The following essay about Jewish music was written by David Z, a middle schooler, enrolled in City Congregation’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah program. Students spend a year and a half researching their heritage, values and beliefs, and write on a Jewish subject of their choice, their major project; an example of this last component can be seen below. The process improves both the student’s writing and critical thinking skills, as well as his/her self confidence and overall maturity.
When I first started research for my main project, I wanted to learn how the celebration of Hanukkah had changed in America. But when I started my research, I came across a much more interesting topic that I hadn’t thought about. Lots of holidays we celebrate have stories that go with them. Most of us realize that they have probably changed over the years, but few people wonder what actually happened at the time the holiday references. So that’s what I researched. What are the stories we tell on holidays and what are their historically accurate versions?
Hanukkah is a very well-known holiday, and many versions of its story have been told. A common story is that Judea, where many of the Jews were living at the time, came under the control of Antiochus IV. He outlawed Jewish religion and took control of Judea. Led by a priest, Matthias, and his five sons, a rebellion started. When Matthias died, his son Judah became the leader of the revolution. Judah and The Maccabees managed to retake the temple. At this point the temple was seen as dirtied because of the non-Jews who entered it after Antiochus took control. Judah ordered the rededication and cleansing of the temple. The miracle of Hanukkah is that even though the Maccabees only had enough olive oil to last one night, the little oil they had left lit the temple for eight days and nights.
This story of Hanukkah is what most people believe to be true, but surprisingly, it’s just a myth. However, the true story is very similar to the myth. In 332 BCE, Alexander the Great took Judea from the Persians. When he died nine years later, Seleucus of Syria gained control. In 176 BCE, his son, Antiochus IV, came into power. Only seven years later, he took military control. Antiochus and his troops raided the temple and stole from it, in the Jew’s eyes, “polluting” it. According to Jewish belief, only Jews could enter the temple. Antiochus continued, and prohibited core Jewish practices such as Temple worship in its purity, Torah study, and observing the Sabbath. Matthias and his five sons started a rebellion. Matthias died and Judah took charge. Judah and the Maccabees eventually took back the temple in 164 BCE.
So far, this follows a similar story to the myth, but this is where details become different. Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, gives us a variation on the story. He wrote, “As it happened, these things took place on the very same day on which, three years before, the divine worship had been reduced to an impure and profane form of worship; for the Temple had remained desolate for three years after being made so by Antiochus…And the desolation of the Temple came about in accordance with the prophecy of Daniel, which had been made four hundred and eight years before; for he had revealed that the Macedonians would destroy it. And so Judah and his fellow citizens celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the Temple for eight days, and omitted no sort of pleasure, but everyone feasted upon very rich and splendid sacrifices; and they honored God, and delighted themselves with psalms of praise and the playing of harps.” The Maccabees rejoiced for eight days, with various offerings to God. Judah declares a celebration of the rededication of the temple to happen on the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev. Despite the miracle of Hanukkah being a core part of the myth, and the reason for many traditions, it isn’t real. The eight days and eight nights are not of oil burning, but of celebration. I was surprised that the most well-known aspect of the holiday is actually false. As surprising as it is, we might actually know why this is. After the temple eventually fell in 70 CE, Judaism stopped being centered around a temple and started being led by rabbis. During this period, the rabbis decided to shift the story around, saying that the reason for the success of the Maccabean revolt wasn’t because of the Maccabees’ own efforts but because of divine intervention. We can see this in the Rabbinic text, Megillat Taanit:
“When the Greeks entered the Temple they defiled all the oil there. When the hand of the Hasmoneans was made strong and they defeat the Greeks, they checked (in the Temple) and only found one jar of oil sealed with the mark of the High Priest which remained undefiled. Though there was only enough in it to light for one day, a miracle occurred through it and they lit the Temple lamps from it for eight days. The following year they decreed these to be eight days of celebration.”
As Rabbis shifted the story, they also made prayers during Hanukkah more about God as well. The Jews thanked God for delivering the strong into the hands of the weak. All of this created an image of God’s power and his willingness to help the Jews.
