What was the exact date that Hanukkah was started?

Answer 1

Hanukkah started in 164 BCE.

On Hanukkah, the chief celebration is for the miracle of the oil (Talmud, Shabbat 21b), which occurred during the Hasmonean victory over the Syrian-Greeks; and we also thank God for His having helped us to oust the Syrian-Greeks (Seleucids) and their lackeys, the Hellenizing Jews. The Seleucids, at the instigation of the Hellenizers, had forbidden various Torah-practices, such as Sabbath-observance, and pressed the Jews to offer up idolatrous sacrifices. The Hasmoneans (a religious Jewish family) fought to retake the Holy Temple, which had been seized by the Seleucids, and to enable the people to once again observe the Torah. When they reached the Temple grounds, they found only one day's supply of pure olive oil, but the oil lamps miraculously burned for eight days (ibid.), allowing enough time for new oil to be prepared and brought.

The significance of the miracle is that it demonstrated that God's presence still dwelt in the Holy Temple.

The Al-Hanisim prayer recited during Hanukkah centers around the Hasmoneans' victory, while the candle-lighting commemorates the miracle of the oil.

Answer 2

Hanukkah commemorates the Maccabean war of about 165 BCE, but no exact start date is known. The holiday is only first mentioned in the Talmud, written about 400 years later.

Answer:

The above answer contains mistakes.

1) Yes, an exact start date is known and recorded. Hanukkah was instituted immediately after the rededication of the Temple and was first celebrated in the following year (164 BCE).

2) Hanukkah chiefly commemorates the miracle of the oil, not the military victory (see below).

3) Hanukkah is mentioned in much earlier sources as well as in the Talmud. The paragraph in the Talmud (Shabbat 21b) detailing the instituting of Hanukkah, which was authored by the Sages of the Mishna (ibid), occurs also in Megillat Ta'anit (ch.9), which was written less than two centuries after the events of Hanukkah. The book of Maccabees (I, 4:36; and II, 1:18) mentions it well over a century before that; and Josephus also (Antiquities ch.12) speaks about it.

Here is more information:

The Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks) under Antiochus Epiphanes (2nd century BCE), at the instigation of the Hellenizers, had forbidden various Torah-practices such as Sabbath-observance and circumcision, rededicated the Temple to a Greek idol, and pressed the Jews to offer up sacrifices to the idol. One of the leading elder Jewish sages called upon the people to keep observing the Torah anyway; and if necessary, to use force in resisting the decrees. When a Hellenized Jew offered a sacrifice to the Greek idols in a nearby village, the sage killed him as well as the Greek overseer. This brought a violent reaction from the Greeks; and the loyal Jews, led by the Hasmonean family, were forced to retreat from their towns and strike out at the Greeks in an attempt to oust them from the Holy Land and to enable the people to once again observe the Torah. The Torah-Jews were heavily outnumbered by the attacking Greek armies, but God gave them miraculous victories again and again. After three years of struggle, the Greek armies retreated from Jerusalem, and the Hasmoneans (also called Maccabees) entered the Holy Temple which the Greeks had defiled, reconsecrated it to God, and began the Temple service once more. Among other things, they wanted to relight the olive oil candelabrum (Exodus ch. 25), but could only find one day's supply of undefiled oil - and it would take eight days to make and bring some more.

Miraculously, the menorah stayed lit for eight days (Talmud, Shabbat 21b), allowing enough time for new oil to be prepared and brought. The significance of the miracle is that it demonstrated that God's presence was still there. The Torah-community was overjoyed, because God's presence meant everything to them.

This is what Hanukkah represents: the closeness to God; and the avoidance of Hellenization (assimilation).

The Torah Sages instituted the festival of Hanukkah at that time (Talmud, Shabbat 21b), to publicize the miracle (Rashi commentary, ibid). This is why we light our Hanukkah-menorahs.

(The Hanukkah-menorah, or hanukkiyah, is a special form of the original seven-branched menorah. Our Hanukkah-menorahs have eight spaces for oil, or candles, to mark each of the eight days for which the oil lasted and a ninth to hold the shamash, a candle used to light the others.)

The eight-day rededication of the Temple is also mentioned in pre-Talmudic sources: Megillat Taanit (ch.9), the book of Maccabees (I, 4:56-59; and II, 1:18); and Josephus (Antiquities ch.12).

The Al-Hanisim prayer which we recite during Hanukkah centers around the Hasmoneans' victory and rededication of the Temple, while the candle-lighting commemorates the miracle of the oil.

Though the military victory is prominently mentioned in the prayers, it wouldn't have been celebrated if not for the miracle of the oil, just as we have no special occasion to mark Abraham's victory (Genesis ch.14), or those of Moses (Numbers ch.21), Joshua, Deborah (Judges ch.4), Gideon (Judges ch.6-7), Jephthah (Judges ch.11), or King David. And though the Hasmonean battles continued for two decades after the retaking of the Temple, the Sages instituted Hanukkah immediately after the miracle of the oil.

It should also be noted that the main goal for which the Maccabees fought was not political independence. They fought to enable the people to observe the Torah's commandments; as we say in the Al Hanisim prayer: "the Greeks sought to cause us to forget Your Torah and leave Your statutes."

Answer 3

It began c. 175 BCE with massive Jewish assimilation into the surrounding Greek/Hellenistic culture. The assimilation was so rampant that it actually began a civil war amongst Jewish camps. There were the Hellenists, and there were the traditionalists. The war of Hanukkah, broke out when the elder Matityahu, the high priest, called for a rebellion against the Syrian Greek elite attempting to quash religious observance with the sanction of much of the Jewish leadership at the time. After much guerrilla warfare, the traditionalists won and rededicated the Holy Temple to God after it was trashed by the assimilationists.