A virtual event presentation by Dr. Richard Hidary
Please note event times are listed in MT
ABOUT THE EVENT:
The celebration of Hanukah by lighting lamps in front of Jewish homes derives from rabbinic literature, appearing nowhere in Second Temple sources. Indeed, while the Second Temple stood, it would have made the most sense to celebrate the anniversary of its reconsecration in the Temple itself with song and added sacrificial offerings. It would make little sense as a home-based ritual. When and why, then, did the home lamp lighting come into practice? This lecture will trace the development of Hanukah fire rituals arguing that the rabbis shifted the focus of the commemoration from the altar to the menorah after the Temple’s destruction as part of an effort to transfer the holiness of the Temple to the Jewish home. A contextual and literary analysis of the locus classicus of the Hanukah laws at Bavli Shabbat 21a-24a reveals themes connecting Hanukah lamps both to the Temple menorah and to household Shabbat lamps. The Talmud communicates this new centrality of home holiness through details of ritual law as well as by recontextualizing and retelling the miracle of the oil.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Rabbi Dr. Richard Hidary is a rabbi at Sephardic Synagogue in Brooklyn and professor of Judaic Studies at Yeshiva University. He is the author of Discovering the Jewish Holidays: Eight Talmudic Readings (Maggid Press, 2026); Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric: Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash (Cambridge University Press, 2018); and Dispute for the Sake of Heaven: Legal Pluralism in the Talmud (Brown University Press, 2010). His Daf Yomi classes are accessible at YouTube.com/rhidary and he also runs the websites teachtorah.org, pizmonim.org, and rabbinics.org.