End of Chaggai’s prophecy
On that same day – the 24th day of the ninth month – Chaggai conveys a further prophecy – his last – complementing his message from the last day of Sukkot, declaring that the day of liberation from foreign rule is drawing close. Rashi interprets this as referring to the fall of the Persian kingdom at the hands of the Greeks, and as hinting to the salvation associated with the Hasmoneans, and he elaborates on this explicitly in commenting on the prophecy of Zekharia (see below). Ibn Ezra, on the other hand, maintains that there must have been some great and significant events that took place even during the Persian reign, but “we have not located the ancient texts.”[1]
“The olive tree did not bear fruit”
For what reason does Chaggai’s prophecy conclude on the 24th of Kislev? Why does the day of laying the foundation of God’s Sanctuary fall specifically on that date, or on the day after it? Is there any connection between all this and the rededication of the Temple by the Hasmoneans on that date (or the day after), generations later?
The verses that hold the key to answering all of these questions are connected to the severe drought that struck the land:
Consider now: from this day onwards, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of God’s Temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? And do the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, still not bring forth? From this day I will bless you (Chaggai 2:18-19).
The simplest and most obvious reason for the promise commencing on this date in Kislev is that, as noted above, the olive season is the last in the yearly cycle of the “seven species” of Eretz Yisrael. Its duration, including the pressing of the olives, is from Tishrei until the end of Kislev.
At the end of the ninth month the season for olives and oil comes to an end. That year was a year of terrible drought. With regard to the grain and the wine, this dire situation was apparent already in the sixth and seventh months (Elul-Tishrei). The olive season, however, was only beginning then, and the harvest could not yet be measured. In chapter 2, verse 16, Chaggai conveys a detailed accounting of the average produce for the year from the threshing floors (fifty percent), and from the wine-presses (forty percent). Since the summary of the harvest is of great importance, the prophet waits until the end of the ninth month to include the olive harvest.
“From this day onwards I will bless you,” promises Chaggai in God’s Name. This does not mean that now the olive trees will suddenly produce all that they should have in the preceding months, but rather that from now onwards, with the laying of the foundation of the House of God, a blessed year has begun: a year which will produce a blessed harvest and a full ingathering. Only in Nissan would the people see that the year had indeed been a good one, but perhaps they took heart from the signs that would have been apparent already in Shevat, with the healthy rains falling.
The day of the actual laying of the foundation of God’s Temple was apparently not the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (Kislev) but rather the next day, the 25th, for concerning the 24th Chaggai says, “Before one stone was laid upon another in God’s Temple” (2:15).
24th of Shevat – Zekharia’s visions
“On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shevat,” two months after Chaggai’s final prophecy, Zekharia prophesied and told of his visions, which were prophecies of consolation and salvation. These ten visions, which all appeared on the same day, extend from Zekharia 1:7 to 6:8. The menora and the olive tree are at the center of all of them. In the following section of this article (b), we shall briefly examine these visions.
B. Zekharia’s visions as an overall menora structure
A careful review of Zekharia’s visions reveals that there are in fact five separate visions, each comprising two images.[2] This article will focus on the central one (chapters 3-4), which is a vision of a menora with its seven lights, with a bowl on top of it and olive branches at its sides, and a vision of a stone with seven eyes, or facets, symbolizing God’s eyes which roam about the land. These two images comprise a single vision: the menora symbolizes Yehoshua, the Kohen Gadol, while the stone represents Zerubavel son of Shaltiel, the governor of Yehuda. These two figures – Yehoshua and Zerubavel – are also the “two olive branches”; the “two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” The building of the Second Temple, and the salvation of Israel, rest upon both of them together – as we see also in chapter 6, in the vision of the crowns, which concludes the series of visions.
In view of the above-hinted structure, I propose that all of Zekharia’s visions appeared to him in a prophetic revelation organized in the form of a menora[3] and its branches, “its seven lamps upon it,” “and two olive branches by it – one on the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side of it.”
The visions come together to form a menora consisting of seven units. The central pillar – “the menora” – comprises two visions joined together: the vision of the stone that is addressed to Yehoshua, the Kohen Gadol, together with the vision of the menora that is addressed to Zerubavel, the governor of Yehuda. This duality within the central pillar may be explained by the fact that the national leadership is indeed a dual entity: along with the monarchy there is also the kehuna (priesthood), as specified in the vision of the two crowns: “He (Zerubavel; see 4:9) will build God’s Temple, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and there shall be [Yehoshua] the kohen at his throne, and a counsel of peace shall prevail between them” (6:13).
