Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

January 2, 2025

Using the Book of Esther to Write a “Scroll” for Hanukkah

The almost-biblical Megillah of Antiochus.

Since ancient rabbis decided against including the books of Maccabees in the Hebrew Bible, there is, for post-talmudic Jews, no standard text telling the Hanukkah story. Thus, while Purim—the other major holiday of the Second Temple era—focuses on the public reading of Megillat Esther (the book, or literally, scroll, of Esther), there is no parallel on Hanukkah. A.J. Berkovitz investigates an attempt to create a text for this purpose, and its peculiar idiom:

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