From "Patterns in Time" to "Early Rabbinic Writings": a Hannuka story

[LNM: In honor of Hanukkah here are some chocolate gold coins from The Candyman. (Mesh bag not included.)]

Hi all, Candyman here again, saying "Put on your yarmulke, it's time for Hannuka!" Y'know, Adam Sandler did a lot for Jewish pride when he came up with that silly song.

This week, I thought of a book that hasn't entered my head in years: Patterns in Time: Chanuka, by Matis Weinberg. I was a young and impressionable young man when I read it, my first year in yeshiva, but I remember thinking that book was genius. I stayed up all night reading it. I'd probaby be more critical of it today. Still, Weinberg is very creative, with a focus on p'shat (plain meaning), and it's worth checking out if you have the chance.

A couple of years ago, a friend informed me that Weinberg, once touted as a rising gadol (giant), had been accused of making sexual advances towards the young men at his yeshiva in Israel. I was very saddened to hear that. It's a huge shame, and a story that is becoming way too common. When it comes to the child molesters, some rabbis seem more interested in saving face than protecting children. In any case, Weinberg's book is still worth checking out. We all have challenges... they are written into our DNA. Sometimes we pass the tests, and sometimes we fail. But ideas should never be judged on where they come from. The rabbis of old got this right (Mishna Avot 5:27): Look not at the jug, but what it contains. There are new jugs full of old wine, and old jugs that contain even no wine at all.

Wow. I've got to say that writing that depressed me a bit. So let's say something short and nice about Hannuka. You are probably familiar with the miracle of the oil. When the Jewish Maccabees reclaimed the Temple from the Greeks, there was only one bottle of oil left, enough to light the menorah (lamp) for only one day. Amazingly, this little bottle lasted a full eight days! The miracle is famous enough. But what is the source text for this miracle?

You may be surprised to learn that the miracle of the oil does not appear at all in the earliest Jewish texts about Hannuka, which are the Apocryphal books I and II Maccabees (~100 B.C.) and the later text "Megillat Antiochus" (~200 C.E., reprinted with translation in the back of the Birnbaum Siddur/prayerbook... whose translations are excellent and worth checking out, especially if you are finding yourself bored during davening/prayer). In fact, the earliest source for the miracle of the oil appears to be the Talmud (B.T. Shabbat 21b), which as we know was finalized sometime around 700 C.E. However, as Wikipedia points out, there is a somewhat reminiscent story brought down in II Maccabees 1:18-36 about a fire in Nehemia's days. (Many of these points have already been made in the comments on the post earlier this week about Hannuka. Good job, people.)

Talk of apocrypha reminds me of a time about ten years ago, when I first ventured forth from the walls of the yeshiva to a local university library. At the time, I was searching for answers to questions which my Bible and Talmud study had raised in my mind. Who wrote the Bible? When and how did the "Oral Torah" develop? Needless to say, my yeshiva education had not provided me with the answers. At the library, I chanced upon a book by the late Jewish historian Hyam Maccoby, called Early Rabbinic Writings. It was a collection of mostly Pharisaic texts, most of which never made it into the Mishna. The book, which is very good and easy to read, is part of a wonderful series called the Cambridge Commentaries on Writings of the Jewish and Christian World. Each volume in the series is a sampler of primary sources from different eras or groups, e.g. Apocrypha, Pseudoepigrapha, Rabbinics, Qumran sect, etc. There are so many ancient texts out there that, sadly, neither yeshiva students nor rabbis are familiar with today. If you are looking for answers, they are a good place to start.