Horses horns/plows measuring line Menorah/stoe flying scroll efa’/women chariot
chariot
Prophecy of the crowns
The prophecy of the crowns (Zekharia 6:9-15), which is also from the same day (24th of Shevat), follows immediately after the ten visions, but it is of a different character than the prophecy of the visions. It is earthly, brief, and to-the-point, like Zekharia’s opening prophecy. It mentions names and actions, and foretells how Zerubavel and Yehoshua ben Yehotzadak, the Kohen Gadol, will bring about the sprouting of redemption and peace (as implied by the words, “My servant, tzemach” – Zekharia 3:8).
The prophecy of the crowns should be viewed as the conclusion of the revelation of the visions. The closing verse of this prophecy, therefore, is the condition upon which all of the wonders and salvations of the visions depend: “And [all of this] shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God” (6:15). This formula, which usually serves as an introduction[4] (like any statement of condition), is employed here as a final warning. In other words, all of the prophecies and Divine promises that have been uttered by Chaggai and Zekharia are dependent upon the behavior of Am Yisrael, and the critical test of whether they will obey God. The potential for redemption, salvation and great wonders is offered by God; its realization is in the hands of Am Yisrael.
Thus Zekharia concludes the prophecies of the second year with the same idea that introduced them, and he sets out a condition for the prophetic pronouncements of Chaggai, as Ibn Ezra explains in his commentary on Chaggai 2:9. The same idea is expressed by Reish Lakish in the Gemara (Yoma 9b), maintaining that if all of Am Yisrael had gone up “like a wall” to Eretz Yisrael in the days of Ezra, the Divine Presence would have returned to their midst and there would never have been another exile.
Rashi, in contrast (Chaggai 2:6; see also Radak who takes a similar approach), associates the promises of the “shaking up” of the nations with the honor and peace that will come to Am Yisrael with the era of the Hasmoneans.
It may seem difficult to suggest that the period from Zerubavel until Shimon the Hasmonean can be described as “just a little while.” However, from a philosophical and historical perspective we may combine the interpretations of Rashi and Ibn Ezra, and suggest that during the time of Zerubavel the people did not merit it – either because they were not worthy, or because not everyone had returned, and therefore this prophecy was fulfilled only in the days of the Hasmoneans. Even then it was not realized in full, for the kingdom of the House of David did not return, as in the prophecy of the “tzemach” for Zerubavel, and in fact it was removed – perhaps owing to the sins of the earlier generation.
The connection between Chaggai’s prophecy and Chanuka, according to Rashi, is a direct one: it was the Hasmoneans who completed the foundation and the construction of the Second Temple, and were responsible for the Divine Presence dwelling inside it, by saving Judea from foreign rule during the time of Shimon the Hasmonean. Did the Jews of the Hasmonean generation understand and interpret their role in this light? We cannot be certain, but it would seem that they did. In any event, can it be coincidental that the rededication of God’s House, in the days of the Hasmoneans, on the 25th of Kislev, appears so well suited to the final prophecy of Chaggai, which was uttered in the 24th day of the ninth month (Kislev), on the eve of the laying of the foundation for the Sanctuary?
Zekharia’s revelation of visions, which is all about consolation and redemption, with visions of salvation accompanying it, testifies clearly that indeed, on the 25th of Kislev, construction commenced on the House of God, following immediately on from Chaggai’s (first) prophecy of the 24th of Kislev. It seems, then, that by virtue of the beginning of the construction of the Temple, the people merited the prophecies of consolation and salvation – Zekharia’s visions.
The content of the prophecy serves to emphasize the importance and centrality of olives and wine, the integration of the olive branches and the menora in the prophecy of redemption, and the return of the Divine Presence to the Second Temple.[5] This message was conveyed many years prior to the Hasmonean rededication.
C. The foundations of Chanuka
The eight days of Chanuka present a multi-faceted riddle. Many explanations have been offered by many Torah scholars over the generations that address individual aspects of the holiday, without providing a single, all-encompassing explanation for the riddle of Chanuka in its entirety. Below, I propose such an explanation, based on the prophecies of Chaggai and Zekharia, which were uttered many years prior to the Hasmonean victories.
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