Pipeline Torah Gem #906 2025-12-14: The Least Developed Holiday
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Vaughn Seward
Dec 14, 2025, 5:09:13 PM12/14/25
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The Least Developed Holiday
In a way, Hanukkah is the least developed of the holidays, but it was the most difficult accomplishment. The presence of the Chasidim as coalition partners, with their overwhelming expectation of divine signs and their devaluation of human initiative in sacred matters, put enormous pressure on the Maccabees, who themselves were uncertain of what was appropriate ritual and liturgy. At the religious officials' level, it was axiomatic that a holiday had to have a miracle associated with it, that is, an overt miracle reflecting the presence of the manifest God and/or biblical authorization. Passover was marked by the Exodus, Sukkot by the clouds of glory, Shavuot by the Sinai theophany. Hanukkah incorporated no miraculous victory comparable to the splitting of the Red Sea. Even a vial of the oil that lasts longer is not much on the scale of wonders and plagues that mark the Exodus. In the end, the Maccabees did not lose their nerve. They were neither crushed nor intimidated into yielding the holiday by the absence of a massive divine manifestation. The Al Hanissim prayer thanks God "for the miracles, for the redemption, for the mighty deeds and triumphs, and for the battles which You performed.... You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few." Voting to trust their own experience as worthy and significant, the Maccabees decreed that Hanukkah, the dedication holiday, be celebrated annually for eight days, starting with 25 Kislev. The decision was all the more courageous in light of the fact that the Hasmonean wars were far from over. Adapted from "The Jewish Way" by Rabbi Irving Greenberg, 1988, page 269.
In a way, Hanukkah is the least developed of the holidays, but it was the most difficult accomplishment. The presence of the Chasidim as coalition partners, with their overwhelming expectation of divine signs and their devaluation of human initiative in sacred matters, put enormous pressure on the Maccabees, who themselves were uncertain of what was appropriate ritual and liturgy. At the religious officials' level, it was axiomatic that a holiday had to have a miracle associated with it, that is, an overt miracle reflecting the presence of the manifest God and/or biblical authorization. Passover was marked by the Exodus, Sukkot by the clouds of glory, Shavuot by the Sinai theophany. Hanukkah incorporated no miraculous victory comparable to the splitting of the Red Sea. Even a vial of the oil that lasts longer is not much on the scale of wonders and plagues that mark the Exodus. In the end, the Maccabees did not lose their nerve. They were neither crushed nor intimidated into yielding the holiday by the absence of a massive divine manifestation. The Al Hanissim prayer thanks God "for the miracles, for the redemption, for the mighty deeds and triumphs, and for the battles which You performed.... You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few." Voting to trust their own experience as worthy and significant, the Maccabees decreed that Hanukkah, the dedication holiday, be celebrated annually for eight days, starting with 25 Kislev. The decision was all the more courageous in light of the fact that the Hasmonean wars were far from over. Adapted from "The Jewish Way" by Rabbi Irving Greenberg, 1988, page 269.
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