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Why is This Holiday Different From All Other Holidays:
The Unique Theme of Hanukah
by Rav Yitzchak Blau
R. Yosef Albo argues that Judaism teaches three essential beliefs: the existence of God, the Divinity of the Torah and Divine providence. In essence, he collapses Rambam's thirteen fundamental beliefs into three categories. R. Albo also taught that the Torah conveys these three beliefs via the three biblical festivals. Pesah teaches the existence of God (note that in the asseret hadibrot, the commandment to believe in God identifies Hashem as the One who took the people out of Egypt), Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah and Sukkot emphasizes Hashem's continuous providence in the desert. If each holiday instructs us regarding crucial beliefs, we should ask which essential ideas the two rabbinic festivals, Purim and Hanukah, attempt to convey.
R. Moshe Avigdor Amiel, the former chief Rabbi of Antwerp and Tel Aviv, addresses this question in his Derashot El Ami (Vol. 3, no. 5). He suggests that Purim teaches us that the Torah remains binding in all locations, including when the Jewish people are scattered in exile. Indeed, Purim is the only holiday whose central event happened in exile as the Hanukah story occurred in Israel and the other festivals commemorate events from before there was exile (only after reaching Israel can exile occur). What is unique about Hanukah?
We might begin to see the answer by noting that all the other holidays find their story recorded in the Tanakh, either in the Humash or in Megilat Esther. Hanukah, by contrast, comes without a sacred text (the book of Maccabees was included by Christians in their canon but was never a part of our Tanakh). Perhaps the absence of a text reflects a particular connection to that aspect of Torah that is not textual, namely the oral law, encompassing traditions from Sinai, rabbinic interpretation and rabbinic innovation. The ability of the sages to institute a holiday despite the absence of a prophetic message clearly articulates the authority Torah gives to rabbinic decision making. Moreover, the broader historical context of Hanukah echoes this theme as the Hasmonean revolt happens immediately prior to the flowering of the oral law as reflected in the efforts of the Talmudic sages. The impact of Hanukah may have inspired the growth of rabbinic learning.
The very miracle of Hanukah points to the significance of the oral law as it was the ritual impurity of oil that necessitated the miracle of a minute amount of oil lasting for eight days. R. Amiel points out that liquids can only become impure due to a rabbinic enactment. A miracle generated by the presence of a rabbinic law serves as an implicit Divine approval of rabbinic endeavors. R. Amiel also notes that the three themes of the biblical holidays are shared by other religions while the acceptance of the oral law remains unique to Judaism. This means that the inclusion of Hanukah into the Jewish calendar adds an indispensable dimension to the ideas taught by the central days of that calendar.
Affirming the religious significance of the oral law requires some sensitivity. It mandates an understanding of both the power halakha invests in the sages and the fact that the sages work within a system of Divine law and therefore, there are limits on their flexibility. It means accepting a certain faith in our traditions and in the wisdom of our sages. May this Hanukah inspire us to learn the oral law in depth and appreciate the wisdom that our tradition has bequeathed to us.
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