Chanukah Day #3: Why Was Chanukah Ignored in the Mishnah?

[Music] it's a fascinating question Chanukah is the festival missing from the Mishnah why is there no track date dedicated to Chanukah just like there is a masochist Magilla a track date admission are dedicated to the holiday of Purim with all of the laws of Purim which is a holiday that was created by the sages and the prophets after the story of Purim why is there no similar track date recording and articulating all of the laws about the holiday of Hanukkah that was created during the Second Temple error by the sages of the time what happened to Chanukah it's mentioned in the Mishnah but only in passing connected to other laws completely there was no track they dedicated to Chanukah there is a famous answer that some attributed even to the Sam Sofer that's Ramona Sofer the chief rabbi of pressure birt'day Bratislava in the austro-hungarian Empire who lived in the early 19th century that the editor of the Mishnah Rabbi Yehuda Nasir by Judah the prince had an axe to grind why you see rabbi Yehuda Hanasi the editor of the Mishnah came from the family of the dynasty of King David his father and his grandfather great-grandfather were all descendants of King David they were all going to see him the leaders of the Sanhedrin of the Supreme Court before the destruction of the Second Temple and after the destruction of the Second Temple now the people the leaders who came from the house of David from the tribe of Yehuda were very upset at the hash Minaya why the hash minoan were from the tribe of lavey they were Coenen they may Matisyahu been Eurasian and Cohen God they fought a brilliant and heroic campaign against the Syrian Greeks they liberated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem rededicated the base I'm ENGLISH lit the menorah but they made a mistake instead of remaining priests in the temple they also became Kings over the Jewish people now royalty kingship was reserved for the tribe of Yehuda the tribe of Judah so this answer says Rebbe who de nasi was upset at the Harshman Oy behavior and therefore he be deleted Chanukah from the Mishnah he mentions it a few times but he didn't dedicate attracted to Hanukkah however this answer is very problematic for two reasons reason number one is anyone who is even slightly familiar with the culture and the structure of Torah Shibata of the oil tradition knows the prerequisite of the entire oral tradition as towards intellectual integrity the moment you introduce subjective emotions familial agendas into the conversation the authenticity of the oral tradition is compromised and that's why all the sages in the mission and the Talmud if you study them you study their method their style their character their conversation their debates their disputes they all had one common denominator they were committed to truth and only the truth how can I be honest a neutral law is a holiday that was celebrated and embraced by the Sanhedrin and created by the sages and observed every year in Jewish homes because of a personal bias that's absurd number two let's say he had a personal bias Jews have to know how to live on Chanukah they have to know the laws of Chanukah Matthias is not a book of sentimentality it's not even a book of history it's not a book in which you're judging the rushman I am if they were good guys or some of them later were bad guys it's a book of laws Jews have to know how to live it's the holiday of Hanukkah what do i do on Hanukkah do I say hallo what part of hallo do I say I light a man or a widow I light it how do i light at how many candles do I light what do I do when I light it what are the blessings what if I forget what time nothing all these laws we only have recorded in the Gemara in Talmud hundreds of years later the Talmud was finalized in the 5th century after the Common Era that's hundreds of years after a big Adonis so I'm going to share with you tonight an answer that was suggested by the lubavitcher rebbe who said as follows the Talmud tells us that the oral torah was not allowed to be written getting tracked attracted gettin page 60 the oral tradition had to be communicated from teacher to student from student next student in a vibrant dynamic lively chain of Jewish continuity it was not supposed to be recorded this guaranteed the vibrancy and authenticity of the Jewish tradition and yet when ruby hood an Aussie lived at the end of the second century after the Common Era he saw that the Jewish people are being scattered all over the world and this continuity will not be able to be preserved and the entire oral tradition would be forgotten and therefore he violated the law a Schlosser /mf arataura cetera and he recorded all of the traditions of the Mishnah is this dispensation can only apply to laws that would have been forgotten so for example nowhere in Mishnah does it say that you have to make kiddush Friday night why not he does discuss a debate between Shama and hello in tractate Broca's chapter 8 when you make kiddush which blessing of Kinder's do you make first but it doesn't tell us the law you have to make it ish he doesn't tell us how to put on tefillin or had a put-on tsatsis even though this is all part of the oral tradition why not the answer is because this was so ingrained in Jewish life and Jewish culture it happened on a weekly or daily basis there was no need to write it down it would have not been forgotten so there was no permission to write it down this story of Chanukah happened 200 years before the destruction of the second temple the time second time was destroyed in 68 after the Common Era Kanaka happened 164 before the Common Era around 2 centuries this story was so alive and vibrant in the Jewish mind the celebration of Hanukkah was so dear to the Jewish people every single year the families came together and they remembered this story that didn't happen so long ago they heard it from their father heard it from his father who heard it from his mother heard it from his mother that there was no need to write it down in the mission the story of Purim happened before the Second Temple was Bill it happened hundreds of years more than four centuries before the destruction of the temple it happened more than 500 years before every order so therefore he had to write it down it wasn't so fresh it happened in Persia it happened much earlier a lot of water came under the bridge but the story of Chanukah was so alive who was so vibrant to was so fresh even though there was nobody alive to remember it revealed on us he lived a century after the temples destruction the temples destruction was two centuries after the story of Chanukah the Jews felt it was very Racal it happened close to their time and that happened with their base a mix - with their menorah in the Land of Israel we reviewed on us he lived and therefore there was no need to write it down and therefore there was no permission to write it down because Chanukah remained and remains such a vibrant glowing warm holiday in the heart of the Jewish people have a Happy Hanukkah [Music] this class is brought to you by the achieve Annette please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot they ueshiba net / donate