Chanukah for the Thinking Jew

Let the secular Jewish media have their fun and games with this year’s rare confluence of Chanukah and Thanksgiving. Let them enjoy their “Thanksgivuka” and their recipes for cranberry-filled and turkey-stuffed sufganiot. And let Israel’s major stores driving under the influence of the West festoon themselves in “Chanukah” banners and streamers in red and green like Macy’s in New York during December. Learned and confident Jews have more self-respect than to be distracted by such inanities.

Let us then take a mature look at this lovely and popular festival. It has been frequently noted that the daily siddur contains a somewhat different emphasis of the Chanukah story from that in the Talmud (Shabbos 21b). The al hanissim prayer in the siddur celebrates the physical victory but makes no direct reference to — rather only hints at — the miracle of the tiny cruse of oil burning for eight days. The Talmud’s version on the other hand celebrates the miracle of the oil but makes no direct reference to — rather only hints at — the physical victory of the Chashmonaim.

The different emphasis is a subject of much discussion and beyond the scope of this column. But it is noteworthy that these two accounts though different from one another each conclude with the identical statement: that the festival was established l’hodos u’l’hallel — to “praise and thank/acknowledge” G-d. (See there how Rashi ties the two versions together but note the different order of words in each conclusion. The key point is that both the siddur and the Gemara make praising and thanking the centerpiece of the celebration.

It is clear that the siddur deals with the idea of nes nistar a hidden miracle the kind that is not accompanied by peals of thunder and flashes of lightning that cannot be overlooked. It is the daily ordinary miracles that sustain us the kind that the Amidah (in the modim prayer that immediately preceds al hanissim) refers to as “Nisecha shebechal yom imanu — Thy miracles that are with us every day.” The Talmud by contrast in emphasizing the oil focuses on the neis nigleh the indisputable miracle of the oil burning for eight days.