Since we have now begun the month of Kislev thoughts often turn towards Chanukah. I was wondering if people have favorite answers to the Beis Yosef's Kasha: If there was enough oil for one night than the neis was only 7 nights, why do we celebrate 8?
The one that I like (I believe b'shem Rav Moshe Feinstein) is: The fact that oil burns and that life functions as it should on a regular basis is a neis, this is why we light the first night.
The B.Y.'s kasha has to be one of the greatest questions in the entire spectrum of traditional, jewish lore! I beleive there is a sefer out there exclusively on this one kasha, with about 100 or so answers.
From the Chasam Sofer:
Since everything was tamei they lit the menorah in the chatzar and the neis is that the wind didn't extinguish the flames.
With this we understand, we end Al Hanisim with והדליקו נרות בחצרות קדשך therefore וקבעו שמונת ימי חנוכה אלו
This is a standard question in all girls school from about 3rd grade and up. Various answers for the extra day include:
The neis that they won the war
The neis that they found the oil in the first place
If you go with the pshat that they only poured out 1/8th of the oil into the menora: It should only have burned for 1/8th of the day but it burned for the full day
The ספר is called נר למאה
I hate this kasha, and wish the beis yosef had never asked it.
Firstly, it seems obvious that some miracle must have occurred the first day if there was any amount of oil left to burn the rest of the days.
Secondly, why couldn't they just pick 8 days anyway, since it would sound weird to celebrate 7 days for a menorah that burned 7 "extra" days.
whoops, I thought you were refering to the SN - Kasha = Joseph.
real-brisker; let's drop that topic, please. I think everyone here has moved on....
popa: LOL, my friend, the question, no matter how you answer it, will always be the greatest question ever.
And anyways, according to your logic, that the FIRST day was a neis TOO because there was some remaining oil, (which is a great ha'arah BTW) but then it would come out that the EIGHTH day wasn't miraculous!! So you're still left with a question why eight days and not seven?
To your second question, I have never heard that question before. What I did hear is why isn't there a NINTH day 'altz' sefeika d'yoma?
p.s. do you really HATE the kasha, or did you write that to annoy me again :)
I have a sefer which has 500 answers its called yimei smoneh chanuka.
An interesting answer :it says they had only for one day,mitvos ner ish u'beto answers they knew before the war this jug had for one day but after the war the same jug was good for 8 days.
BaalHaboo, one answers the other. The eighth day wasn't a Ness and we only keep it because of Sfeika Deyoma. I actually found this in the Arvei Nachal after some time.
Popa, if the Beis Yosef wouldn't ask it we would still deal with it, just we'd call it the Me'iri's Kasha or the Maharal's Kasha, or anyone else who mentioned this age old Kasha. The Beis Yosef didn't claim to make this Kasha up, either.
I like the terutz that 1 day is to celebrate the very fact that oil burns as most liquids put out fires!
Another reason why we celebrate 8 days.
It says the Yevonim tried to snuff out the jewish flame, for good, by taking away 3 central things: shabbos, rosh chodesh and milah.
shabbos is the central and principal testimony to being Jewish.
rosh chodesh is the basic time period which makes up the Jewish calendar for us to live and celebrate our national celebrations/yom tovim. And milah is the bris between Hashem and a yid.
The Yom Tov of Chanukah celebrates these 3 areas of yiddishkeit.
1) Chanukah always has a shabbos
2) Chanuka was established on 25th of Kislev so that there will always be a Rosh Chodesh
3) It’s an 8 day celebration keneged the 8 days a boy waits in order to have a bris.
It was a miracle that they trusted the hashgacha.
I found an interesting thing in the words of the Ri MiLunel which makes that the kasha doesn't start:
לשנה אחרת קבעום ימים טובים. כל השמנה ימים. ולא נעשה נס כזה לישראל, שאלו פרעה לא גזר על המצות ויון הרשעה גזרה, לפיכך האריכו אלו הימים כשיעור החג שהיא שמנה ימים להזכיר בהם הנס, ואפילו לא נעשה בהם בשמן, כמו כן היו שמחים ומזכירין מעשה נסים כשיעור יום טוב הארוך מכל המועדות. אך לא היו מדליקין נרות כלל, אלא מהללים ומרוממים כשאר מועדות, וכשבא והוכפל להם נס בשמן, הוסיפו להדליק הנרות להזכיר כפילת הנס
Basically he says that historically speaking they were willing to enact an 8 day yom tov even if the miracle of the oil had never occurred, because the story with the war was a big miracle and worthy of instituting a yom tov as long as Succos because of it. When the miracle of the oil happened, they figured hey we should light candles too.