Passover is another widely recognized Jewish holiday. Its story, unlike Hanukkah’s, is very unrealistic and not credible. Here is the traditional version: The Jewish people settled in Egypt, under the rule of a benevolent pharaoh. Although all was going well for the Jews, after a while a new pharaoh rose to power, this one less nice. This pharaoh saw the Jews grow in population and saw them as a threat. In response, he forced them all into slavery and ordered the murder of their firstborn. Jochebed was a Jewish woman who decided to save her son, Moses. She put Moses in a basket and had him float down the Nile River. The pharaoh’s daughter found him, and decided she wanted to save him. Moses got adopted into the Egyptian royal family. When Moses grew up, he learned of his true identity. While trying to stop a slave master from abusing a Jew, he accidentally killed him. Moses ran away to become a shepherd. One day, Moses received a message from God to go back to Egypt and save the Jewish people. He went back to Egypt and confronted the pharaoh, telling him to let the Jewish people be free. When the pharaoh refused, God released 10 plagues on the Egyptian people: Water turned to blood, Frogs, Lice, Flies, Disease of livestock, unhealable Boils, Hail and Fire, Locusts, Darkness, and Death of the firstborn. The pharaoh then decided to let the Jewish people go, but after a while changed his mind and sent some soldiers after them. When the soldiers started to catch up to the Jews at the edge of the Red Sea, Moses raised his staff into the air and the sea split, creating a path for the Jews to walk through. When the Egyptian soldiers tried to follow them, the sea came back, drowning the soldiers. The Jews managed to escape to the desert successfully.
While the Hanukkah story could be mistaken for history, most people could tell this Passover story didn’t really happen. So, what did happen? Is this story even based in reality? It’s not that simple. The story takes place more than three thousand four hundred years ago, and there aren’t many historical records from back then. Despite this, we have some guesses on what the Jews could have been up to. Although I have already told the myth, we need more details of the myth to explain the truth. According to one of the strands of the Hebrew Bible, the path of the first Israelites started in Mesopotamia, then they traveled to Canaan, to Egypt, then back to Canaan. The Passover story would have taken place in Egypt at this time. This is important because even though it’s the bigger story than what we tell at Passover, it’s a better comparison because of how little we actually know. One of the many theories finds origins in the Bible as well. In the Book of Ezekiel, it offers the idea that the Israelites were actually indigenous to Canaan. “Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite.” This is further supported by some scholars who argue that the Israelites were “Habiru,” its English translation being “Hebrew.” Habiru were groups of people who caused trouble for the city states of Canaan during the 14th century BCE. A king of a city state sent a letter to their overlord, the Egyptian pharaoh, complaining that Habiru were plundering his territory.
“ [Say to the kin]g, m[y] lord: [Message of Abdi-Heba, yo[ur]
servant. [I fall at the feet] of my lord seven times and seven times….
Send the archers against men that commit crimes against the
king, my lord.
If this year there are archers, then the lands and the mayors
will belong to the king, my lord. But if there are no archers,
then the ki[ng] will have neither lands nor mayor.
Consider Jerusalem! This neither my father nor m[y] mother
gave to me. The [str]ong hand [of the king] gave to me.
Consider the deed! This is the deed of Milkilu and the deed of
the sons(=cohorts) of Lab’ayu, who have given the land
of the king (to) the ‘Apiru.[2]”
This king of Canaan was asking the Pharaoh to help him defeat the Habiru so that he wouldn’t lose his territory. He said if the Pharaoh did not help, the land would fall to the Habiru. This may be where the myth came from, but it diverged considerably from these original circumstances.
Another possibility is that the Israelites never went to Egypt in the first place. They might have stayed in Canaan the whole time. I Chronicles 7:20-23 suggests that some Israelites were living in the land of Canaan well after they supposedly went to Egypt. Even though we have some alternative stories, the Passover story could still be true. Maybe they just swam across the Red Sea, and maybe Moses just managed to convince the Pharaoh without plagues. These events happened so long ago that anything was possible; we just don’t have enough information. Despite how little we know, I was still surprised by what I learned. The possibility that the story was so drastically different in that the Jews may have not even been in Egypt never once crossed my mind.
For Hanukkah we have figured out how the story evolved, but for Passover, you guessed it, we have no idea. While there is no evidence for what happened over the years, I have some guesses and speculation. I think that the first time the myth was created was most likely just an altered story, changed for some sort of gain similar to the Hanukkah story. I think it wasn’t changed after that because unlike Hanukkah, it is in the Hebrew bible. When a story is in your sacred religious text that supposedly was given by god, it’s a little hard to change it. This is all just my idea of what happened, we really don’t know anything.
After researching, I’m so surprised that these more accurate stories aren’t more widely known. While all the specific possibilities of the Passover story probably will never be common knowledge, the real story of Hanukkah is quite simple. Despite that, the vast majority of people know the myth and not the truth. Even if you look it up online it might take a bit of time to find the versions that are closer to the truth. I think it’s important to tell the real story as well as the myth. People should know how these stories really happened. Also, I am glad that we have managed to figure out more of the truth behind these stories despite them being hidden behind thousands of years of history.
