One of the incredible talents that we, the Jewish people have, is our ability to darshen out ever interesting understandings of our sacred texts and moments. Some of our most profound concepts come from the way we look at words anew, so what about Chanukah – and ok, let me say this clearly now: this is totally me. I have zero source for this… but let’s have a little fun anyway.
Within the word Chanukah we have the name of Chana – an extremely powerful woman’s name and a name that is tied to the holiday in several ways. Additionally, one can pull out of the word – anagram style – the word kavana, with a left over ches – so 8 days of intention. Hmm interesting…
That the name Chana is connected to the idea of kavana is not surprising, given the original heroine of that name. Indeed, Chana the mother of Shmuel was a woman of unimaginable kavana. Perhaps, then, it is not surprising that two separate women bearing her name are associated with Chanukah.
The story of Chana and her seven sons comes from II Maccabees, Chapter 7, where it describes how 7 sons and their mother were jailed by the Selucids. They were brought before the king, who demanded that they consume the pork he put before them. One by one the boys refused and were tortured to death in front of their brothers and their mother. Even when the youngest was brought forward, the mother encouraged his faith, and he too was killed. The mother died after her sons (there are different opinions about how she died, so we will just leave it there). This is one of the stories we often hear about women’s connection to Chanukah – although I feel it is only right to note that the name Chana was attached to the mother of this story only many centuries later.
Now we know that, al pi halacha, one does not have to give up their life rather than not eat treif. Indeed, there are even occasions where it is permitted for a person to eat treif if it will save their life…but this family faced something very different. In eating the pork before the king, they would have been declaring their lack of faith in Torah, and so their actions were all about the underlying intent. Look at the incredible kavana these 8 Jews had in such a terrifying situation. She is hailed in the text of II Maccabees: “It is true, who will not be in awe of the mental fortitude of this woman. Is she not fit to be a banner of nations?”
The second story associated with Chana and Chanukah is one that, to be honest, I hadn’t really heard about until this year. However, there is a medieval midrashic source, based on an earlier work called the Midrash Antiochus, that reveals that one of the instigating factors of the Maccabee rebellion came from Mattisiyahu’s daughter – Chana. There was an inhumane law that a Jewish woman had to go to the local governor before she could go to her chupah – yes, read the inference. Many women, it says, refused to marry at all in order to avoid this debased requirement. Chana, on her way to be married to Elazar of the Hashmonayim, stopped the procession, disrobed, and declared:
Listen, my brothers and uncles! So what — I stand naked before you righteous men with no sexual transgression and you get all incensed?! And you’re not becoming incensed about sending me into the hands of an uncircumcised man who will abuse me?!!!!!!! You’ve got something to learn from Shimon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, who were just two men who became incensed/vengeful on behalf of their sister, and they murdered a walled city such as Shechem and gave up their souls for the sake of HaMakom! And Hashem helped them, and they were not destroyed. And YOU are five brothers – Yehudah, Yoḥanan, Yonatan, Shimon, and Elazar – and you, youth of the priesthood, are more than 200 men! Put your faith in HaMakom, and He will help you, as it is said: ‘There is no stopping Hashem from winning’
And the rest, as they say, is history.
The third woman associated with Chanukah is Yehudis, who plied the general Holofernes with dairy and wine and then cut off his head while he slept. I am mentioning this in a brief way only because there is legitimate room to debate when she actually lived, as the original text of her biography is associated with the Assyrians more than the Selucids. Also, I’ve probably gone on long and you all know the story…
So woman and Chanukah… we’ve got our brave heroines here, and that is lovely but most of us, thankfully, are not being faced with men with swords demanding we eat pork or wanting other um, things. The battles we face today are much more subtle. Let’s look at things a little deeper though.
The lighting of the Chanukah candles is a time-bound positive commandment, you know, one of those from which women are generally excused. But, it is quite clear in halacha that women are equally obligated in the mitzvah of Chanukah. The reason given is that we were equally saved by the miracles, or the responses reference these great heroines. Both true.
There is something else, however, that is very special about the mitzvah of lighting the menorah. In the most ideal situation, where is it done? At home. Chanukah was a war against more than one enemy – most prominently the Selucid-Greeks but also, most dishearteningly, against the Hellenized Jews who had allowed the spiritual siege to cross into their homes.
Ches is for Chana – a name that symbolizes the ultimate sacrifice a woman will make to protect Torah and Judaism and family. Take that ches and envision how it surrounds the rest of the letters of kavana and remember that ches is also the letter of that which goes beyond nature. Hashem gave these heroines strength to go beyond nature to protect that which is most precious, and it is the same strength that each and everyone of us taps into not just on Chanukah but throughout the year.
A quick add on to reflect on this week’s parsha, which is parsha Miketz. In Miketz, the sons of Yaakov go twice to Mitzrayim to get food, and it doesn’t go so smoothly for them. First Shimon is made to stay as collateral for the brothers returning with Binyamin, and then, when they do come back, Binyamin is accused of thievery. We, of course, know how this all ends, but perhaps if one were to look at this week’s parsha in isolation, one could see a warning. We don’t have a choice about being in galus. Hashem put us there at the time of Yosef, and Hashem put us in galus in our own time. Before the Children of Israel went down to Mitzrayim, however, Yosef gave them a warning of what he himself had experienced. Life in galus is hard. It’s unwelcoming. It’s dangerous. It’s full of false accusations and deliberate misunderstandings. But we have to follow in his footsteps and hold strong to the ways of our forefather…and, as we stare at the beautiful Chanukah lichts, we should say also, the ways of our foremothers.
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