Hanoucca

Hanouka (in Hebrew: חנוכה) is a Jewish holiday, so known under the name of Fête of the Lights . This festival is celebrated during 8 days from the 25 of the Hebraic month of Kislev (November-December).

It is about the only Jewish holiday not having any biblical source. Indeed, the Books of the Stiffs who recall the historical context of it, were not included in the " canon" Jew. The ritual of Hanoucca less carries on the commemoration of these episodes of the Jewish Histoire than on the Miracle of the Oil Flask, which is consigned in the Talmud (TB Chabbat 21b), but not in the Books of the Stiffs (although 2 M 1:18 and seq. brings back a similar history of contents, but located at the time of Néhémie)

Pourim or of the Haggada to Pessa' H. In place and place, the Jews sing the Maoz Tsour. -->

History (S) of Hanouka

Hanouka , meaning " dédication" (cf Psalms 30) because it marked the Re-dédication of the Temple, after its desecration under Antiochus IV. -->

The revolt of Hasmonéens

The historical episode proceeds towards -165 in Judaea, which is under the domination of the Séleucides since the victory of Antiochos III over Ptolémée IV in -200. At the time of the events commemorated by Hanoucca, the country is controlled by Antiochos IV which, according to the Books of the Stiffs imposes on Judéens the pagan practices into force among Greeks, and strikes prohibition the study of the Torah and, more generally, the practice of the precepts of the Judaism under penalty of death.

It is possible that certain Jews took then refuge in the mountains and episodically fought against the Greeks, but the event release of the revolt proceeds, according to the Prime Minister Livre of the Stiffs, in the small town of Modiin. The Greeks would have ordered to the leader of the city, Mattityahou (Mattathias) HaCohen (the Priest), grandson of Hasmonaï (from where the surname: the Hasmonéens), to sacrifice a pig to their divinities. Outraged, Mattathias, refuses, but a hellenized Jew goes voluntary “to collaborate” unconstrained. He is about to on the spot cut down the animal when Mattathias stabs it, as well as the Greek dignitary present. Then, it calls with the revolt those which remain faithful to the Loi of YHWH and with Its Alliance.

Knowing that they from now on would be tracked without mercy, Mattathias, its sons and their faithful flee in the mountains. The Jews observing, gathered under the name of Hassidim (the Intègres , which divide with the ultra-orthodoxe movement born in Eastern Europe only the name) before adopting the nickname of their legendary chief, ''' Yehouda haMaccabi ''', then carry out a Guerilla violent and bloody, leading in -165 to the expulsion of Séleucides (however of number and in technology superiors, having inter alia elephant S war) out of the borders of Judaea and to the resumption of Jerusalem. Antiochus itself died on the way which leads to Jerusalem.

However, the victory will be paid with the full price. The majority of the combatants and their chiefs, to start with Juda Stiff, trespass of violent death. The victims whose state the Books make were so numerous that the term Macchabée , which meant in the beginning " Marteau" crush the enemies, unless it is not a Acronyme of M I K amokha B aelim Y HWH (Which is like You among the powers, YHWH), became synonymous with " cadavre".

Once arrived at the Temple of Jerusalem, the Macchabées carry out the purification of the holy place profaned by the Greeks.

A eight days festival

The Jews celebrate less this victory that the Miracle of the Oil Flask having lasted eight days, according to Talmud. By the " term; lamèhadrine " (litt., " more magnifique"), the Wise ones indicate that Hasmonéens, priests and oil merchants of their state, actually knew how to make last a flame, by using the long wicks of the days of summer instead of the wicks of winter. However, the flame thus obtained should have been frail and so to speak pathetic. The miracle would thus have been that it shone intensely, glorieusement, heating the heart, hardening the faith of those which had lost it, as those which had it gardée.
Pour some, the miracle is ascribable with certain properties of oil, a " large crû". For others, the vision of the flame, was it frail, had the same effect on Judéens as if it had been glorious.

It is not mentioned null this miracle in the non-talmudic sources. The deuterocanonic Livres Hebrew of the Stiffs give other reasons for the eight days of Hanoucca: 1 Stiffs (4: 56-59) known as that " during eight days, they celebrated the rededication of the furnace bridge. Then Juda and his/her brothers, as all the congregation of Israel issued that the days of the rededication… would be observed… each year… during eight days " , and 2 Stiffs specifies that " the Jews celebrated joyeusement during eight days as at the time of the ''' Fête of the Huts '''. "

2Macchabées delivers another explanation, also consigned in Talmud: the eight days would commemorate the death of a mother (named Hannah in Talmud) and of her seven sons; Those were tortured, then carried out to have refused to transgress by eating pig and while being prosternant in front of a statue; Hannah itself committed suicide after their death; This history forms the base of the principle of Yehareg bicycle ya' avor (of being killed rather than to transgress, in 3 circumstances: 1 - To have to kill to oneself same an innocent third person 2 - To make an adultery 3 - To serve an idol)
Selon a similar teaching talmudic, the eight days of Hanoucca would be an allusion to the eight days of the newborn at the time of its Circoncision, practical prohibited by the capacity séleucide.

