Wheels Within Wheels: Days of Oy, Days of Joy The Jewish Calendar Through Time & History Part 3 of 4

Fourth month - 17 Tammuz, commemorating the events of 2 Kings 25.3–7 (Jer. 52.6ff).

Fifth month - 9 Av, commemorating the events of 2 Kings 25.8–15 (Jer. 52.12ff).

Seventh month - Tzom Gedaliah, 3 Tishrei, commemorating the events of 2 Kings 25.25–26 (Jer. 41).

Tenth month - 10 Tevet, commemorating the events of 2 Kings 25.1–2 (Jer. 52.4).

Cherie Brown is a community organiser and an international educator and trainer in the fields of diversity, equity and inclusion. She is particularly thoughtful about the intersection of antisemitism and other race and identity-based oppressions. She writes:

Antisemitism is cyclical. It vacillates between periods of overt persecution, violence and genocide, and periods of more subtle, covert forms of antisemitism. This insecurity about when antisemitism might arise has left many Jews super-vigilant, always worrying and on edge. Even in periods of relative security, the worries are always present. Has the cycle turned? Is another Inquisition, pogrom, or Holocaust imminent? Are we in possible danger? These concerns get passed down from generation to generation and seep into every aspect of life...

https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/antisemitism-race-intersections/

https://www.thetorah.com/article/megillat-taanit-and-its-scholion

During the Second Temple and Rabbinic Periods, the Jewish calendar had many more holidays than it does now. These were listed in a text called Megillat Ta’anit.[1] Sometime during the Rabbinic Period or shortly thereafter, this list was cancelled, and the holidays—with the exception of Purim and Chanukah—are all but forgotten.

It’s basically a list of 35+ days on which fasting and in some cases also hespeds forbidden. Megillat Ta’anit is only a list of dates, and not a narrative work. It is written in Aramaic, and dates to the end of the Second Temple period.[1]

It includes about thirty-five occasions, arranged according to the order of the yearly calendar, with a brief mention of the event that happened on each date. The document’s purpose is halakhic, as stated in the opening line: These are the days on which one must not fast, and on some of them one must [also] not deliver eulogies because various happy events occurred on them.

The Scholion (Commentary)

Already in an early period, a tradition of interpretation, written in Hebrew, became attached to Megillat Ta’anit. Scholars call this the “scholion” (the Greek word for comments or interpretations). The scholion identifies and explains the events mentioned in the megillah. Thus, it supplements each of the dates in the megillah with various types of stories, legends, and homilies that are directly or indirectly relevant to the holidays. The scholion includes large sections that have parallels in the Talmud and in rabbinic literature in general, but nearly half of it is unparalleled in other extant source.

https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-cancellation-of-megillat-taanit

How long these national holidays remained marked as special after the destruction of the Temple is unclear, however both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmud record a debate about whether this scroll remains authoritative, with a number of rabbis claiming, “Megillat Ta’anit has been nullified[2] (בטלה מגילת תענית).”

j. Ta’anit 2:12, Megillah 1:4, Nedarim 8:1; b. Rosh Hashanah 18b-19a.

This latter position reflects the reality of the modern Jewish calendar; these holidays are no longer celebrated or marked in any way.

Why were these holidays abandoned? The Babylonian Talmud suggests that these days may function in a similar, but reverse, way to the four fast days instituted in the wake of the First Temple’s destruction (ie sad days become happy when Temple rebuilt; with Temple’s destruction, these happy days become sad). The fast days were instituted to commemorate destruction, but turn to holidays when the Temple / the country is rebuilt. The Megillat Ta’anit days were instituted as holidays during the time of the Temple / an independent Judea, but were cancelled upon the destruction. They did not all turn to fast days, however, which is where the parallel ends.

