who gave them courage and salvation to purify the temple of his temple.
(11) And they shall send a voice in all the cities of Judah to celebrate this festival every year.

(3) (During the season of Hanukkah add: And we praise You for the miracles and for the redemption and for the mighty deeds and for the victories and for the battles that You performed for our fathers in those days at this time:

(4) In the days of Mattisyahu, the son of Yochanan the High Priest, the Hasmonean, and his sons, when the wicked kingdom of Greece rose up against Your people Israel to make them forget Your Torah and to stray from the laws of Your will, You, with great mercy stood by them in the time of their distress. You fought their fight, judged their cause and avenged them with vengence. You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous and the arrogant into the hands of those engaged with Your Torah. For Yourself you made a great and holy name in Your world, You performed a great deliverance for Your people Israel on this day. After these things, Your children entered into the Holy of Holies of Your House, cleansed Your Temple, purified the place of Your Holiness, kindled lights in Your holy courts and established these eight days of Hanukkah to express thanksgiving and praise to Your great name.)

(1) On the 25th of Kislev (start) the eight days of Hanukkah, and they are prohibited for eulogizing and fasting, but are permitted for doing work. The women have made it a custom not to do work while the candles are burning. And there is [an opinion] that says that we may not be lenient for them.

(2) The many meals which we add on [these days] are voluntary meals, since [the Sages] did not establish them as [days of] feasting and joy. Rem"a: But some say that there is somewhat of a mitzvah in adding meals, because during those days was the Dedication of the Altar (Abraham Kara of Prague). It is the custom to recite hymns and songs of praise during the feasts added on them, and then they are mitzvah meals (Book of Customs). Some say that cheese should be eaten during Hanukkah, because a miracle was done though milk which Yehudit fed the enemy. (Kol Bo and Nissim of Gerona).

A Hanukkah lamp that one placed above twenty cubits is invalid, just as a sukka whose roofing is more than twenty cubits high, and just as an alleyway whose beam, its symbolic fourth partition in order to place an eiruv, is more than twenty cubits high, are invalid. The reason is the same in all three cases: People do not usually raise their heads and see objects at a height above twenty cubits. As there is a requirement to see all of these, they are deemed invalid when placed above that height. And the Gemara cites another statement that Rav Kahana said that Rav Natan bar Manyumi taught in the name of Rav Tanḥum: What is the meaning of the verse that is written with regard to Joseph: “And they took him, and cast him into the pit; and the pit was empty, there was no water in it” (Genesis 37:24)? By inference from that which is stated: And the pit was empty, don’t I know that there was no water in it? Rather, why does the verse say: There was no water in it? The verse comes to emphasize and teach that there was no water in it, but there were snakes and scorpions in it.

Rava said: It is obvious to me that there is a fixed list of priorities. When a person is poor and must choose between purchasing oil to light a Shabbat lamp for his home or purchasing oil to light a Hanukkah lamp, the Shabbat lamp for his home takes precedence. That is due to peace in his home; without the light of that lamp, his family would be sitting and eating their meal in the dark. Similarly, if there is a conflict between acquiring oil to light a lamp for his home and wine for the sanctification [kiddush] of Shabbat day, the lamp for his home takes precedence due to peace in his home. However, Rava raised a dilemma: When the conflict is between oil for a Hanukkah lamp or wine for kiddush of Shabbat day, what is the ruling in that case? Does kiddush of Shabbat day take priority because it is frequent, i.e., it is performed every week, and there is a principle: When there is a conflict between a frequent practice and an infrequent practice, the frequent practice takes precedence? Or, perhaps the Hanukkah lamp takes precedence due to publicity of the miracle? After he raised the dilemma, he then resolved it on his own and he ruled that, in that case, the Hanukkah lamp takes precedence due to publicity of the miracle.

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. Rabba bar bar Ḥana said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: There were two Elders in Sidon, and one of them acted in accordance with the opinion of Beit Shammai, and one of them acted in accordance with the opinion of Beit Hillel. Each provided a reason for his actions: One gave a reason for his actions: The number of lights corresponds to the bulls of the Festival. And one gave a reason for his actions: The number of lights is based on the principle: One elevates to a higher level in matters of sanctity and one does not downgrade.

(36) Behold, the enemy is struck before us, now let us go up and purify the Sanctuary of the Lord.

(37) All them men of the army gathered, and they went together up to Mount Zion.

(38) And it was that when they saw the Holy Temple desolate, and the altar profaned, and that doors burned with fires and the courts destroyed, and grasses of the field sprouting all over it.

(39) They tore their clothes and threw dirt on their heads and made a great mourning.

(40) They blew blasts on the trumpets and fell on their faces and their cry reached the heavens.

(41) And Yehudah commanded one troop of his men to lay siege to the fortress until they had purified the Holy Temple.

(42) And he chose from among the priests who had not been defiled and who had not abandoned the covenant of their Gd, and he commanded them to purify the Holy Temple and the throw the stones which had been defiled in an unclean place.

(43) And they saw that the altar of the offering had been profaned, and they took heart counsel together in order to decide what to do.

(44) And they plan which they devised was to pull it down altogether, in order that it not be a stumbling block for them since foreigners had profaned it. And they tore it down.

(45) And they placed the stones on the Temple mount in a certain place, until a prophet would stand up among Israel and teach them what was to be done.

(46) And they took whole stones which iron had never touched, as is written in the Torah of the Lord, and they built a new altar in the likeness of the first one.

(47) And they repaired the breaches in the Holy Temple, and all that which was within the sanctuary, and they sanctified the courtyard and all that was in it.

(48) And they renewed all the sacred vessels, and placed the menorah, the incense altar and the table of the show bread back in the Temple.

(49) And they placed the incense on the altar, and lit the lamps upon the menorah in order to light the Sanctuary.

(50) And they placed the show bread on the table, and the dividing curtain before the ark, and all the work was completed as in the beginning.

(51) And it was on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is Kislev, in the one hundred and forty-eighth year that they rose early in the morning and offered the whole offering on the new altar according to its laws.

(52) And they dedicated the altar on the very day that the foreigners had defiled it, and they gave praise to the Lord with song, harps, pipes and cymbals.

(53) And they fell on their faces and prostrated themselves to the Lord because He had given them might and salvation.

(54) And they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and brought up whole offerings, and thanksgiving offerings in the joy of their hearts.

(55) And they glorified the face of the sanctuary with crowns and shields of gold and purified the gates and the courts of the priests, and replaced the doors.

(56) And there was great rejoicing among all the people, because the Lord had rolled back the disgrace of the nations from upon them.

(57) And Yehudah, his brothers and all the community of Israel commanded to celebrate the dedication of the altar on the twenty-fifth day of month of Kislev, eight days each year, with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.