[Avodah] Dvar Hashem me'Yerusalmi: A New Answer to an Age-Old Question?

[Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer]

One of the "standard" Chanukah questions is why the halachos of Chanukah 
are not considered in Mishnayos. One of the standard answers, related in 
the name of the Chasam Sofer, has always bothered me, as it goes 
something like Rebbe did not include these Halachos because the 
Chashmona'im had undermined the principle of La Yasur Shevet me'Yehuda 
u'Mechokek me'Bein Raglav, thus usurping the power that rightfully 
should have belonged to the House of the Nasi,

I always had difficulty assuming Rebbe was not enough of a Ba'al Mussar 
to overcome such a seemingly petty antagonism.

I think, however, that the basis of the question is the contrast to 
Purim, which is discussed extensively in its very own Mesechta. And a 
recent Daf Yomi Yerushalmi establishes that the question is the other 
way around: Why did Purim get that attention - i.e., really both 
Chanukah and Purim should have continued beyond the redaction of 
Mishnayos to remain relegated to Torah she'b'al Peh. Why did Purim get a 
Mesechta?

Says the Yerushalmi (Megillah 20b):

Shimon bar Ba in the name of R' Yochanan: "V'zichram lo yasuf me'za'ram" 
- from here [we derive the reason] why Chazal designated for it [Purim] 
a tractate.

Were it not for that Yerushalmi, Purim would have has the same status as 
Chanukah - which would have been the default status of a Yom Tov 
d'Rabbanan of not being considered in detail in a Mishnah.

Yishma Chacham v'yosif lekach.

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