When Hana did not wanted to become Helena.
Bs''d
What have Hana bat Matityahu KOHEN HA GADOL, the sister of Yuda., Yehudit and Yael in common??
The SHIN.
Not PE.
Shinayim behind their lips.
They did not wanted to trade their KDUSHA OF MEZUZA, SHOMER DALET YISRAEL for galut Lipservice.
And so they wage a war.
Women of VALOUR.
To read more see the post of Hava.
Rambam, Laws of Megilla and Chanuka 4:1
How many candles does he light on Chanuka? The mitzva is for each household to light one candle, whether the household has many members or only one person. One who chases after the mitzva lights candles according to the number of the household members, a candle for each person, both men and women. One who chases after the mitzva more than this and does the ideal mitzva lights a candle for each person on the first night and progressively adds a candle [for each person] each night.
Tosafot maintain that mehadrin min ha-mehadrin does not relate to the mehadrin level at all, but is independent of it. On this view, only one set of candles is lit per household, in a growing progression.
Tosafot Shabbat 21b s.v. Ve-hamehadrin
And the mehadrin min ha-mehadrin: It seems to Ri that [the views of] Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel only apply to "a candle for each man and his household" for thus there is more glorification [hiddur]. For it is clearly recognizable that he increases or decreases, which corresponds to the days that are entering or elapsing. But if he makes a candle for each person, even if he adds from here on, it is not recognizable, for [those who see it] will think that this is the amount of people in the household.
According to Tosafot, multiple candles can correspond either to the number of household members (as in mehadrin) or to the night of Chanuka (as in their view of mehadrin min ha-mehadrin). To represent both simultaneously would be confusing, and lose the significance of a recognizable nightly progression.
In a departure from the typical pattern of halachic rulings, Shulchan Aruch and most Sefardi communities follow Tosafot, with each household lighting a single chanukiya (Chanuka lamp) each night, and Rema and most Ashkenazi communities follow Rambam.
Shulchan Aruch OC 670:2
On the first night he lights one, from here on he progressively adds one each night until on the last night there are eight, even if there are many household members, they should not light more. Rema: There are those who say that every member of the household should light (Rambam) and this is the simple custom. They should take care that each person puts his candles in a unique place, in order that it be recognizable how many candles they light.
In response to the concern that multiple chanukiyot would make it harder to track the progression from day to day, Rema recommends lighting each chanukiya in a distinct location.
There is an interesting divergence between Rema and Rambam. Whereas Rambam writes that one person lights the candles for the entire household, "he lights a candle for everyone…," Rema rules that each household member lights candles individually, "every member of the household should light."
For Rambam, the mehadrin levels reflect each household member, but remain part of a single mitzva incumbent upon the household as a whole. Rema's view suggests that while the basic mitzva is upon the household, the mehadrin levels add a personal level of observance for each household member.
Women Lighting Chanuka Candles
We might be inclined to think that a woman is exempt from having Chanuka candles lit in her household, because lighting is a positive time-bound mitzva. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi teaches otherwise:
Shabbat 23a
A woman certainly lights, as Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Women are obligated in the Chanuka candle, for they were also/indeed part of that miracle.
Women are fully obligated to light Chanuka candles, because women were included in that miracle, af hen hayu be-oto ha-nes ("af hen" for short). Af hen can mean that "indeed" women were essential to bringing the miracle about, or that women, "too," were included in the threat posed by Antiochus and the ensuing redemption. Tosafot record both perspectives, the former in the name of Rashbam.
Tosafot Megilla 4a
For they also/indeed were part of that miracle: Rashbam explained that the essence of the miracle came about through them [women]…on Chanuka through Yehudit…. This is difficult, because "they too" ("af hen") indicates they are ancillary; according to his explanation it should [just] say "they [were part of that miracle]." Therefore, it seems to me that "they too were" subject to the [perilous] uncertainty (safek) …and on Chanuka, the decree was mightily against them…
We discuss the principle of "af hen hayu be-oto ha-nes" in greater depth here.
In what way were women essential to the miracle?
Rashbam writes that the Chanuka miracle came about through Yehudit. But who was she?
Yehudit daughter of Merari is the heroine of the apocryphal Book of Judith, perhaps inspired by the Biblical Yael (Shofetim 5:25), for lulling the enemy general Holofernes to sleep with milk and then beheading him. However, the Book of Judith appears to be set in a much earlier era, which makes it difficult to attribute the Chanuka miracle to that recounting of the Yehudit story.