Historical commemoration with the religious celebration

Historically, Hanoucca commemorates a double victory:

• spiritual triumph of the values of the Judaism, concretized in the Torah, and symbolized by the Menorah (the Torah is compared with the Lumière) on the hellenistic Civilization, regarded as carrying darkness. This does not aim so much the aspects unpleasant to the Jews like the Idolâtrie or the sports (the athletes were to contribute naked, which passed for obscene to the eyes of Judéens), that the adoption of rules which, to contain good, were not their and confined them in fine with the fault, then with the loss of their identity.
• physical victory of the Jews, carried out by the Hasmonéens over the Syrian legions Séleucides of Antiochus IV in -165, victory which returned independence (autonomy) to the Judaea as well as part of the Ground of Israel.

However, Hanoucca celebrates less these facts that the Miracle of the Flask which followed.
Ceci is initially explained by the reserve of the Judaism to celebrate a victory, where temptation to ignore the " main" of God to the profit of military and strategic engineering human is too important. Then, because Hasmonéens became some generations later symbol of oppression and of decline, especially after, supreme heresy, a descendant of the Cohanim appointed king, which represented a usurpation of the capacity, this one being able to return only to one child of davidic Ascendance. The civil war which followed was considered to be all the more deplorable as it was completed only by the arrival of the legions of Pompée, invited to arbitrate the disagreement. This marked the beginning of the Roman conquest of Judaea, which was to be completed by its destruction and the second exile of the Jews, at the time where the doctors of Mishna discussed the laws Hanoucca, among autres.
La rededication of the Temple and the Miracle of the Flask without which it could not have had place (according to Talmud) conveyed on the other hand only positive aspects and immutable. The olive oil small jug became a metaphor of the miraculous survival of the Jewish people to the length of milliénaires of tests and tribulations.

Hanoucca in the large Texts

In the Tanakh

If the festival of Hanoucca is not mentioned in Tanakh (the Bible), the term is found there on several occasions. It comes from the Hebraic root חנכ, which means " to build, inaugurer". One finds it in the חינוך ('Hinoukh, education, i.e. construction of the children) and in the biblical name of חנוך, because he is the builder of a city.
Il is (still nowadays) of habit at the Jews, before inaugurating a house in which one intends to live, to meet and request; this ceremony is called " חנוכתבית " ( Hanūkat Bayit ). This same ceremonial was to be held before inaugurating the place that God would choose for residence, and it is always in similar circumstances that one finds the term “Hannoucca in the Hebraic Bible: during the inauguration of the Mishkan in the desert of the the Sinai after the Exodus, during the inauguration of the furnace bridge in Numbers , 7, and during the inauguration of the Temple of Solomon. 'Hanoucca thus indicates simply the rededication of the Temple.

In the Seventy

The history of Hanoucca is preserved in the first two Books of the Stiffs. One there finds also ( and seq. ) history similar to Miracle of Flask, but clearly more old, according to which at the time of the relighting of the fire of the furnace bridge by Néhémie was due to a miracle which occurred the 25 Kislev, and would have played a great role in the selection of this date by Juda Macchabée for réinaugurer the furnace bridge of the Temple.

In Talmud

The Miracle of Hanoucca is described in the Gemara of the treaty Chabbat 21b . Having driven out the profaners of the Temple, the winners realize that there does not remain practically any more devoted oil, except for a flask sealed by Yohanan Cohen Gadol. However, it could light Menorah only during one day whereas the manufacturing process of oil requires eight of them. They use it nevertheless, and miracle, Menorah shines of all its fires during the eight days.

Talmud presents three habits:

1. Allumer a light each night by hearth
2. Allumer a light each night by member of the hearth
3. the most pious method varies the number of lights each night. The school of Shammaï, being based on the sacrifices of Souccot where the number of oxen decreases each day, proposes to start with eight lights and to finish with one, while the school of Hillel thinks that they should be lit by ascending order. It is this opinion which carries it.

Except the dangerous situations, the Hanoukkia should be placed at the window giving on the street.

Josèphe could not believe that these lights could symbolize the freedom obtained by the Jews the day commemorated by Hanoucca. And Rachi, commenting on Chabbat 21b, says that their goal is to make the miracle (of the Flask) public. Hanoucca is also mentioned in the older Mishna of the treaty Meguila (TB Meguila 30b).

In addition, Hanoucca is at the origin of a repercussion major but ignored of Hanoucca on the practical of the Judaism, in addition to the Yehareg bicycle ya' avor .
Talmud (Mishna Yoma 8:6; T.B Yoma 85a and B; Ketouvoth 5a) points out a fact evoked in I Macc. 2,41: of Hassidim, being made surprise with Chabbat by the enemy, preferred to let itself kill that enfreindre Chabbat. This tragedy made it possible to establish the precedent of the Pikkouah nefesh : it is obligatory to transgress the laws of the Judaism, was this those of Chabbat, in order to preserve or to safeguard a life, except for the three cases of sin in which death is preferable, namely the murder, the rape and the idolatry.

