Hanukkah in Early Judaism

Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication, is a Hasmonean holiday, instituted to celebrate the rededication of the sacrificial altar of the Jerusalem Temple after it was defiled by the Seleucids in the uprising against Antiochus IV (167–160 BCE), and the renewal of the daily sacrifices. It is first mentioned in 1 Maccabees, without any further ritual elaboration. The slightly later retelling of the Maccabean wars in 2 Maccabees begins with two letters to the Egyptian diaspora communities urging the celebration of this festival. This is the earliest source that mentions the ritual kindling of lights in commemoration of the altar’s rededication. The custom is explained here as a reappearance of the sacred fire from the altar of Solomon’s Temple that had been hidden away by the priests when they went into exile in Babylonia and that was later recovered by Nehemiah and the returning exiles. The fire had been hidden away as naphtha, a combustible oil. Second Maccabees also justifies the eight days of observance as a recapitulation of Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, when Solomon’s Temple was dedicated, according to 1 Kings 8. In Jewish Antiquities, Josephus paraphrases the narrative of 1 Maccabees but gives his own interpretation of the festival’s significance as the Festival of Lights, suggesting that it refers metaphorically to the regained liberty to worship. See also The Hasmonean Revolt.

The Babylonian Talmud’s much later discussion of Hanukkah deals primarily with the legal requirements for lighting Hanukkah candles, including a debate between the schools of Hillel and Shammai over whether to light the candles in increasing or decreasing number over the course of the holiday. The Talmud then proceeds to ask, What is Hanukkah? It answers by relating that after the Hasmoneans defeated the Greeks who had defiled the Temple, there was only one jar of oil. Miraculously, the one day’s worth of oil lasted eight days. The Talmud’s account of the miraculous oil does not appear in the book of Maccabees and likely represents a rabbinic effort to legitimize the holiday of Hanukkah despite rabbinic discomfort with, and disapproval of, the Hasmoneans.