רב ורבי חנינא אמרי: “בטלה מגילת תענית.” הכי קאמר: בזמן שיש שלום – יהיו לששון ולשמחה, אין שלום – צום. והנך נמי כי הני. רבי יוחנן ורבי יהושע בן לוי אמרי: “לא בטלה מגילת תענית.” הני הוא דתלינהו רחמנא בבנין בית המקדש, אבל הנך כדקיימי קיימי

Although the Megillat Ta’anit holidays were cancelled, two of them remained on the calendar to this day: Purim and Chanukah. Why did these holidays remain while the others vanished? It is possible to claim that this was due to their importance, but this is tautological.

In dealing with the question (about Chanukah), the Talmud (b. Rosh Hashanah 18b) writes:

מתיב רב כהנא: מעשה וגזרו תענית בחנוכה בלוד, וירד רבי אליעזר ורחץ, ורבי יהושע וסיפר. ואמרו להם: צאו והתענו על מה שהתעניתם! – אמר רב יוסף: שאני חנוכה דאיכא מצוה. – אמר ליה אביי: ותיבטיל איהי, ותיבטל מצותה! אלא אמר רב יוסף: שאני חנוכה דמיפרסם ניסא.

Rav Yosef said: “Chanukah is different since it has a mitzvah [to perform].” Abaye said to him: “So let it be cancelled and its mitzvah along with it!” Rather, Rabbi Yosef said: “Chanukah is different since its miracle is so prominent.”

The Talmud prefers the second answer, but the first answer offers an important insight. Judaism is a very practice focused religion. Most of the holidays in Megillat Ta’anit are not associated with any particular practice or behavior other than not fasting and not eulogizing. Chanukah, however, has candle lighting. Purim also has mitzvot: the giving of charity (matanot la-evyonim), gifts to friends (mishloach manot), the festive meal and drinking, and the reading of Megillat Esther. It may very well be that these practices kept the holidays alive among the people after all the other ones were abandoned or forgotten.

https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-original-meaning-of-chanukah

Our major sources for Chanukah are 1 and 2 Maccabees, written by Jews in the mid or late second century BCE. 1 Maccabees was composed in the Land of Israel, while 2 Maccabees was originally written in Cyrene (North Africa) by a man named Jason, and was shortened, most likely by an Egyptian Jew. Like most of the so-called Old Testament Apocrypha, these works were not preserved by the Jews.

The opening chapters of 2 Maccabees contain two letters that are attributed to Judah Maccabee and the assembly of Jerusalem (1:10-2:18), and to Simon, his brother, who ruled in 143-135 BCE (1:1-9). In these two epistles, the Jerusalem authorities call the Jews in Egypt to celebrate Chanukah. These letters are the earliest evidence we have for Chanukah being celebrated by the Jews, and of its spread outside Judaea.

Maccabees stresses the religious elements of the story:

• Judah prays a lot, before and after battles; encourages his troops with Torah, tells them of his dream where the prophet Jeremiah gave him a golden sword, collects funds for an expiation offering after it’s discovered some of his troops had illicit idols

• Emphasis on re-dedication of the Temple (25 Kislev is stated as anniversary of its defilement)

• 8 day dedication ceremonies / investiture or priests

• A belated Sukkot

Chanukah as a Hasmonean Political Festival

One important reason for promoting its celebration years after the purification of the altar was to celebrate and commemorate the Maccabees’ achievement and to support their successors, the Hasmoneans. The fact that the Maccabees, their followers and successors, encouraged Chanukah’s celebration in the two epistles, shows that Chanukah also had political significance. Establishing a festival celebrating the ruler’s reign actually resembles Greek political festivals which marked political events.[7] In this sense, Chanukah is especially similar to the Ptolemaieia, whose aim was public recognition of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.

