Book of Maccabees I and II

What is the story with the Book of Maccabees I and II?

The history of Maccabees I and II is certainly an interesting one.  It is not part of Tanach, of course, and it seems lehavdil that Martin Luther, the deeply anti-Semitic founder of Lutherism hated the book with a passion (along with hating Megilas Esther).  Catholics included Maccabees I and II in lehavdil, their canon of the Christian bible, as do the Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians. 

So why do readers of frum websites care about this?

Because this week, the much awaited frum version of Maccabees II finally came out in the United States, and most seforim add.. er, collectors  have been waiting a very long seven years for it – since Maccabim One came out.  I was fortunate to be in Boro Park this week and was able to purchase a copy of it the day it arrived.

It was written, like Maccabees I by Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Charitan and, like its predecessor, has a number of very very Choshuv haskamos. We do use it as kind of like a pre-first century history book, since we really do not know anything about the authors. Some of the newer haskamos have taken great effort to ensure that they are not giving an approbation on any form of nationalistic movement, which – during the time of the Chashmonayim may not be historically accurate, but let’s not digress here.  

Rabbi Charitan’s theory as espoused  in his volume I is that it was the absence of a translation was what caused its relative obscurity within the Seforim-learning public. 

There were many Gedolei Torah in our history who did use the sefer: 

• R’ David Ganz, student of the Maharal of Prague, mentions it several times in his Tzemach David.
• Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, author of Tosafos Yom Tov, explains in his Periush on the Mishna in Megillah (2:6) that on Hanukkah we read about the sacrifices that the leaders brought during the dedication of the Tabernacle: ‘And I found in the Book of Maccabees (Chapter 4:43-44) that when the Chashmonayim conquered [Yerushalayim], they found the mishkan defiled, and they demolished it and rebuilt it anew, and dedicated it on the 25th of Kislev.’
• The Eliyahu Rabbah (Rabbi Eliyahu Shapira of Prague writes (Siman 670) regarding the matter of ‘the question why the miracle of the oil is only seven [days]… and in my humble opinion this is not difficult at all, for in the Book of Maccabees and in the piyyut of the second Shabbat of Hanukkah and in Megillat Ta’anis it states that the dedication was in these eight days, that the Greeks had defiled [the Temple], and they demolished the altar and rebuilt it anew and dedicated it.’
• “Rabbi Yaakov Emden (Yaavetz) cites it in his commentary to the siddur Mor U’Ketziah (Section 9):
• The Mogain Avrohom in Siman 670 also cites it.
• The Aruch HaShulchan (R’ Yechiel Michel Epstein of Novhardok) also cites it (Siman 670:5): ‘It is explained in the Book of the Hasmoneans (Maccabees 2:11-12) that according to their opinion, the decrees were then annulled from bringing sacrifices during Sukkos that had passed and on Shemini Atzeres, and therefore they made eight days of Hanukkah in commemoration of this.'”

WHY WE SHOULD LEARN IT

There is so much we could and should learn about Chanukah and from the Chashmonayim themselves. Rav Yeruchem Olshin shlita writes that we should all be learning from the Emunah and Bitachon that the Chashmonayim exemplified among other things.  I think that reading it also enhances our observance of tzipisa Liyeshuah.

For those interested, one thing that Rabbi Charitan explains very beautifully was the use of the term of “Sukkos” for Chanukah by the author.  He writes that they used it back them as a euphemism for the new celebration on 25 Kislev because they did not yet have a name for the Holiday.  This was a topic that had initially thrown a number of people for a loop and Rabbi Charitan makes an excellent case explaining why it would not put this work outside of the pale.  He also explains that the use of Lulavim in long-distance mountain communications was to convey the good news geographically that the Beis HaMikdash was once again in our hands.

The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com

https://vinnews.com/2024/12/22/whats-the-story-with-the-book-of-maccabees-i-and-ii/