09 Dec CHANUKAH: IS NOT JUST “THEM AGAINST US”

Many people ask the
following question:
Chanukah is an
eight-day holiday.
There are dozens
and dozens of laws in
Hilchos Chanukah in Shulchan Aruch. The
holiday is packed with halachik detail. And
yet in the entire Talmud there are barely
two and a half folio (blatt or two-sided
pages, primarily in Tractate Shabbos)
which mention the holiday of Chanukah
and its laws. Other than as very peripheral
references, it is not mentioned in the
Mishna. There is no Mishna and no
Masechta (Tractate of Talmud) that deals
specifically with Chanukah.
Purim—also a Rabbinic holiday—is all of
one day, and it gets its own Masechta
(Megilla) but Chanukah, which is eight
days, gets just two and a half blatt as
incidental mention in a Mesechta dealing
with another topic. Why is Chanukah not
mentioned in the Mishna?
The Chasam Sofer says something that you
need to be the Chasam Sofer to say. He
writes that Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi, who

was the editor of the Mishna was a
descendant of the Davidic Dynasty. The
Chashmonean heroes of the Chanukah
story, despite the fact that they were
righteous individuals, did something that
was forbidden. They took the position of
Melech (King). Kohanim are not allowed
to be Melachim. Yaakov’s blessing to
Yehudah was “The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between
his feet…” [Bereishis 49:10]. The
Chashmonaim, who were descendants of
the Tribe of Levi, were in violation of this
law when they usurped the monarchy for
their own family. Consequently, Rabbeinu
HaKodosh, the editor of the Mishna, did
not want to give Chanukah the same
prominence as Purim, because of this
spiritual error that the Chashmonaim made.
I heard a different explanation as to why
Chanukah is not mentioned in the Mishna,
in the name of Rav Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik
(1903-1993). The Gemara [Moed Katan
26a] says that if someone sees a Sefer
Torah being burnt, he needs to tear Kriyah
(rip his clothing in a sign of mourning)
twice—once for the parchment and once
for the writing. The Gemara cites a pasuk

[ Y i r m i y a h u
36:27] to prove
this point.
R a v
S o l o v e i t c h i k
asks that the
Gemara in
Avodah Zarah
[18a] seems to
say the opposite.
The Gemara in
Avodah Zarah
mentions that
the Romans took
out Rav Chanina
ben Tradyon and
burned him at
the stake. They
wrapped him in a Sefer Torah and lit it. As
the fire was burning, Rav Chanina’s
students asked him, “Rebbi, what do you
see?” He responded, “I see the parchment
is burning but the letters are flying away.”
Rav Soloveitchik raised the apparent
contradiction: From Moed Katan 26a it
appears that the letters burn, and a person
needs to tear Kriyah over them; yet from
Avodah Zarah 18a it appears that the
letters fly away unharmed. Rav
Soloveitchik resolves the contradiction
by explaining that there is a difference
between the case where the letters are
burnt by a Jew and where they are burnt
by others.
The Gemara in Maseches Moed Katan,
which rules that one must tear Kriyah
twice—once for the parchment and once
for the letters – is speaking of a case
when Yehoyakim son of Yoshiyahu
burned a Sefer Torah [Yirmiyahu 36:27].
The Torah was given to the Jewish
nation, and along with the positive comes
a negative: a Jew can defile a Sefer
Torah. A Jew can destroy even the
Kedusha (sanctity) of a Sefer Torah
because, since it was given to us, a Jew
has a relationship to its Kedusha. He can
defile it or even destroy it. The Gemara
in Avodah Zarah with Chanina ben
Tradyon, however, is speaking of a case
where the Romans burned a Sefer Torah.
Romans do not have the ability to tamper
with the Kedusha of a Sefer Torah. The
Letters of the Torah escape their
defilement.
Rav Soloveitchik explains that this was
the difference between Rome and
Greece. The dominant theme of Rome –
of Tisha B’Av and of the Destruction of
the Temple – is Churban (destruction).
The dominant theme of Chanuka is

Tumah (defilement). The distinction is the
same. Others can destroy but cannot defile
the Torah. They cannot burn or affect the
Kedusha of the Torah. Ay, Yavan (the
Greeks)? The answer, says Rav Yoshe Ber,
is that with Yavan, something else
happened. Chanukah is not merely about
Yavan (the Greeks) but it is about the
MisYavnim (the Jews who adapted and
wanted to become like the Greeks). The

MisYavnim became Greek-Jews or Jewish-
Greeks. Therefore, they, because they were

Jewish, they had the power to defile (be
m’Tameh) the Torah itself.
In the time of Churban HaBayis
(Destruction of the Temple), Rabbi Chanina
ben Tradyon saw the “letters flying” away
because the Romans had no relationship to
the Kedusha of the Torah. However, by
Yavan, there were also Jews (who have a
connection to Kedusha of the Torah)
involved, and they have the power to even
defile the letters.
Therefore, Rav Soloveitchik says,
Chanukah is not given the prominence in
the Mishna and Talmud that other Jewish
holidays are given, because it is a shame for
us. This was not a simple matter of “Them
against Us.” This was a matter of “Us
against Us.” It was a culture war. It was a
fight amongst the Jews themselves.
Therefore, to go ahead and give it the
prominence that a Haman gets for trying to
destroy the Jews (from which they emerged
victorious) is inappropriate. The story of
Haman and his attempt to wipe out the
Jews—that gets more prominence.
Chanukah, on the other hand, which speaks
of a sordid incident in the history of Klal
Yisrael, does not receive the same
prominence that other Yomim Tovim
receive. Better to keep the details of the
story out of the Oral Law.
A Happy Chanukah to everyone!