Chanuka: What Are the Implications of a Rabbinic Holiday?

Chanuka is a post-Biblical and, therefore, Rabbinic festival. In this article, we’re going to explore what that means both in terms of the nature of the festival and the halachic practices (or lack thereof) associated with it.

In Jewish tradition, history can be divided into two periods – the time of the Written Torah (the Torah she bichtav) and the time of the Oral Torah (the Torah she ba’al peh). We can also call these two times the period of the Nevi’im (prophets) and the period of the Chachamim (Sages).

The transition to this second stage of the period came about when prophecy ceased in the world and Hashem stopped communicating with the leaders of the generation directly. Since then, we receive the messages that Hashem wants to tell us through the wisdom of the Torah and its Talmidei Chachamim.

Rabbi Akiva Tatz, in his book ‘As Dawn Ends the Night’ explains that the features of Chanuka reflect the post-Biblical time in which it took place. Let’s take a look at this in more depth.

Open Miracles versus Hidden Miracles

If we look at the three Biblical festivals, we see that they all have overt miracles associated with them that were public and witnessed by the whole nation. Pesach has the ten plagues and the splitting of the Yam Suf which all went totally against the laws of nature, Shavuot has the revelation at Har Sinai – Hashem speaking directly to His nations, and Sukkot has the Ananei HaKavod (clouds of glory) – the miraculous clouds with which Hashem protected and guided B’nei Yisrael through the desert. 

What about the miracle of the oil? You may ask. Rabbi Tatz explains that though the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days instead of one was overly supernatural, it was nonetheless a private miracle that occurred in the inner precincts of the Beit HaMikdash.

The post-Biblical phase of history, which we are still in today, does not feature open, public miracles. Rabbi Tatz explains that the miracle of the war, with the Chashmonaim defeating the Yevanim, “did not manifest open abrogations of nature and, in fact, required strenuous human effort – a bitter war fought against the Greek Empire that eventually dragged on for years during which four of the five heroic sons of Matityahu died. The victory was certainly miraculous: a small band of priests wrested victory from a mighty armed empire, but the war featured no overt change in nature, and great human effort was required.”

What about the miracle of the oil? You may ask. Rabbi Tatz explains that though the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days instead of one was overly supernatural, it was nonetheless a private miracle that occurred in the inner precincts of the Beit HaMikdash.

Rabbi Tatz also explains that it is not accidental that the protagonists of the Chanuka battle were kohanim (priests). He writes that Kohanim stand between two worlds – the physical and the spiritual. Their role in the Beit HaMikdash was to stand between Hashem and the people, representing each to the other. This is reflective of the nature of Chanuka which represents a liminal state, the bridge of the two periods of history that we discussed – it joins the previous miraculous era with the era of nature seemingly covering up the miraculous.

Halachic Differences

Let’s turn to look at some of the similarities and differences between Bilblical festivals and Rabbinic ones. The fact that Chanuka is a Rabbinic rather than a Biblical festival has a number of practical ramifications. Firstly, there is no issur melacha (forbidden work), though there is a minhag for women not to do work for the first half-hour post Chanukah candle lighting. Throughout Chanuka, people are allowed to work and be engaged with and discuss mundane, everyday matters. This is unlike Chol HaMoed – the intermediate days of Biblical festivals where a person is ideally not supposed to work. Because there is no Yom Tov, there is also no Seudat Yom Tov (holiday meal), Kiddush or Yom Tov candles. All this being said Chanuka is still a festival, albeit a Rabbinic one, and Hallel is recited throughout the eight days. Though there is Hallel, there is no Mussaf – the additional prayer service, on Chanuka because there was no additional Korban (sacrifice) brought for those days.

In terms of the similarities between Chanuka and Biblical festivals – Chanuka also has a mitzva associated with it – that of lighting the Chanukia for which there are many laws and particularities that one needs to adhere to in order to fulfill the mitzvah. Just like in Yom Tov, we add a special prayer into our Amida and Birkat HaMazon of Ya’aleh v’Yavo, so too we add to these same prayers the addition of Al HaNissim. Also, just as you are not allowed to fast on a Yom Tov, so too, we do not fast on Chanuka. One ramification of this is that if a couple gets married on Chanuka, they do not fast on the day of their wedding, despite it being customary to do so.

Chanuka represents the beginning of a time in history when Hashem’s presence would no longer be apparent to us in the way it once was. The galut (exile) of Yavan (Greece) is associated with choshech – darkness (Bereishit Rabbah 2:4) and choshech – חושך – shares the same letters as shocheach – שוכח (forgetting). In dark times, we can sometimes forget Hashem and his hashgacha (Divine Providence) over the world because it isn’t easily observable to us. If we are attuned to the teachings of Chanuka and what it represents, Be’ezrat Hashem it can provide us with the light and inspiration we need to have clarity and conviction even in dark times.