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<TITLE>RE: Chanukah--miracle of the oil vs. miracle of the victory</TITLE>
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<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">I leafed through a recent scholarly edition of Megillas Ta'anis, by Prof. Vered Na'am. She notes that the Ksav Yad Parma is probably the more reliable girsa when it comes to the part dealing with Chanukah, while Ksav Yad Oxford seems meshubash. Ksav Yad Parma does not mention the Nes Pach Shemen, and says that Chanukah is celebrated for eight days because the Chashmonaim made a menorah out of spears and were involved with this for eight days. Ksav Yad Oxford does mention the Nes Pach Shemen, but the version cited by Or Zarua v.2 siman 321 [arguably] does not; in any case it states that they spent eight days rebuilding and rededicating the mizbe'ach and menorah made out of spears (covered with wood). (It's not clear to me that Or Zarua is actually quoting the Megillas Ta'anis.) Whichever girsa is correct, it does seem from the Oxford ed. of Megillas Ta'anis that the reason that Chanukah was established for eight days is primarily that that is the number of days it took to rededicate the mizbe'ach, and that the miracle of the oil is secondary to that.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">Kol tuv,</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">Moshe</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"></SPAN></P>
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