Jewish History with Rabbi Dr. Dovid Katz

Another Apocryphal "Midrash" on the Chanukah Story, with interesting takes on the discovery of the jar of oil

·36 min·3 clips

Rabbi Katz reveals a furious apocryphal midrash about Chanukah that influenced Jewish memory despite not being from Chazal.

Rabbi Dr. Dovid Katz begins by introducing an apocryphal midrash from page 447 of Eisenstein's Otsar Midrashim, noting it is not from Chazal but has influenced Jewish memory. He explains the midrash originates from Adolf Jellinek's 19th-century journal Beit Midrash, which published obscure manuscripts. The midrash opens with a cosmological description of 390 heavens, then shifts to Greek decrees against Jews during Chanukah times. It describes Greeks forcing Jews to write 'no portion of God' on their door locks, making homes vulnerable to intrusion. Another decree required Jewish brides to first sleep with Greek officials, leading to a story where a Jewish girl strips naked in protest, echoing the biblical Tamar narrative. Her brothers then conspire to kill the Greek official by disguising their intent with a wedding procession. The midrash anachronistically incorporates the 'young sheep' victory prophecy from later Maccabean history into this event. It continues with a story of a widow named Yehudah who infiltrates the Greek camp, reminiscent of the biblical Yochanan ben Zakai and Ehud stories, and beheads the Greek king. Katz points out how the midrash adapts existing biblical and rabbinic tropes, such as Ahab and Micaiah, into the Chanukah narrative. The midrash also includes a traitor Jew named Tatnai ben Pachas who advises Greeks to disrupt Jewish practices like marriage contracts and Temple candle lighting. This leads to the Greeks defiling all Temple oil, except one jar hidden under the altar. Katz connects this to the historical account in Maccabees where Jews rebuilt the altar out of zeal, suggesting the midrash presents the found oil as a divine reward for that extra effort. He notes the midrash frames Chanukah as a divinely ordained eight-day holiday created to counter Greek oppression, paralleling midrashic themes about Haman in Esther. Throughout, Katz emphasizes the midrash's derivative nature, calling it a 'knockoff' of earlier sources, while acknowledging its cultural impact and unique insights into Chanukah's multifaceted traditions.

As heard by us

A disputed Hanukkah midrash becomes a window into how Jewish memory gathers layers.

Hanukkah comes across here as a holiday shaped by inherited memory and by texts that do not sit still. The host follows an apocryphal midrash in Eisenstein's Otsim Midrashim, moving through its story of young people returning to Jewish observance after news that local Greeks had…

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Want Hanukkah history with a siege, a widow named Yehudah, and a so-called midrash that refuses to sit still?

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