Question: Why can’t I find anything written in the Torah about Hanukkah? I was told that the events of Hanukkah occurred after the Torah was written but how do people know about the story? Was the story of Hanukkah only verbally passed down through generation?

Answer: Great questions. In short, you are correct—there is no record of the story of Chanukah anywhere in the Torah. And yes, in short, the story has essentially been passed down in more or less a verbal manner, although there are texts that detail some of the history.

Here is the longer story: As you may know, the Torah is actually divided into three parts—a) The Torah, which is the Five books of Moses, b) The books of Prophets c) The Books of Writings. Together, these three sections comprise what is known as the Tanach (which in Hebrew is an acronym for these three sections).

The latest (chronologically) books to be included in the Tanach are in the section of Writings. The scroll of Esther, which details the story of Purim is included in the section of Writings. In addition, the narrative of Ezra rebuilding the land of Israel with the building of the second Temple is included in the section of Writings. Those episodes are the latest to be detailed in the Tanach. The Rabbis finalized the Tanach with those episodes – therefore, nothing after the initial stages of the rebuilding of the first Temple appear in the Tanach, which is around the year 500 BCE (give or take a few decades).

As a result, the story of Chanukah, which occurred around the year 170 BCE was much too late to be included in the Tanach. There is a book called the Book of Maccabees which provides much historical context to the Chanukah story. However, since the Tanach was finalized which a much earlier date, this book was not included in any religious or formal manner. Because it was not considered a religious book in any way, the Book of Maccabees has not received much attention over the centuries—in fact the original Hebrew has been lost. Therefore, while this book provides much important historical information, it is not regarded as religious. In addition, the historical narrative is not considered completely definitive either.

At the same time, the Talmud, which represents the oral teachings of the Rabbis (and was completed around 500 CE) contains information about the story of Chanukah. This indicates clearly that the story was passed down in an oral, verbal fashion throughout the generations.

I hope this helps answer you questions. Please feel free to reply with any follow up questions.

Be well and have a wonderful Chanukah!

Rabbi Yoel Spotts