Chanukah Deleted!
Chanukah is the defeat of those who wanted us to forget. Forgetfulness is a product of alienation from our G-dly soul. Tanya explains that the reason we forget is because our Animal Soul governs us. Because it is a natural soul, it follows the laws of nature for things to continually deteriorate and decompose. One of those natural effects is the decline in our memories. Chanukah ignites our G-dly Soul and eliminates forgetfulness.
Why is Chanukah not Mentioned in the Mishnah
Chanukah is one of the most discussed Holidays in Talmudic literature. Hundreds of questions have ben raised about this rabbinic Holiday.
One of the questions asked concerning Chanukah is:
Why are the laws of Chanukah not mentioned in the Mishnah?
Every Holiday is given extensive treatment in the Mishnah including Purim, although it is considered to be a rabbinical Holiday. Yet the Mishnah omits mention of the laws concerning Chanukah such as the lighting of the Menorah, etc.
While the Talmud expounds on the laws of Chanukah they are conspicuously absent from the Mishnah.
The simplest answer given by the Rebbe is that the basic requirements of Chanukah were already mentioned in an earlier text, called Megilas Ta’anis.
Punishment of the Hasmoneans!?
There is another well-known answer ascribed to the 19th century Sage, known as the Chasam Sofer, which is problematic.
The Hasmoneans, the heroes of Chanukah, were all righteous me who sacrificed their life on behalf of Judaism. However, after they wrested power from the Syrian Greeks, they failed to hand over the leadership to a descendant of King David in accordance with the Biblical command that royalty should be given to the Davidic dynasty.
According to Nachmanides, their failure to do this was so egregious, that the Hasmonean dynasty came to a violent end. Herod murdered all the descendants; they were completely obliterated.
The editor of the Mishnah, Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi was a scion of King David and he zealously protected the integrity of the Davidic dynasty. He was so upset at the failure of the Hasmoneans that he “penalized” them by omitting the laws of Chanukah in his redaction of the Mishnah.
This explanation is problematic. There are many questions that have been raised and many have doubted it was truly the explanation authored by the famed Chasam Sofer.
The most significant difficulty with this explanation is that it would have been unconscionable for the great and holy Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi to punish a Holiday because of the failure of its original heroes.
While individuals could be punished even if they are righteous because G-d holds them to a higher standard, we cannot punish a part of Judaism on account of a lapse in the heroes who were instrumental in the institution of Chanukah.
The Writing of the Oral Law: A Galus Phenomenon
Perhaps the actual explanation of the Chasam Sofer was actually totally different from the one ascribed to him, which actually places Chanukah on a pedestal rather than relegating it to a lower status.
To understand his explanation it is necessary to first discuss the objective of the Mishnah.
The reason the Mishnah was written, although there was an admonition not to submit the Oral Torah to writing, was a result of the trying conditions of Galus-exile. The Sages were concerned that the dispersion of the Jews after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans and the ensuing exile would prevent the transmission of the many detail of the Oral Torah.
Galus necessitated submitting the basic outline of the Oral Torah to writing so that it is not forgotten.
Memory Loss
Forgetfulness is a product of alienation from our G-dly soul. Tanya explains that the reason we forget is because our Animal Soul governs us. Because it is a natural soul, it follows the laws of nature for things to continually deteriorate and decompose. One of those natural effects is the decline in our memories.
It stands to reason that the Tanya’s explanation of memory loss applies specifically and primarily to matters of Torah. Since the Animal Soul, in its unrefined state, is by its very nature, indifferent or hostile to holy matters’ the stronger and more dominant the Animal Soul becomes, the more it will affect the memory of spiritual matters.
Thus, the person who is governed by his or her G-dly soul, and for whom the Animal drives are under control, will experience far less memory loss. And this is especially true for matters of Torah.
However, Galus – a time of Divine concealment and alienation, not just geographic dispersion – suppresses the G-dly soul’s influence and enables the strengthening of the Animal Soul.
Thus Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi realized that one of the causalities of Galus will be forgetting the Divine teachings of the Oral Law. He therefore felt compelled to subject these laws to writing.
Chanukah would have Obviated need for Writing
Let us now return to the effects of Chanukah and the error of the Hasmoneans:
Chanukah was the introduction of the most powerful and transcendent Divine light. Not only were the Jews in the Land of Israel, they also had the Bais Hamikdash in their hands and removed the pagan influence of the Syrian Greeks and the assimilationist influence of the Hellenists. The Jewish people had now reached the zenith of their status that negates the possibility of Galus. This situation was in effect identical to the Messianic Age.
What then was missing and why did the situation deteriorate until the Romans took over and the Temple destroyed and the Jews driven into exile? How did such glory become so reversed?
The one thing that was missing was the installment of a King from the house of David, who would have been the Moshiach and would have unleashed a permanent state of G-dly presence and peace.
