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Re: orion Hanukkah civil holiday?; Etc.
On Wed, 6 Jan 1999 RGmyrken@aol.com wrote:
> In light of Martin Jaffee's insightful comments, perhaps the following
> analysis will prove generally agreeable.
> We may properly distinguish between holidays with a sacred mandate
> (Torah, 11QT) and those with a civil; mandate (e.g. those inaugurated by the
> Hasmoneans). Having a civil mandate does not necessarily exclude a holiday
> from the sphere of the religious. By the same token, holidays that are
> religious (in whole or in part) do not necessarily thereby fall into the
> sphere of the sacred. Hanukkah, originally possessing a civil mandate, and
> later a rabbinic mandate, had both religious and nationalist overtones (in
> various mixture through time). However, Hanukkah never possessed the status
> of a sacred holiday alongside those of the Troah or 11QT. That being the
> case, Hanukkah's absence in the Qumran calendar texts is only to be expected,
> and is not useful in determining the attitude of the scrolls authors toward
> the Hasmoneans.
Where do I sign? :-) Marty Jaffee
For private reply, e-mail to Martin Jaffee <jaffee@u.washington.edu>
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