I have two answers;
One is the Ri M'Luniel in Shabbos who says that we have eight days in order to show that it is more important than any other Yomtov, so we have it as long as the longest Yomtov - Sukkos + Shmini Atzeres, which is eight days. Look inside to see why Chanuka is more important than any other YomTov!
My own answer is that if we want to commemorate the highest person in the world who is - lets say - ten feet tall. Would we make a four foot statue for him because everyone else is six feet and only four feet of his height is remarkable?? So too, the oil burnt eight days instead of one. So we commemorate the eight-day miracle with eight days, no?
leibidig yankel, I'm on your side, I love the practicality of your teretz!
itche- loflippinl.
While it is a fascinating question, i dont believe the beis yosef would never have asked it if he was around today. If you look in the migillas taanis (written during the time of the gemara by amora'im), the reason that it gives for chanuka has nothing to do with the miracle of the candles but rather the chunukas hamizbeach.
So why did the beis yosef ask his question? Did he not know about the migillas taanis?
The answer is probably no, he did not know about it because he didnt have access to the manuscript.
ns ns. the beis yosef asks on lighting menora all 8 days, not on why we keep chanukah,
there is more to chanukah than menora, think about hallel, dreidle, al hanisim, doughnuts, latkes.....
BaalHabooze, I think the answer to your question on why we dont celebrate a 9th day because of sfeika diyoma is that Chanukah isn't a yom tov mentioned in the Torah-it is a yom tov midivrei sofrim, as the Mishna Berurah says it, and I don't believe we ever keep an extra day for something Midirabonon.
The question I have is why Yom Kippur isn't 2 days long!!?? Why don't we say sfeika diyoma? Maybe a possible answer is the same answer as in the SHulchan Aruch? (I think) that we don' want to go two days without the possibility of burying a mes-the same reason why Yom Kippur is never on Friday or Sunday, though that itself may be based more on Hoshanah Rabbah not falling on Shabbos, an additional question now that I think about it.
How about the answer to the Beis Yosef that the 25th day was for the dedication of the mishkan? I like that answer too.
yitayningwut: According to sefarim from the period (that chazal left out of kesuvim for reasons we don't know) they made it eight days because they couldn't celebrate sukkos for several years and on the first channuka they actually brought the parei hachag, which incidentally explains Beis Shammai's shita.
We are commemorating one of many nissim that happened in the beis hamikdosh eg that no yevonim died there which would have made the kohanim and the oil tamei (divrei yoel) which explains 'טמאים ביד 'טהורים ; also that the menora was lit from fire from the מזבח which suddenely appeared to give them fire from a holy source which was a necessity for the menora ; to remember the ness of Yehudis ; that they used some of the oil for the ner maaravi ; that the heichal was full of idols so they had to light in the חצר and even though it was Fri nite it did not rain and the wind did not blow out the flames.
The אמרי שפר says that the yevanim wanted to be מבטל the תורה so we light 36 lights corresponding to the 36 מסכתות שבש"ס .
The אבודרהם says that חנוכה stands for ח' נירות והלכה כבית הלל that we light 1-8 lights like בית הלל and not 8-1 like בית שמעי . It must be apparent each day that we are lighting according to בית הלל. So if we would light on only 7 nights, then on the 4th day both בית הלל and שמעי בית would hold that 4 lights are lit, so we would not be able to tell from walking past menorahs who we pasken like. (and the ח' נירות part would not fit in!)
If the Beis Yosef had a copy of the Megillas Taanis (which is pretty clear wasn't available back then) the question would never have gotten off the ground. The megillas taanis, which is the original source of Chanukah in addition to the megilas antiyochus and the Bimei Matisyahu, says that Chanukah is 8 days because that is how long the CHANUKAS Habayis lasted.Period. The end
Numbers have great significance in yiddishkeit. 7 = nature, mundane, ordinary (sheva brochas, seven tefillin straps, seven colors of the rainbow, seven days of the week, seven nations of Canaan, etc.) The number 8 means transcending, or rising above, nature. Klal yisrael is not bound by the "laws" of nature. That's why the oil was found and burnt for so long.
ItcheSrulik -
Very interesting.
ItcheSrulik, the most it could have been was a Braysa. Kesuvim was closed.