Thus, Chanukah, which celebrates the rededication of the Temple under the Hasmoneans, would have been an effective political tool to reinforce Hasmonean government, since it was celebrated in the Temple and probably also in many Jewish houses.[9] It strengthened Hasmonean authority and was a kind of Hasmonean Independence Day also representing their collective identity.[10]

Chanukah was also helpful in constructing the Jewish social memory about the Maccabees’ achievements.[11] It was one of several festivals that the Maccabees instituted in order to commemorate their military victories for the coming generations. Additional festivals that served this role are the Day of Nicanor (13 in Adar; 1 Macc 7:48-49; 2 Macc 15:36),[12]and Hakra Day, a day of the removal of the citadel (hakra) in Jerusalem, the last remnant of gentile oppression (1 Macc 13:49-52). These three festivals stressed Hasmonean authority and rule.[13] Indeed, Chanukah became a holiday due to the intersection of its religious, Temple focus, with the political needs of the Hasmonean leaders who established it.

https://www.thetorah.com/article/uncovering-the-truth-about-chanukah

I believe the rabbis may have been trying to distance themselves from the Hasmonean association, which has strong resonances with insurrectionist and militaristic periods in Judean history, especially the final great rebellion against Rome: The Bar Kochba revolt.^[6] In this final attempt at forcing the Romans out of Judea, Bar Kochba and thousands of his loyalists led a massive revolt the devastated the Roman economy for years. Between 132-135 CE, Shimon Bar Kochba (whose real name was Shimon bar Kosiba; he likely changed his name to “Son of a Star” to give himself some messianic mystique)^[7] brought major disaster upon the Jews living in Roman Palestine when his rebellion against Rome turned sour and scores of thousands of Jews were killed.

The possibility that Bar Kochba saw himself as an inheritor of the Maccabean tradition is strengthened by the images on his coinage, which included images of the temple and objects associated with the temple, such as trumpets, palm branches, and lyres, and had the coins inscribed with phrases such as “For the Freedom of Jerusalem.” These images on his own coin were a clear statement that he saw himself as a military figure protected by divine favor. Regardless of whether or not Bar Kochba saw himself as an inheritor of the Maccabean legacy, the association between the two and the consequent anti-imperial or anti-government imagery would have been something from which the powerless rabbis may well have wished to dissociate. Celebrating rebellion could both lead their followers astray and cause problems for Jews with their local governments

https://www.thetorah.com/article/on-the-origins-of-purim-and-its-assyrian-name

I am suggesting that the name Purim for this holiday predates the explanation that Haman picked the day for the attack by lot, a secondary explanation that developed once the Jews no longer knew why the day was called Purim. Such post-facto, folk explanations for names are common in the Bible. But if Purim is not really named after Haman’s lots, what does the name reflect?

Pur is not a Persian word but rather an Akkadian / Sumerian one. Akkadian naming of years after a big event or important politician - likely conducted by pur.

https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-story-of-esther-revised-to-furnish-purim-with-a-history

The book of Esther in its current form seems like a festival legend, a story which was written to explain the origins of Purim, and to promote its observance.[1] Yet many scholars have argued that the book’s emphasis on Purim is secondary , and that the original Esther story and the festival of Purim were independent of one another until the editor of the Book of Esther linked the two together.[2]

The loose grounding of the concrete festival observances prescribed by the book—the festive meal, the sending of food-portions, and the giving of alms to the poor—have little intrinsic connection to the Esther story and likely existed independent of the story. Some of these rituals are known elsewhere in the Bible: When Ezra the scribe read the Torah of Moses before the people on the first day of the seventh month, that is, on Rosh Hashanah, the entire people went (Neh 8:12) “to eat and drink and send portions and make a great festival…”[3]

The final step for the creation of the Megillah was connecting the combined story to the (preexisting) festival of Purim. The name “Purim” is based on the Akkadian word for “lots” (pūrū). Many scholars believe that the holiday originated as a Persian new year celebration, which included the casting of lots as one of the rituals.[16] The Megillah, however, uses these festival lots in a different way, imagining the lots as having been cast by Haman to determine the most auspicious time to kill the Jews. It was at this stage that verses like 3:7,[17] which explain how the 13th of Adar was chosen as the fateful day, and much of chapters 8-9 were written.

This recast the story of Mordechai and Esther vs. Haman into a story that undergirds the festival calendar. It justified the Persian Jewish community’s celebration of a new year festival by turning it into a Jewish festival. Thus the same process that we can see having occurred for Pesach and Sukkot in the Torah,[18] and Shavuot in Second Temple and Rabbinic literature,[19] occurred for Purim as well.