Maimonides makes it abundantly clear that the belief in a Messianic Age without Moshiach being the one to lead it is a denial of the Torah and a repudiation of the 12the Principle of Faith.
Hence, the failure of the Hasmonean heroes to install a King from the House of David allowed for their victories over Galus conditions to dissipate. The Hasmonean descendants were themselves becoming part of the assimilation process. They subsequently invited Roman influence into their midst, taken over by the evil Herod, which ultimately led to total Roman domination. This, of course, led to the destruction of the Second Temple and the ensuing exile, which necessitated committing the Oral Law to a written form.
From the above analysis of the Hasmonean failure, of not giving leadership to a scion of Davidic dynasty, we can see how their inaction had sown the seeds of the ultimate degeneration of the Chanukah miracle. This, in turn, led to the Galus, which ultimately necessitated the written form of the Mishnah.
It is no coincidence that the letters of the word Mishnah, when rearranged, form the word Menasheh, the elder son of Joseph, who was so named because Joseph said, “G-d has made me forget my father’s house and all my travail.” In other words, the name Menashe, which can be formed out of the letters of Mishnah, implies forgetfulness. This ties in with what has been discussed here that the Mishnah’s writing was caused by the forgetfulness phenomenon associated with Galus.
It should be noted that because Mishneh is antidote to forgetfulness, we learn Mishnah for the soul of a deceased person. The simple reason for this is that the letters of the word Mishnah also forms the word neshama-soul. It is our way of connecting to and elevating the soul of the deceased.
However, another reason is given that Mishnah is the antidote for forgetfulness. As we discussed the cause of forgetfulness is alienation from our G-dly soul. When a person passes on the distance between him or her is now an unbridgeable gulf form the vantage point of our bodies and Animal Souls.
This separation will naturally cause us to forget, so we need the Mishnah which touches our G-dly soul and thereby prevents us from forgetting.
This may be one meaning of the Talmudic statement: “On should not take leave of his fellow except through words of Halacha-Jewish law, for through this he will remember him.” The ultimate taking leave is when a person’s soul leaves his body and he is separated from all those that are alive. To prevent that separation from forgetting the deceased we study Mishnah which is a compilation of Jewish law.
That Chanukah is connected to remembering, is hinted in the word Mishnah ion yet another way. There is one more way of rearranging the letters of Mishnah (besides Menashe and Neshama): Hashemen-the oil. This alludes to the miracle with the lone cruse of oil. Moreover, the Talmud states that olive oil is an antidote to forgetfulness.
Returning to the Hasmoneans
Had they not erred by failing to appoint a king from the House of David there would have been no need for the writing of the Mishnah because there would have been no Galus.
The original victory of the Hasmoneans over the Greeks was a reversal of Galus and forgetfulness. The Syrian Greeks attempted to get us to forget G-d’s Torah, as we say ion the Chanukah Al HaNissim prayer.
If the Chanukah spirit would have endured, there would not be any need for the writing of the Mishnah. Hence, Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi left Chanukah out of the Mishnah as a way of exemplifying the uniqueness of Chanukah; it transcends the written word.
It is also no coincidence that the word Chashmonah (the singular form of Hasmoneans) contains within it the word Mishnah. Their initial actions to liberate the Temple would have been a substitute for the Mishnah. In the end, their inaction guaranteed the ultimate need for the Mishnah.
It is also no coincidence that the word Chashmonaim has the same numerical value as Moshiach Now in Hebrew letters!
Chasam Sofer’s Explanation Revisited
This perhaps is what the Chasam Sofer meant when he said that Rabbi Yeudah Hanassi “deleted” Chanukah from his compilation of the Mishnah.
His explanation was likely not intended to “punish” or demean the status of Chanukah. On the contrary, by leaving it out of the Mishnah, his intention was to extoll the greatness of Chanukah. The omission suggests that Chanukah transcends the need for a written Mishnah because the light of Chanukah transcends Galus, the very cause for the written Mishnah.
It is also true, that in saying this, it also provided an oblique criticism of the Hasmoneans for having depreciated the very greatness of Chanukah. It is they who reversed the Chanukah dynamic which they themselves were instrumental in bringing about with their heroism and selfsacrifice.
Focus of Chanukah
When we celebrate Chanukah we must realize that its main message that we have to connect to the light that takes us out of Galus with particular emphasis on connecting to Moshiach as the one who ushers in the Final Redemption.
The message of Chanukah is that it does not suffice for us to have vanquished our enemies and live in the Land of Israel. It does not even suffice that we have purified and restored the Bais Hamikdash to its original glory. All of this is great when it is connected to a descendant of the House of David, the Moshiach who ushers in the Redemption.
From the book Light from the Future: Chanukah by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
