Chanukah Posts
The posts related to Chanukah can be found here.
Eliezer Brodt: The Chanukah Omission
The Chanukah Omission by Eliezer Brodt Every Yom Tov we celebrate has different questions relating to it which become famous and are discussed from all different angles. Chanukah too has its share of famous questions. In this post I would like to deal with one such question which is famous but the answers are mostly not. The question is why is there no special Meshecta devoted to Chanukah as opposed to all other Yom Tovim [1]. Over the years many…
The Name Machabee
The Name Machabee Recently, a whole spate of books have been published, both in English and Hebrew, discussing names (see below for a partial list). These works tend to focus on the alleged importance of one's name and offer insights into the source and meaning of names. Although typically not discussed in these books is a well-known name, one that around this time of year deserves attention – the name Machabee (alternatively spelled Machabeus, Maccabaeus, Maccabeus, or substituting a "k" for…
The Customs Associated with Joy on Chanukah and Their More Obscure Sources
The Customs Associated with Joy on Chanukah and Their More Obscure Sourcesby: Eliezer Brodt In previous posts we have discussed some of the customs relating to Chanukah, in this post I wanted to address those customs connected to Simcha (joy) and do so by highlighting some rather unknown sources. Amongst the topics I will discuss are eating a seudah, dairy products, sefuganiot, playing cards and dreidel. 1. Seudah R. Eliezer Ashkenazi (1512-85) writes in the introduction to his classic work…
Mitzvat Ner Ish uBeto: When A Revised Edition is Not Revised:
What follows is a guest post discussing a “revised” edition of the sefer Mitzvat Ner Ish uBeto, a work devoted to the laws and customs of Chanukah. For an earlier post on Chanukah see here, here, and here. על ספרו של הרב אליהו שלזינגר: מצות נר איש וביתו, חנוכה בהלכה ובאגדה מאת: עקביא שמש אחד המאפיינים את הספרות הרבנית ההלכתית בדורנו הוא חיבור ספרים סביב נושא הלכתי אחד.[1] העובדה שהמחבר מרכז את כל הידוע לו סביב אותו נושא, הופכת את…
The Custom of Playing Cards on Channukah
One of the more interesting customs relating to Chanukah is that of a relaxation of the restriction against gambling. As Menachem Mendel has pointed out, this relaxation was not limited, as some think, to those of Hassidic decent. Rather, some of the earliest mentions come long before the creation of the Hassidic movement, in places such as Worms and Frankfort. Further, this custom has continued to be almost universal (amongst Ashkenazim) irrespective of origin. To demonstrate this point, it is…