This new context is enhanced (perhaps in an even later redaction) by making Mordechai a Benjaminite from the family of Saul, while Haman becomes an Amalekite from the family of the last king of Amalek, Agag.[9]

See 1 Samuel 15 for the backstory on the Saulites vs the Amalekites.

Also: Shabbat Zachor (Deuteronomy 25:17–19) re eternal war with Amalek is read on the Shabbat before Purim.

https://www.thetorah.com/article/purim-mocking-persias-dat-and-reaccepting-the-torah

The import of Purim in Judaism goes well beyond a commemoration of the physical rescue of the Jewish people in the book of Esther.[12]

One Talmudic sage presents it as the second and permanent acceptance by the Jewish people of the Torah:[13]

בבלי שבת פח. אָמַר רָבָא: אַף עַל פִּי כֵן הֲדוּר קַבְּלוּהָ בִּימֵי אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ, דִּכְתִיב: ״קִיְּמוּ וְקִבְּלוּ הַיְּהוּדִים״ — קִיְּימוּ מַה שֶּׁקִּיבְּלוּ כְּבָר. b. Shabbat 88a Rava said: the Jewish people again accepted the Torah in the days of Ahasuerus as it is stated: “the Jews fulfilled and accepted (qibbelu)” [Esth 9:27]—they fulfilled anew what they had previously accepted [at Sinai].

In the eyes of the Rabbis, the book of Esther conveys that the Jewish diaspora in Persia was in imminent danger of losing its religious and spiritual identity.[17] The Rabbis thus consider the acceptance by Persian Jewry of the newly enacted Purim holiday an irrevocable obligation precisely because it reflects a recommitment to the entirety of Torah law and a reclaiming of those identities.

https://www.thetorah.com/article/a-more-religious-megillah-the-jewish-greek-version-of-esther

Purim, along with a version of Esther similar to the MT, may have become popular in Alexandria, for many of the same reasons Esther was written in Persia. Here, too, there were Jews who were culturally integrated into the surrounding (in this case Hellenistic) society, who spoke only the common language of their neighbors (in this case Greek), and who were involved in the bureaucracy of the city and of the wider empire. Here, too, the Jews could be victims of vicious rulers, as they had been violently reminded in a massacre during the previous century.[16] The dependence on the foreign power, and the unquestioned assumption that Jewish life would continue outside of Israel, would have made Purim an attractive festival and Esther an attractive book.

Unlike the Jewish community in Persia and Mesopotamia, however, the Alexandrian Jews were geographically close to the Jews in Israel, and to a large extent under the influence of the latter. The colophon to Greek Esther may indicate that the Palestinian Jews deemed it important that the Jews of Alexandria receive a copy of their new and improved version of Esther – with at least Additions A, C, D, and F – which brought the book and its associated festival back in line with what was, to their minds, normative Jewish ideology and practice: devotion to God, prayer, an abhorrence of intermarriage and even commensality, and a fealty to Jewish law and practice. In other words, this was probably a revised edition produced by Palestinian Jews and sent to Alexandria to correct the diaspora-centric edition which the Jews there already had.

This process of revision is a powerful example of the dialogues and discussions which must have taken place during the days of the Second Temple, as Jews struggled to define their identity, whether living as residents in Judea or in far-flung diaspora communities in Persia, Mesopotamia, or Egypt. The book of Esther threw down the gauntlet, challenging Jews to consider the limits of their tradition and how they could live as both faithful Jews and productive citizens in the broader empire. In the eyes of some, however, it went too far.

It is no accident that the Additions were added in Hasmonean Jerusalem; the Hasmoneans had a very different attitude toward life under the empire than the intermarried Esther. And it is likely no accident that the book of Esther is the one book to not be preserved at all among the Dead Sea Scrolls: for the Qumran community, intermarriage was a capital crime, and a community that withdrew from the “impure” society of Jerusalem certainly could not tolerate a book where the heroes were so enmeshed in imperial culture.