<P>Sun, 31 Dec 2006 from: "Moshe Feldman" <A href="mailto:moshe.feldman@gmail.com wrote" target=_blank>moshe.feldman@gmail.com <FONT color=#000000>wrote</FONT></A><FONT color=#000000>:<BR><BR></FONT>...see David Berger's article at<BR><A href="http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2006/11/human-initiative-and-divine-providence.html" target=_blank>http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2006/11/human-initiative-and-divine-providence.html</A> <BR><BR>Rabbi Berger wrote, to answer why the miracle of oil is not mentioned in Books of the Maccabees I or II:</P>
<P>"1. ...Given the author's consistent historiographic approach, we can be almost certain that he would not have recorded this miracle even if he knew about it.</P>
<P>2. ... II Maccabees is an abridgment of a five-part work by Jason of Cyrene which has been lost.... To Jason--or to the man who abridged his work--it may have seemed trivial..."</P>
<P>Rabbi Avigdor Miller suggests another solution: These works were composed after the Hashmoneans became Saducees, and they therefore omitted any mention of the miracle upon which "those rabbis" has based (one year after the event) yet another post-biblical takkana.</P>
<P>I was still troubled by the lack of the miracle's mention in Al HaNissim, and appreciate Rabbi Berger's explanation that...</P>
<P>"The absence of a reference in Al ha-Nissim, which is a thanksgiving prayer, need not trouble anyone. The miracle of victory requires thanksgiving; the miracle of the oil does not, and it is appropriately omitted."<BR><BR>Zvi Lampel</P>