How can they bring Parei Hachag not in its time? Why didn't they bring the Musaf for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, too?
Lebidik, I believe that was PBA's Terutz.
young, the Bach had it and so did the Or Zarua (a Rishon). We make a Bracha of She'asa Nisim on all eight days. That means that there was a Ness on all eight days. The Gemara explains Chanuka as only because of the Ness of the oil.
The Gemara was actually merely quoting the Megilas Taanis. The Megilas Taanis first says what the Gemara quotes, that Chanuka is because the Menora burned for eight days. Then it goes on to discuss why the Chinuch took eight days. It answers that it simply took that long to fix everything.
The Or Zerua explains that the reason they needed a Ness and couldn't get fresh oil was because they were preoccupied with repairing the Klei Shareis, as the Megilas Taanis says. He also says that the name Chanuka comes from the fact that they were Mechanech the Mikdash. But the Yom Tov is only a Zecher of the Ness of the oil. "Period."
By the way, Megilas Taanis was made by Tana'im. By the time the Amora'im came around it was already Batul, besides for Chanuka and Purim.
Flatbush Dude, Flatbush Dude dont fall for BaalHabooze. He's a one track minded alcoholic. You should have realized when he talks about a 9th day for the yomtov dirabonon chanuka cos of sfeika diyoma that all he really wants is an extra second day on the other yomtov dirabonon of PURIM!! ☺
Shticky Guy- LOL! for me it's a 'gantz yor Purim'!
on that note: R' Moshe Feinstein answers the first day is a celebration, and a time to give thanks to Hashem for even 'NATURAL" miracles. Because the fact that oil burns, is also a 'miracle' from Hashem. So being that Chanukah is a time of L'hodos U'lehallel, we also make it a point to be grateful to Hashem for the 'miracles' of nature.
Having said that, last night by a chanukah party (the first of many -I hope!) I noticed something in benching that I never paid attention to. we even thank Hashem for........booze!!
(Now, in all fairness, it could be the effects from all the drinks that night, but it was there in my siddur!) it said,
" V'ALCOHOL anachnu modim lach, u'mevorchim osach."
isn't that cool!! ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺
L'chaim yidden, l'chaim!!
Haleivi: Fair point about them not being able to reopen kesuvim. As for parei hachag, I have no clue what the cheshbon was. Kasha oif ah mayseh.
An easy one. How would one light an eight candle menorah, for only seven days? Obviously it has to be eight days!
ItcheSrulik, which Sefer did you see it in? A lot of Sefarim Chitzonim are forgeries, and obviously so. The extended version of Maase Yehudis is written so cheaply full of plagiarisms. But if what you saw was something reliable then perhaps the Paros were a Nedava Lezecher the Parei Hachag.
V'ALCOHOL anachnu modim lach
BaalHabooze I love it! My first Purim Torah this year and boy oh boy it's a cracking one! Now if you can think of one to do with chanuka it would be de-light-ful.
From Lieutenant-Kernel Shticky;
The corny glutton for pun-ishment
It was in a secular article quoting directly from II Maccabees which is generally considered one of the reliable sefarim sefarim chitzonim. Calling it a zecher is as good an explanation as any. Josephus says something similar too.
The alter Mekelm has a beautiful answer. He writes that bnai yisroel understood that everything even teva is a neis. If Hashem wills it the light wouldn't have even lasted for one day. They were able to look into a Maaseh that seemed like teva and they were able to realize that not only was the 7 days the oil laste for was a neis rather it was even the first day. He writes that anything that happens in life there are two ways to look at it.1) that it's stam a mikreh something that happened BUT from the fact that we have 8 days and not 7 we learn that a person should look at things that happen in the second way.2)you can look at itthrough a ruchnyis hashkofeh and a that it has a ruchnyis Aliya to it. Nothing hapens by chance there is always something you can Learn from it. A freilachin chanuka coffee room. Lol and stop thinking I'm a troll!
lebidik yankel - I really like your tereitz!! Ever told it to anybody chashuv?
thanks Shticky, like I said, "a gantz yor purim"! BTW, nice divrei torah above!!
and now Kernel Shticky - you asked for it, you get it!
***WARNING: CORNY JOKE AHEAD
hey, last night I made sure to eat so many greasy latkehs because i wanted to wake up nice and oily, LOL!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
nsnsc03- Why don't you look up the gemarah in Shabbos 21b and see what the gemarah says about why we have Chanukah?
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