Q&A: Hanukkah
Hanukkah
Question
Why was Hanukkah specifically established for future generations, and not other wars or miracles mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)? [Abraham against the four kings, Sisera, Samson the mighty, and likewise King David against the Philistines, etc.]
Answer
I don’t know. But maybe because it was a national-cultural victory that also enabled us to keep the commandments. The few against the many, and so on. Your examples really aren’t convincing. If anything, I’d ask about the War of Independence and the Six-Day War.
Discussion on Answer
And that is what I answered, or at least suggested.
In Kedushat Levi (written by the rabbi of Berditchev in the year 5558 / 1798),
an interesting explanation is brought, and this is its wording:
“What we asked in the book Kedushat Levi that we wrote—why did they make a commemoration for the miracle of Hanukkah but not for the miracle of Gideon and Hezekiah? One can say that the downfall of Sennacherib and Sisera was on Passover, as mentioned in the aggadah and the midrashim,”
I was asking why the Sages didn’t establish a holiday for those.
As for the examples you mentioned, about that there’s the well-known saying that we do not have the power to add things, and so on (which is itself a strange statement—why prohibitions that don’t appear in the Torah are within our power to add, but holidays and also days of mourning are not? But I won’t dwell on it…)