Rabbinic Tradition

The classical story of the “Miracle of Hanukkah” as found in the Talmud and an alternate version of the rededication of the Temple in Midrash Pesiqta Rabbati. We conclude with a reading of a classical Midrashic homily on the Torah Reading for Hanukkah.

With Hanukkah not mentioned in the Bible, the series begins with a brief survey of Scriptural antecedents to the holiday and its historical context in Second Temple Times. This leads to a summary of the Books of the Maccabees, the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Seleucid Empire (312–64 BCE) that were preserved in Christian sources. We continue with a survey of Hanukkah in Rabbinic Literature, focusing on the Torah Readings and Haftarot for Hanukkah as reflected in Liturgy and Midrash. We conclude with a look at the medieval Jewish retellings of the story of the Maccabees and a more recent “Sicha” (discourse) in the Chabad tradition based on a Rabbinic Hanukkah midrash.