Certain Wise draw from other lesson of this name

• Hanoucca can be broken up into two words, “ Hanou- ” (“they rested”) & “ - cca ” (“the 25”, numerical value of כ " ה): the 25 of the month of Kislev, the Macchabées could finally rest, the war was gained.
• According to I Macc. 1:59, the 25 of the month, the Greeks sacrificed to their divinities on the furnace bridge of YHWH. Although this month is not specified in this verse, the name of Kislev appears a little higher. As for the following verse, it indicates that the women who had made to circoncire their children were massacred. The fact of having redédicacé the Temple three years and there to later make resplendir the Ménorah would be thus the consequence of a deliberate choice of Macchabées.December 25th will be fixed like Fête Sun before becoming that of the Birthrate, in a spirit of conciliation between judéo- and pagano-Christians). -->
• the festival of the Lights is celebrated the 25 because the word Or , " Lumière" , is the 25e word of the Torah: “Gold , AWR, That the Light is!
• Hanoucca is also a notarikon in Hebrew for ח” נרותוהלכהכביתהלל eight candles and the Halakha is like Study Bureau Hillel ". It is average a mnemotechnics evoking a controversy between the school of Hillel and that of Shammaï concerning the adequate way to light the candles of the Hanoukkia. Shammaï suggested starting with 8 candles and in to reduce the number to each night, whereas Hillel proposed to start with a candle and in to add 1 to each night. The halakha followed the opinion of Hillel.

Sifrei HaMakaviyim ) are not share off the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), goal are leaves off deuterocanonical historical and religious material preserved in the Septuagint. The Tanakh ends with the consequences following the vents off Purim, and had already been codified many centuries earlier by the Men off the Great Assembly ( Anshei Knesset HaGedolah ).

Another source is the Megillat Antiokhos, has text ascribed to the Maccabees themselves by Saadia Gaon goal, according to nap scholars, perhaps written around the first gold second century AD. Indeed, Saadia Gaon' S theory is highly unlikely, gives aces Megillat Antiokhos the timeframe for the story in relation to the destruction off the second Temple, which occurred over 200 years later, and could not possibly cuts been known to the Maccabees. -->

In the Gospel of Jean

The festival is mentioned in Jean 10.

Jn10.22 One then celebrated in Jerusalem the festival of the Dedication . It was the winter . 23 With the temple, Jesus went and came under the gantry from Solomon . The 24 Jews made circle around him and said to him: “Until when will you hold back us? If you are Christ, say the-us openly”! 25 Jesus answered them: “I said it to you and you do not believe. The works which I make in the name of my Father return me testimony, 26 but you do not believe me, because you are not my ewes. (...) 30 Me and the Father we are a ”.

The 31 Jews, again, collected stones to lapidate it. 32 But Jesus began again: “I showed to you so many beautiful works which came from the Father. For which of these works want you to lapidate me”? The 33 Jews answered him: “It is not for a beautiful work that we want to lapidate you, but for a blasphemy, because you who are a man you are made God”. 34 Jesus answered them: “He was not written in your Law: I said: You are gods? 35 It thus sometimes happens at the Law to call gods those to which the word of God was addressed. However no one cannot abolish the Writing. (...). 39 Then, once more, they sought to stop it, but he escaped with their hands.

40 Jesus was turned over from there beyond the the Jordan, at the place where Jean had baptized at the beginning , and it remained there. .41 Many came to him and they said: “Jean certainly did not operate any sign, but all that he said of this man was true”. 42 And there, they were numerous to believe in him.

Model: TOB

Hanoukka and Christmas

As explained higher, the date of the 25 kislev can be interpreted like the revenge of the Jews remained faithful to the Monothéisme on the paganism and the materialism of the Greeks. Although it is not at the polemical base with Christianity, some estimate malséant today for a Jew to celebrate Christmas. Nevertheless, this tendency exists, especially with the the United States, where the mixed rate of marriages is important, and where Christmas is celebrated with ostentation. " families; mixtes" (a spouse not-Jew) or comparable furnish with the (bushes of Hanoukka, euphemism to indicate substitutes of Christmas trees), wish happy cholidays (contraction of Happy Holidays , Joyeuses Festivals , and 'Hannoucca, which decides with a Jota), celebrate Hanoucca and Christmas, even Hannoël ( " " ).

See detailed article Rites of Hanoucca.

See too

Internal bonds

• Rites of Hanoucca
• Stiffs
• Books of the Stiffs
• Hasmonéens

External bonds

• Article on Hanoucca of Mr. Jacques Kohn

• Hanoucca explained to the children
• the meridian line of Jerusalem
• Guide of Hanoucca, the direction of the festival
• an extract of the blessings and maoz tsourselon the African northern Jewish tradition by Rav Zermati- Torat site Emits
• Conférence of Mireille Hadas-Lebel

Zh-yue: 修殿節

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