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a liturgical puzzle
This morning over breakfast we started out talking about Chol Ha-Moed (intermediate days of festivals -- Pesach and Sukkot) and ended up talking about Chanukah. And I still have a mostly-unanswered question.
Pesach and Sukkot are week-long festivals. (There's a third festival, Shavuot, but it's only one day so it doesn't have intermediate days.) For the week-long festivals, the first and last days are holidays, and the days in between are Chol Ha-Moed. These intermediate days are "semi-holidays"; essential work (like employment) is permitted, but they are festive days, not ordinary days. Among other things, this means that there are additions to the liturgy -- extra Torah readings and Hallel -- that are reserved for festivals.
Chanukah is not a festival, despite what a casual observer might think; it's a minor holiday. It lasts for eight days, and during those eight days there are additions to the liturgy -- like extra Torah readings and Hallel. So my question is: why is this permitted? Doesn't this give the impression, liturgically speaking, that Chanukah is a festival, on par with Pesach? When we are otherwise very careful to draw lines, how did this slip by? Isn't this marit ayin (giving the wrong impression) on a communal scale?
In some ways it doesn't matter, I suppose: anyone who is educated enough to understand the liturgical differences is also educated enough that he knows Chanukah is not a festival. But it still makes me wonder. I understand that the rabbis wanted to make Chanukah important (even if they had to fudge the true reason for the holiday), but weren't there other ways to do that, including changing the liturgy in a different way? Why emulate Chol Ha-Moed?
I'm not bothered -- just puzzled.
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I can give a bunch of traditional answers: Chanukah is *longer* than the mandated Torah holidays by a day, ignoring the extra days of Yom Tov observed in Diaspora, and it neither begins nor ends with a chag, as you pointed out, so therefore it's different. The miracle of the oil lasted eight days, and that's what we're celebrating. Had it needed to last ten or twelve days, Chanukah would have been just that long. Also, although they are honored in the breech fairly often, the Intermediate days do have restrictions - one should avoid business dealings unless one would lose a great deal of money, one should avoid writing, one should avoid doing laundry. There is an entire tractate of Mishna dealing with Chol HaMoed restrictions. These do not apply at all for Chanukah.
And, of course, one must avoid chometz during Chol Ha Moed Pesach and wave the four species and live in the Succah for Chol Hamoed Sukkot. But one could say that the lighting of the menorahs are, if not identical, reminescent of those practices.
Also, I would argue that the days of Chanukah, with their hallel and Torah reading, are closer to the Rosh Chodesh observances than to Chol Ha Moed, except that on Rosh Chodesh, New Moons, we only say "half-Hallel", meaning the whole thing minus half of two psalms. Still, there is no question of mistaking Rosh Chodesh with chol hamoed.
However. I have another explanation (without doubting the miracle of the oil itself, because that actually happened before 25 Kislev.) Chanukah is a conscious imitation of Sukkot - King Solomon dedicated the First Temple during Sukkot *and* Sukkot hadn't been celebrated that year. Therefore, when they rededicated the Temple, they chose to have an imitation Sukkot.
Does this make sense?
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I didn't know that one was supposed to avoid writing on intermediate days. Why writing specifically, out of the 39 melachot? Or are there a bunch of others too but you were just giving examples? (I knew about business and laundry.)
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1) Torah reading appropriate to the day
. fast days: repentance theme
. Purim: Amalek story
. Chanukah: dedication sacrifices for the Mishkan
2) Additions to Shmoneh Esreh:
. fast days: Aneinu, Nacheim on Tisha B'Av
. Chanukah/Purim: Al Hanisim
3) Possible megillah reading:
. Tisha B'Av: Eicha
. Purim: Esther
. Chanukah: some groups, notably Germans, read a postbiblical work called "Megillat Antiochus".
4) Extra prayer service:
. fast days: Selichot
. Chanukah: Hallel
. Purim: Megillah reading takes the place of Hallel (kria zo halelia, zogt der gemara in Megillah), such that if one is on a desert island without a megillah, some hold that one says hallel as a substitute for megillah reading.
Why do we say Hallel? It comes from the archetype of Az Yashir: on emerging from the Reed Sea, we spontaneously burst into song, praising God through song. Following this pattern, the Rabbis have legislated the saying of Hallel qua songs of praise on days which commemorate miracles. Following this pattern, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate has decreed that we say Hallel on Yom Haatzma'ut and Yom Yerushalayim (Israel Independence Day, Jerusalem Recapture Day).
By the way, the Talmud only mandates Hallel on 18 days: 8 days of Sukkot, 1 day each of Pesach and Shavuot, and 8 days of Chanukah. The other times we say Hallel: Rosh Chodesh and the latter days of Pesach, are post-talmudic, so we say only "Half-Hallel".
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So chol hamoed is supposed to include musaf? It's odd that I haven't seen this at the conservative shul where I go for weekday shacharit. I wonder if they're going back upstairs after breakfast and I've just never noticed; I usually leave right after bentching. (Most of that minyan is retired; I have to go to work.)