At the same time, traditional Jewish sources seem to tell a parallel story integrated into the Chanuka narrative. Kolbo, for example, calls the woman who took action "Yehudit the daughter of Yochanan," a direct descendant of Matityahu, and provides context for what occurred:
Kolbo 44
Women are obligated in the Chanuka candle for they, too, were part of that miracle. That means that the enemies came to destroy everyone, men, women and children. There are those who explain that the great miracle occurred by means of a woman, and her name was Yehudit, as is explained in the aggada. Yochanan, the High Priest, had a daughter who was very beautiful. The Seleucid Greek king ordered that she lie with him. She fed him a cheese dish so that he would grow thirsty and drink a lot and become drunk and lie down and fall asleep. So it was, and he lay down and slept, and she took his sword and cut off his head and brought it to Yerushalayim, when the army saw that their hero had died, they ran away. For this reason, it is customary to make cheese dishes on Chanuka.
According to Kolbo, Yehudit's act of resistance was instrumental in defeating the enemy. Where Kolbo spells out the details of his story, Rashi's comment on this matter is more cryptic:
Rashi Shabbat 23a s.v. Hayu be-oto ha-nes
The Seleucid Greeks decreed that all virgin brides be bedded first by the commander, and the miracle was performed through a woman.
Rashi gives us to understand that the Seleucid Greeks exercised droit du seigneur, sleeping with each bride on her wedding night, in a type of sexual warfare that undermined the very fabric of Jewish society, the sanctity of the family. Rashi notes that a woman changed the course of that practice, without spelling out how. One possibility, as Ran suggests, is that Rashi's account can mesh with Kolbo's:
Ran on the Rif Shabbat 10a
For they too were in that miracle. For the Seleucid Greeks decreed that all virgin brides be bedded first by the general. Through a woman a miracle was performed, for we say in the midrash that the daughter of Yochanan fed the enemy chief cheese to get him drunk, and she cut off his head, and they all fled.
According to Ran, the daughter of Yochanan beheads the enemy the night he seeks to exercise his droit du seigneur.
There is also an early tradition from Megillat Ta'anit, recorded less than two hundred years after the Chashmonean revolt, in which Matityahu's sons begin the revolt in order to protect their sister.
Megillat Ta'anit
…Matityahu ben Yochanan the High Priest had one daughter. When her time came to marry, the [Seleucid Greek] officer came to defile here. But Matityahu and his sons did not allow it [droit du seigneur] and they were zealous and they defeated the Seleucid Greek empire…
Otzar ha-midrashim relates that the young bride shocked her brothers into revolt:
Otzar Ha-midrashim Chanuka, p. 190
The Seleucid Greeks would abuse the virgins of Israel, and they did this for three years and eight months until the deed of the daughter of Matityahu the High Priest, who was marrying a son of Chashmonai named Elazar. When her wedding day arrived, they seated her in her litter. When the time of the meal arrived, all the great ones of Israel gathered in honor of Matityahu and the son of Chashmonai, for there were none greater than they in that generation. When they sat down to feast, Chana daughter of Matityahu stood up atop her litter and clapped her hands together and ripped her royal cloak and stood before all of Israel exposed, and also before her father and her mother and her father-in-law. When her brothers saw this they were ashamed and their faces fell to the ground and they rent their garments and they stood over her to kill her. She said to them "Listen to me my brothers and my kinsmen: If when I stood before the righteous naked without any sin you would be zealous for me, why are you not zealous when it comes to handing me over to the uncircumcised to abuse me! Shouldn't you learn from Shimon and Levi, the brothers of Dina, who were only two and were zealous for their sister and killed a large city like Shechem and gave themselves up for the Oneness of God, and God helped them and did not shame them. You are five brothers Yehuda, Yochanan, Yonatan, Shimon, and Elazar, and young Kohanim, more than two hundred young men. Put your trust in God and He will help you, as it is said "For nothing gets in the way of God's salvation" (Shemuel I 14). She opened her mouth and wept and said "Master of the world, if You will not have mercy on us, have mercy on the sanctity of Your great Name which is called upon us and avenge us today. At that time, her brothers became zealous…
Here a daughter of Matityahu forfeits her own dignity to demonstrate to her brothers that they bear responsibility for allowing the sexual subjugation of Judean women to persist. She gives voice to the victims of sexual violence and places the imperative of justice for them and fighting the Seleucid practice in a Biblical framework that speaks to her brothers and her people. Her voice is heard.
