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Ḥanukkah Readings

This is an archive of public readings prepared for the festival of Ḥanukkah.

Click here to contribute a special reading you have prepared for Ḥanukkah.

Filtered by name: “Aharon N. Varady (transcription)” (clear filter)

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סֵפֶר חֲנוֹךְ | The Animal Apocalypse (1 Enoch 83-90), with Aramaic Fragments and translations in Ge’ez and English

A mytho-historical chronicle of the story of humanity and Israel up until the Maccabean revolt depicted as a fable through a dream vision of Ḥanokh. . . .

Categories: Second Temple Period, Ḥanukkah Readings

Tags: 2nd century B.C.E., 36th century A.M., anti-predatory, deuterocanonical works, early Judaism, חנוך Ḥanokh (Enoch), mytho-historical chronicles, pre-rabbinic judaism

Contributor(s): Robert Henry Charles (translation), Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

Selections from 1 & 2 Maccabees and Pesiqta Rabbati on the Desecration and Rededication of the Temple and the Rekindling of the Sacred Fire

Selections from 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, and Pesiqta Rabbati which inform the story of Ḥanukkah: the desecration and re-dedication of the Temple (especially as it relates to Sukkot and the Brumalia), divine intervention in the Maccabean battles, and the Rekindling of the Sacred Fire. . . .

Categories: Second Temple Period, Ḥanukkah Readings

Tags: 2nd century B.C.E., 37th century A.M., Angels, Classical Antiquity, combating anti-Jewish oppression, dedications and consecrations, kindling, Maccabean Revolt, המקבים Maccabees, נר תמיד ner tamid, המזבח the Mizbe'aḥ

Contributor(s): Jason of Cyrene, Septuagint (translation/Greek), Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

💬 מגילת אנטיוכס עם טעמי מקרא | Megillat Antiokhus, with a novel cantillation by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation by Tsvi Filipowski, 1851)

Perhaps Megillat Antiokhus could be read a la Esther on Purim (the holiday with the most similarities), going to Eicha trope in the upsetting parts. A few notes: on the final mention of Bagris the Wicked I included a karnei-farah in the manner of the karnei-farah in Esther. I also included a merkha kefulah in the concluding section, which (according to David Weisberg’s “The Rare Accents of the Twenty-Eight Books”) represents aggadic midrash material. It also serves as a connection to the Chanukah haftarah, which is famously the only one that has a merkha kefulah. –Isaac Mayer . . .

Categories: Extracanonical Megillot, Ḥanukkah Readings

Tags: 2nd century C.E., 40th century A.M., Bar Kochba Rebellion, Classical Antiquity, English Translation, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, Hebrew translation, Late Antiquity, Megillat Antiokhus, Seleucid Greek Occupation

Contributor(s): Tsvi Hirsch Filipowski (translation), Unknown Author(s), Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

💬 מְגִילַּת אַנטְיוּכַס | Megillat Antiokhus for Ḥanukkah in Aramaic, translated in Hebrew, Yiddish, and English

The Megillat Antiochus was composed in Palestinian Aramaic sometime between the 2nd and 5th century CE, likely in the 2nd Century when the memory of the Bar Kochba revolt still simmered.. The scroll appears in a number of variations. The Aramaic text below follows the critical edition prepared by Menaḥem Tzvi Kaddari, and preserves his verse numbering. The English translation by Rabbi Joseph Adler (1936) follows the Hebrew translation in the middle column, the source of which is a medieval manuscript reprinted by Tzvi Filipowsky in 1851. Adler and Kaddari’s verse ordering loosely follows one another indicating variations in manuscripts. Where Aramaic is missing from Kaddari’s text, the Aramaic version from Adler’s work is included in parentheses. Adler also included a Yiddish translation which we hope will be fully transcribed (along with vocalized Hebrew text, a Hungarian translation, and perhaps even a Marathi translation from South India) for Ḥanukkah 5775 , G!d willing. . . .

Categories: Extracanonical Megillot, Ḥanukkah Readings

Tags: 2nd century C.E., 40th century A.M., Aramaic, Bar Kochba Rebellion, English Translation, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, Hebrew translation, Late Antiquity, המקבים Maccabees, Megillat Antiokhus, Yiddish translation

Contributor(s): Tsvi Hirsch Filipowski (translation), Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

💬 מְגִילַּת אַנטְיוּכַס | Megillat Antiokhus in Aramaic, critical text by Menaḥem Tsvi Kaddari with English translation by John C. Reeves

The critical text of Megillat Antiokhus in its original Aramaic, prepared by Menaḥem Tsvi Kaddari and translated into English by John C. Reeves. . . .

