These Maccabees books are not part of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), they are deuterocanonical books instead. The miracle of the one-day supply of oil miraculously lasting eight days is first described in the Talmud.
Hanukkah marks the defeat of Seleucid Empire forces that had tried to prevent the people of Israel from practicing Judaism. Judah Maccabee and his brothers destroyed overwhelming forces, and rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem. The eight-day festival is marked by the kindling of lights—one on the first night, two on the second, and so on—using a special candle holder called a hanukiah or a Hanukkah menorah.
With the commercialization of Christmas in the twentieth century as a time for exchanging gifts, adding to its position as the biggest holiday in the Western world, as well as the establishment of the modern state of Israel, Hanukkah began to increasingly serve both as a celebration of Israel's struggle for survival and as a December family gift-giving holiday which could function as a Jewish alternative to Christmas. However, there is a long tradition of Hanukkah as an especially joyous holiday for children.
The word Hanukkah means "dedication." Spiritually, Hanukkah commemorates the Miracle of the Oil. At the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days - which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate new oil.
However, non-Talmudic sources include no reference to the eight days of oil that has come to be a popular understanding and modern practice of Hanukkah. The Hebrew deutero-canonical books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees record different reasons as the origin of the eight days of Hanukkah. 1 Maccabees reads that, "For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar and joyfully offered holocausts...Then Judas and his brothers and the entire congregation of Israel decreed that the days of the dedication...should be observed...every year...for eight days.(1Mac.56-59)"
2 Maccabees says, "The Jews celebrated joyfully for eight days as on the feast of Booths."
Historically, Hanukkah commemorates two events:
The triumph of Judaism's spiritual values as embodied in its Torah (symbolized by the Menorah, since the Torah is compared to light) over Hellenistic civilization (considered darkness) which under Antiochus IV, had attempted to culturally assimilate the Jews away from practicing Judaism's commandments, by forcefully installing Greek religious symbols in the Second Temple.
The victory of the Jews over the armies of Antiochus IV. The rebellion was begun by Mattathias Maccabee and continued by Judah Maccabee and his other sons. They defeated overwhelming forces, and re-dedicated the Second Temple.
The spiritual side of Judaism shies away from commemorating military victories, the Hasmoneans later became corrupt, and civil war between Jews is considered deplorable, so Hanukkah does not formally commemorate either of these historical events. Instead, the festival commemorates the Miracle of the Oil and the positive spiritual aspects about the Temple's re-dedication. In doing so, the oil becomes metaphor for the miraculous survival of the Jewish people through millennia of trials and tribulations.
Historical sources
In the Talmud
The miracle of Hanukkah is described in the Talmud. The Gemara, in tractate Shabbat 21b [1], says that after the occupiers had been driven from the Temple, the Maccabees discovered that almost all of the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found only a single container that was still sealed by the High Priest, with enough oil to keep the Menorah in the Temple lit for a single day. They used this, and miraculously, that oil burned for eight days (the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready).
The Talmud presents three customs:
Lighting one light each night per household,
One light each night for each member of the household, or,
The most pious method, where the number of candles changed each night.
There was a dispute over how the last option was to be performed: either display eight lamps on the first night of the festival, and reduce the number on each successive night; or begin with one lamp the first night, increasing the number till the eighth night. The followers of Shammai favored the former custom; the followers of Hillel advocated the latter. As is the case in most such disputes, Jews today follow Hillel. Except in times of danger, the lights were to be placed outside one's door or in the window closest to the street.
Josephus believed that the lights were symbolic of the liberty obtained by the Jews on the day that Hanukkah commemorates. Rashi, in a note to Shabbat 21b, says their purpose is to publicize the miracle. Hanukkah is also mentioned in the (older) Mishnah (TB Megillah 30b).
In the Septuagint
The story of Hanukkah is preserved in the books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. A story similar in character, and obviously older in date, is the one alluded to in 2 Maccabees 1:18 et seq., according to which the relighting of the altar-fire by Nehemiah was due to a miracle which occurred on the twenty-fifth of Kislev, and which appears to be given as the reason for the selection of the same date for the rededication of the altar by Judah Maccabeus.
The Books of Maccabbes (Sifrei HaMakaviyim) are not part of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), but are part of deuterocanonical historical and religious material preserved in the Septuagint. The Tanakh ends with the consequences following the events of Purim, and had already been codified many centuries earlier by the Men of the Great Assembly (Anshei Knesset HaGedolah).