On all of these readings, Jewish women suffered along with the men under Antiochus. On some of them, men found the courage to revolt and help bring about wondrous Divine intervention thanks to a woman who led the way.
The Talmud teaches that "a woman certainly lights." This clearly establishes that if a woman lives alone, or only with other women or minors, the household must have a Chanuka candle, which a woman (or every household member, depending on practice) lights:
Ha-agguda Shabbat II
Women are obligated and for this reason if a widow is the head of the household and she knows how to recite the beracha, she should light [the Chanuka candle] and discharge the obligation of the members of her household, as we say, "a woman certainly lights."
Furthermore, the Talmud teaches that if a married man isn't home on a given night, his wife lights and he can rely on her lighting:
Shabbat 23a
Rabbi Zeira said: Initially, when I was at yeshiva, I would participate [in my host's lighting by contributing] coins [to pay for the lighting materials] together with the host. Once I married a woman I said, "Now I certainly don't need to [pay my host], since they light for me in my home.
Mishna Berura makes clear that this is the practical halacha:
Mishna Berura 675:9
When the man is not at home, the wife should light [the Chanuka candle] –for she is subject to the obligation—and with a blessing.
The same goes for a woman away from home; she can rely on the lighting of her husband, or another adult household member. Whether husband or wife can choose to light candles with berachot away from home when the spouse is known to be lighting at home is a matter of debate.[2]
When Her Husband is Present
In communities in which each household lights a single chanukiya, or has one designated lighter, it has been customary for a man to do the lighting. Ra'avan writes that, though women take priority in Shabbat candle-lighting, that is only because of a special mishnaic tradition.[3]
Ra'avan Shabbat 340
Just as a woman lights the candle on Shabbat night as we learn in the mishna, "On [account of] three transgressions women die in childbirth: because they are not careful with nidda, with challa, or with candle-lighting" (Shabbat 31b). So too a woman lights the Chanuka candle if her husband is not home… but in any case, when her husband is there, he takes priority for he too is obligated.
Mishna Berura recognizes that a wife can discharge her husband's obligation in his presence, but in his Beiur Halacha suggests an alternative reason why she should not. The Talmud teaches that a man who has his wife recite birkat ha-mazon for him is cursed, as commentators explain, because he did not learn to recite it himself. We could view the two cases as analogous:
Mishna Berura 675:9
A woman lights: This means for all the members of her household. Even a man can make her an agent to discharge his obligation.
Beiur Halacha 675 s.v. Isha madleket
She is able to discharge even her husband's obligation, but it is known what our sages said…A woman recites birkat ha-mazon for her husband, but the sages said a curse comes upon a man whose wife and children recite birkat ha-mazon for him.
Rav David Auerbach notes, however, that other halachic authorities express no reservations about a wife lighting for her husband. He explains, contra Mishna Berura, that the two cases are not really analogous. The fundamental halacha is that, since men and women are fully obligated in the mitzva of lighting Chanuka candles, either one can light candles in the home, and recite the blessings, in the other's presence:
Rav David Auerbach' Halichot Beitah 23:6 note 16
…It seems that one can distinguish, and this is in accordance with what Rashi wrote in Sukka 38a "A curse should come upon him: because he did not learn [to recite hallel]."…Presumably he [the husband] certainly knows how to recite this short beracha [over Chanuka candles] himself, but for whatever reason tells his wife to light the candles and recite the beracha…Regarding lighting the Chanuka candles, where man and wife are fully equal in this obligation, one can say that there is no problem at all in designating his wife as an agent, and for this reason Bach and Taz and other halachic authorities omitted [mention of curse] and did not write that ideally it is improper to designate his wife as an agent [for lighting in his presence].
In a home where the practice is to light only one chanukiya each night, there is a widespread custom, supported by the reasoning of Beiur Halacha, for the husband to light. However, following the reasoning of Halichot Beitah, there are also strong grounds for husband and wife to adopt whatever practice suits them (e.g., to alternate lighting it from night to night as they see fit
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