Categories: Extracanonical Megillot, Ḥanukkah Readings

Tags: 2nd century C.E., 40th century A.M., Aramaic, Bar Kochba Rebellion, English Translation, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, Late Antiquity, המקבים Maccabees, Megillat Antiokhus

Contributor(s): John C. Reeves (translation), Menaḥem Tsvi Kaddari, Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

💬 מַעֲשֶׂה חֲנֻכָּה א׳ | Ma’aseh Ḥanukkah “alef,” a tale of the people’s resistance to the Seleucid Greek occupation

This digital edition of Midrash Ma’aseh Ḥanukkah was transcribed from the print edition published in Otzar Hamidrashim (I. D. Eisenstein, New York: Eisenstein Press, 5675/1915, p.189-190). With much gratitude to Anat Hochberg, this is the first translation of this midrash into English. . . .

Categories: Midrash Aggadah, Ḥanukkah Readings, Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat) Readings

Tags: colonization, Droit du seigneur, Early Middle Ages, eating animals, חג הבנות Ḥag HaBanot, Late Antiquity, sexual predation, sexual violence

Contributor(s): Anat Hochberg (translation), Unknown Author(s), Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

💬 מַעֲשֶׂה חֲנֻכָּה ב׳ | Ma’aseh Ḥanukkah “bet” in Ladino, a retelling of Megillat Antiokhus with details from II Maccabees by Rabbi Isaac Magriso (1764)

This is a largely uncorrected transcription of Rabbi Isaac Magriso’s telling of Megillat Antiokhus in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) from the Me’am Loez: Bamidbar Parshat BeHe’alotekha (Constantinople, 1764). The paragraph breaks are a rough estimation based on my comparison with the English translation of Dr. Tzvi Faier (1934-2009) appearing in The Torah Anthology: Me’am Loez, Book Thirteen – In the Desert (Moznaim 1982). I welcome all Ladino speakers and readers to help correct this transcription and to provide a complete English translation for non-Ladino readers. . . .

Categories: Midrash Aggadah, Ḥanukkah Readings

Tags: 18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., Angels, derivative work, Ladino Translation, Megillat Antiokhus, Needing Proofreading, Ottoman Jewry, Sepharadi Diaspora

Contributor(s): Isaac ben Moses Magriso and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

💬 מְגִילַּת יְהוּדִית לְאָמְרָהּ בַּחֲנֻכָּה | Megillat Yehudit, the Medieval Scroll of Judith to be said on Ḥanukkah

This is a faithful transcription of the text of the medieval Megillat Yehudith (the Scroll of Judith), not to be confused with the deutero-canonical Book of Judith, authored in Antiquity. We have further set this text side-by-side with the English translation made by Susan Weingarten, and vocalized and cantillated the Hebrew so that it may be chanted. . . .

Categories: Extracanonical Megillot, Ḥanukkah Readings, Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat) Readings

Tags: 14th century C.E., 52nd century A.M., anti-predatory, dairy foods, derivative work, חג הבנות Ḥag HaBanot, heroic women, High Middle Ages, Judith, Megillat Yehudit, resistance, soporifics, women

Contributor(s): Susan Weingarten (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Moshe Shmi'el Dascola and Unknown Author(s)

📄 the past didn’t go anywhere: making resistance to antisemitism part of all of our movements, by April Rosenblum (2007)

It’s always a real struggle for the Left to successfully tackle oppression within its own ranks. But when we do it, our movements gain, every time, from the deeper understandings that emerge. To start the process this time, we need some basic information about what anti-Jewish oppression is and how to counter it. But it has to come from a perspective of justice for all people, not from opportunistic attempts to slander or censor social justice efforts that are gaining strength. . . .

Categories: Modern Miscellany, Ḥanukkah Readings, Purim Readings

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., combating anti-Jewish oppression, combating antisemitism, Jewish liberation, Jewish Radicalism, liberation, particularism and universalism, שפוך חמתך shfokh ḥamatekha, solidarity, who we are

Contributor(s): April Rosenblum and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

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