Belated Chanukah post

 Yes, I'm aware a few weeks have passed since Chanukah.

Yes, I'm aware Chanukah is not (explicitly) mentioned anywhere in Tanach.

Yes, I'm aware The Books of Maccabees aren't in Tanach.

Nonetheless, an idea for a Chanukah-and-Tanach-related post came to mind over Shabbat, so here it is.

Last Thursday, we toured several different sites in the Land of Menashe - well, what was the area of the Tribe of Menashe in Tanachic times.

One of the places we visited is called Al-Makhruch. It's thought to have been a fortified site that was manned by soldiers of the Kingdom of Yisrael, after the split of the United Kingdom. Its original Hebrew name is unknown. Near Al-Makhruch there are two other fortified sites, thought to similarly having belonged to the Kingdom of Yisrael. I'm not really sure what the Arabic names of these two little tels are, just know that both are walking distance from the first site and one in particular is connected to Chanukah.

Fortified wall ruins

Early Bronze Age mud bricks

Fortified entrance ruins

This site was made into an IDF outpost some years ago, but is no longer operational. However, we could see the remains of the outpost - ruins inside ruins:

The IDF bunker

Yep - that's an improvised Chanukah menorah or Chanukiyyah resting within the small bunker. It was made out of some kind of metal bar with canned-goods cans for candles. As you may be able to see, three fell off, leaving five candles and the shamash.

Two lecturers were in charge of this trip, and both lamented the IDF's careless vandalization of the archeological site. But when I saw the Chanukiyyah there, I thought: Wow, that's interesting - to think that right here in this ancient fort, thousands of years later - Jewish soldiers once again established a base of operations - and made a mitzvah!

When you think about it, if we were to ask the men who manned the fort way back then what would they have preferred - for that site to have become a museum, or for their descendants (whether biologically or spiritually) to effectively make use of the site to once again protect Israel from her enemies? My heart breaks to see the damage caused to archeological sites by thieves and vandals - but in this case, I couldn't help but swell with some pride.

So, I can't really wish you guys a Happy Chanukah right now, but - have a good and healthy winter and a great week!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pre-Islamic Arabian Dust Worship

One of my interests is researching idolatrous practices mentioned in Tanach and later Jewish sources. For the last three years or so, I've been conducting an on-and-off search for the possible identity of a deity hinted at in this section of the Talmud, tractate  Bava Metzia 86b : "The Gemara continues its analysis of the verse: “Let now a little water be fetched and wash your feet” ( Genesis 18:4 ). Rabbi Yannai, son of Rabbi Yishmael, said that the guests said to Abraham: Are you suspicious that we are  Arabs who bow to the dust of their feet ?" It is reasonable to conclude that the sages were aware of an Arabian pagan cult that practiced some form of dust worship. Last year I discovered that one of my professors shares this interest in researching idolatry and even wrote his doctorate on idol worship mentioned in Talmudic literature, although he was focused on particular pagan religions (Greece, Rome, and a couple of others) and didn't analyze this quote. But I did...
Read more

Anakim, Rephaim, oh my!

This week's parsha features Bnei Yisrael passing through Edom and the two Emorite countries - Sichon's country and Og's country ( Bamidbar 21:21-35 ). Og was the last of the Rephaim ( Devarim 3:11 ), a race of giants that were wiped out way back during the War of the Four and Five Kings in Beresheet ( 14:5 ). Some midrashim state that Sichon was also a giant, of the antediluvian kind (for example, Devarim Rabbah 11:10 ). Looking through Tanach it occurred to me that giants might be frightening, but they obviously aren't unbeatable. David and his men defeated a number of giants, and, as mentioned already, the four Mesopotamian kings managed to defeat the Rephaim. And yet, two parshas ago, when the spies told Bnei Yisrael that there were Anakim in the Land of Yisrael ( Bamidbar 13:28 ), Kalev and Yehoshua said nothing about "hey, guys, giants are not unbeatable!" Kalev made a more generalized statement, that "yes we can, because we have Hashem!" ( ibid...
Read more

The Girgeshites

Long time no see... Life has been incredibly busy and is still a bit busy, but at least I have time for making a post on occasion. Here's an interesting thought about the Girgeshites. The Girgeshites (הגרגשי) were one of the seven Canaanite nations. According to Yerushalmi Sheviit 6:1 : "For Rebbi Samuel bar Naḥman said, Joshua sent three orders to the Land of Israel before they entered the Land: Those who want to evacuate should evacuate, those who want to make peace should make peace, those who want to go to war should go to war. The Girgasites evacuated, believed in the Holy One, praised be He, and went to Africa." Famously, Procopius also brought a version of this tradition in his work The History of Wars, IV : " In that country there dwelt very populous tribes, the Gergesites and the Jebusites and some others with other names by which they are called in the history of the Hebrews.  Now when these nations saw that the invading general was an irresistible prodigy...
Read more