Another source is the Megillat Antiokhos — a text ascribed to the Maccabees themselves by Saadia Gaon, but according to some scholars, perhaps written around the first or second century CE. Indeed, Saadia Gaon's theory is highly unlikeley, as Megillat Antiokhos gives the timeframe for the story in relation to the destruction of the second Temple, which occurred over 200 years later, and could not possibly have been known to the Maccabees...
Around 200 BCE Jews lived as an autonomous people in the land of Israel, also referred to as Judea, which at that time was controlled by the Seleucid king of Syria. The Jewish people paid taxes to Syria and accepted its legal authority, and by and large were free to follow their own faith, maintain their own jobs, and engage in trade.
By 175 BCE Antiochus IV Epiphanes ascended to the Seleucid throne. At first little changed, but under his reign Jews were gradually forced to violate the precepts of their faith. Jews rebelled at having to do this. Under the reign of Antiochus IV, the Temple in Jerusalem was looted, Jews were massacred, and Judaism was effectively outlawed.
In 167 BCE Antiochus ordered an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. Mattathias, a Jewish priest, and his five sons John, Simon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Judah led a rebellion against Antiochus. Judah became known as Judah Maccabee ("Judah the Hammer"). By 166 BCE Mattathias had died, and Judah took his place as leader. By 165 BCE the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid monarchy was successful. The Temple was liberated and rededicated.
The festival of Hanukkah was instituted by Judah Maccabee and his brothers to celebrate this event. (1 Macc. iv. 59). After having recovered Jerusalem and the Temple, Judah ordered the Temple to be cleansed, a new altar to be built in place of the polluted one and new holy vessels to be made. According to the Talmud, oil was needed for the menorah in the Temple, which was supposed to burn throughout the night every night. But there was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet miraculously, it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah. An eight day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle.
Other versions of the story state that an eight day celebration of songs and sacrifices was proclaimed upon rededication of the altar, but do not mention the miracle of the oil. (1 Macc. iv. 36). A number of historians believe that the reason for the eight day celebration was that the first Hanukkah was in effect a belated celebration of the festival of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles (Macc. x. 6 and i. 9). During the war the Jews were not able to celebrate Sukkot properly. The theory is based on the belief that Sukkot also lasts for eight days, and was a holiday in which the lighting of lamps played a prominent part during the Second Temple period (Suk.v. 2-4). However, Sukkot is in fact a seven-day holiday, the eighth day being a separate festival known as Shemini Atzeret ("the Eighth Day of the Assembly"); see Lev. 23:33-36, Num. 29:12; Deut. 16:13-15). The historian Josephus ([1] Jewish Antiquities xii. 7, § 7, #323) mentions the eight-day festival and its customs, but does not tell us the origin of the eight day lighting custom. Given that his audience was Hellenized Romans, his silence on the origin of the eight-day custom is more likely due to its miraculous nature than to it being inspired by Sukkot. In any event, he does report that lights were kindled in the household and the popular name of the festival was, therefore the "Festival of Lights" ("And from that time to this we celebrate this festival, and call it Lights").
It has been noted that Jewish festivals are connected to the harvesting of the Biblical seven fruits which Israel was famed for. Pesach is a celebration of the barley harvest, Shavuot of the wheat, Sukkot of the figs, dates, pomegranates and grapes, and Hanukkah of the olives. The olive harvest is in November and olive oil would be ready in time for Hanukkah in December.
It has also been noted that the number eight has special significance in Jewish theology, as representing transcendence and the Jewish People's special role in human history. Seven is the number of days of creation, that is, of completion of the material cosmos. Eight, being one step beyond seven, represents the Infinite (as an eight turned on its side). Hence, the Eighth Day of the Assembly festival, mentioned above, is according to Jewish Law a festival for Jews only (unlike Sukkoth, when all peoples were welcome in Jerusalem). Similarly, the rite of circumcision, which brings a Jewish male into God's Covenant, is performed on the eighth day. Hence, Hanukkah's eight days (in celebration of monotheistic morality's victory over Hellenistic humanism) have great symbolic importance for practicing Jews.
Erev Hanukkah - 24 Kislev
Hanukkah - 25 Kislev
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