for the irrelevant intellectual history of this post (in my own head), see the previous post...
1 בבלי עבודה זרה ח עמ' א
מתני' ואלו אידיהן של עובדי כוכבים קלנדא וסטרנורא ...
גמ' אמר רב חנן בר רבא קלנדא ח' ימים אחר תקופה סטרנורא ח' ימים לפני תקופה וסימנך +תהלים קלט+ אחור וקדם צרתני וגו'
ת"ר לפי שראה אדם הראשון יום שמתמעט והולך אמר אוי לי שמא בשביל שסרחתי עולם חשוך בעדי וחוזר לתוהו ובוהו וזו היא מיתה שנקנסה עלי מן השמים עמד וישב ח' ימים בתענית [ובתפלה] כיון שראה תקופת טבת וראה יום שמאריך והולך אמר מנהגו של עולם הוא הלך ועשה שמונה ימים טובים לשנה האחרת עשאן לאלו ולאלו ימים טובים הוא קבעם לשם שמים והם קבעום לשם עבודת כוכבים
TB Avodah Zarah 8a
[Mishnah lists the non-Jewish holidays around which it is prohibitted to do business with the non-Jews, beginning with "Kalenda" and "Saturna"]
Gemara: Rav Hanan bar Rava said: Kalenda is 8 days after the solstice; Saturna is 8 days before the solstice...
Our Rabbis Taught (A Baraita): For Adam saw that each day was getting shorter and shorter. He said 'woe to me. perhaps because I messed up, the world is darkening for me and returning to tohu va-vohu (pre-creation chaos), and this is the "death" which was inflicted on me from heaven." He got up and sat 8 days in fasting [and prayer]. When he saw the period after the winter solstice, and he saw each day was getting longer and longer, he said 'it is the way of the world.' He went and made 8 festive days. the next year, he made both these and those holidays. He established them for the sake of heaven, and they (the Romans) established them for idolatry.
Observations on this passage:
1) The view of cultural transmission is interesting: Everyone (Jews and ROmans) knows there;s supposed to be something around this time, but the content changes depending on the culture...
1a) Also interesting how they deal with the fact that our light-related-solstice-holiday seems to follow a general pattern: by affirming that, yes, in fact, it all derives from our common human ancestor!
2) According to this story, the position of Bet Hillel that we light one candle more each night may take on a new meaning...
3) Adam's winter holidays have two themes: confusion/despair and restoration of a sense of order/hope. It seems, especially given #2, that our hanukkah may represent the latter, but what of the former? It would certainly be ironic if the ROmans retained more of a remnan (albeit corrupt) of the dual nature of Adam's holiay that we do, no?
#3 is the lead in to the rest, so keep it in mind...
2 מסכת סופרים כ:ב
מצות הדלקתו, משתשקע החמה ועד שתכלה רגל מן השוק, ואף על פי שאין ראייה לדבר זכר לדבר, לא ימיש עמוד הענן יומם ועמוד האש לילה לפני העם. ואם הדליקו ביום, אין ניאותין ממנו, ואין מברכין עליו, שכך אמרו, אין מברכין על הנר עד שיאותו לאורו. ואין חוששין לפתילתו להחליפו עד שיכלה.
Masekhet Sofrim 20:2
the commandment of ligthing it, fromwhen the sun sets until legs leave the marketplace, and even though there is no proof (from the biblical text) for the thing, there is a hint/mention for the thin: 'the pillar of cloud shall not during the day and the pillar of fire at night before the people."...
I think the "hint" is that the "fire" is "before the people," hence must be lit while people are still outside.
Hower, the reaosn I bring it is that, again, we have a fire that corresponds to our hannukah practice, but in its own context its juxtaposed with smoke/cloud. SO, what's the symbolism of the smoke/fire, and how, if at all, does the smoke play into our hanukah?
3 שמות ל
(ז) וְהִקְטִיר עָלָיו אַהֲרֹן קְטֹרֶת סַמִּים בַּבֹּקֶר בַּבֹּקֶר בְּהֵיטִיבוֹ אֶת הַנֵּרֹת יַקְטִירֶנָּה:
basically, the rituals of menorah preparation and lighting are connected, in time, with the rituals of ketoret-burning. Another fire<->smoke/cloud pair.
Rav Lichtenstein suggests that the Jewish experience, or perhaps the religious experience in general, has two parts. first is the experience of knowledge, access to God, enlightenment: this corresponds to the fire. Second is the experience of mystery, of not-knowing, of obfuscation and inability to truly access/comprehend God: this corresponds to smoke.
So, our observance of hanukah focuses on the former: the fire, but we must remember that what sets us apart from Greece is not that we have light and they are darkness: Greece and its philosophy were indeed "enlightened." The Greel form of enlightenment, however, represents the firw without the smoke: without the recognition of humna limitations in teh face of the divine, etc.
Thsi point works well with the fact that the pillar of smoke appears during the day, and the pillar of fire at night: the light-time has an added element of obfuscation, and the dark-time has an added element of light. That said, what is there in our Hanukah observance that explicitly recognizes the ketoret aspect? this connects to quetsion #3 above: what corresponds to Adam's first 8 days?
I suggested to my class that maybe its the very fact that we light at night, in the darkest part of the year. But I (and they) were not totally satisfied.
Thoughts?
Labels: torah
