25
You may discard it. The gemara (Megillah 26b) states:
תנו רבנן: תשמישי מצוה - נזרקין, תשמישי קדושה - נגנזין. ואלו הן תשמישי מצוה: סוכה, לולב, שופר, ציצית. ואלו הן תשמישי קדושה: דלוסקמי ספרים, תפילין ומזוזות, ותיק של ספר תורה, ונרתיק של תפילין ורצועותיהן
Our Rabbis taught: ‘Accessories of religious observances [when disused] are to be thrown away; ...
21
Mishna B'rura to 21:1 says that once a thing used for a mitzva is no longer usable for the mitzva, it can be discarded, but should not be discarded in a degrading manner or used for a degrading purpose. He considers deliberately throwing it onto the garbage heap as an example of discarding it in a degrading manner. [I've heard recommended that such an object ...
18
Actually, Miketz does not always fall out on Chanukah. It appears that whoever told me that was mistaken. :)
I ran some code (using my JavaScript Hebcal API) and discovered that in the 100 years from 5700-5800, Miketz is not on Chanukah 10 times. In 5703, 5706, 5710, 5730, 5733, 5737, 5757, 5761, 5781, and 5784, Miketz fell out on the 4th of Tevet, just ...
17
The primary source for the events that took place in the time of Chanuka is Sefer haMakabim (Maccabees I) (English Translation). This book was originally written in Hebrew by a religious Jewish soldier. It's quite fascinating, and I recommend that you read it. (Unfortunately, the original Hebrew has been lost.)
Here are all the relevant verses for the ...
17
There are two explanations provided for the eight day delay in getting new ritually pure oil.
One opinion is that the oil was produced in a region that was a four day journey from Jerusalem. This is the explanation of the Ran on Shabbos 21b. The Meiri identifies the oil producing region as Tekoa.
The other opinion is that the delay was because they were ...
14
The Hellenistic writer Cleodemus Malchus (a contemporary with the author of I Maccabees.). He is quoted by a Hellenistic historian who is then quoted by Josephus.
The son of Abraham and Keturah, Aphras, accompanied Hercules into North Africa. His daughter married Hercules and had a son Diodorus.
Kingship Myth in Ancient Greece
14
I'm not sure this completly answers your question but it is mentioned in Talmud, Soferim 20:6.
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/holidays/chanukah/maozhan.htm
14
Nitei Gavriel Chanuka - page 306 mentions this in the name of Otzar Kol Minhagei Yeshurin. Rabbi Genut at din.org.il also quotes Otzar Kol Minhagei Yeshurin and says it is mentioned in Chapter 19:4 in the name of the Avodas Eved M'Lomza. YUTorah.org also gives the Otzar Kol Minhagei Yeshurin as the source. This leads me to believe that there is no earlier ...
13
The custom to recite Haneirois Halalu is kept by all but a few Yemenite communities and those following the custom of the Italian Jews (Siddur Rema). The first Source for its recitation is Maseches Sofrim (see article about its own author) Ch.20 Pr.36 in the Hager Edition. (This is apparently the version that was available to the earlier Poskim.) I quote the ...
12
At the start and end of hallel on Rosh Chodesh and the last days of Pesach some have the minhag to say the bracha for hallel.
12
The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch brings a case when one has a bowl filled with oil and places wicks around the perimeter to make a menorah. (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 139:9)
הַנֵּרוֹת, יִהְיוּ בְּשׁוּרָה אַחַת בְּשָׁוֶה, לֹא אֶחָד גָּבוֹהַּ וְאֶחָד נָמוּךְ. וְיִהְיֶה הֶפְסֵק בֵּין נֵר לְנֵר, שֶׁלֹּא יִתְקָרֵב הַלַהַב שֶׁל זֶה לָזֶה וְיִהְיֶה כְּמוֹ מְדוּרָה. ...
11
At the 2014 International Bible Contest for Adults (חידון התנ"ך הבינלאומי למבוגרים תשע"ה) televised finals1, celebrated grammarian2 Dr. Avshalom Kor (אבשלום קור) posed this question among a series of short vignettes about "Ma'oz Tzur" that he presented while the next contestant was getting into place. He answered that the 'ו' preceding "his possessions" is ...
11
You are right as to the reason why we don't have two days of Yom Kippur is because it is dangerous and we don't decree on people decrees that they can't handle.
As to the other two, see 9 Days of Chanukah?
11
The mitzvos of Purim and Chanuka definitely fit the bill for the violation of lo sosifu according to the Ramban (vaeschanan 4:2). More specifically, the Yerushalmi quotes a different pasuk- These are the mitzvos that Hashem commanded Moshe. Lo sosifu refers to adding in general, but the former pasuk forbids adding even through prophecy.
Both the Bavli (...
11
Shulchan Aruch O.C. 672:2
שכח או הדד ולא הדליק [....] ומיהו הני מילי לכתחילה; אבל אם עבר זה הזמן ולא הדליק, מדליק והולך כל הלילה. ואם עבר כל הלילה ולא הדליק, אין לו תשלומין
If one forgot and didn't light, or purposefully didn't light [....] however, this is only lechatchila; if [the end of sunset] has passed and one didn't light, they should light ...
11
This question assumes that the Rishonim or Acharonim grappled with this question. Most were not aware of contemporary sources omitting this miracle, such that they would ask the question and answer it.
If you want, instead, a defense of the existence of the oil miracle, here are two.
That "II Maccabees is, as is well known, an abridgement of a five-book ...
11
The halacha is that someone must light with a ner (individual wick) and not a medurah (torch or multiple wicks). Siman תרעא in the Shulchan Aruch explains that the wicks must be separated to show individually even if all the individual wicks lead back to a central source. A camp fire is like the situation in which multiple wicks are lit, but the individual ...
10
About the events described in Maccabees, R. Yitzchak Isaac Halevi offers the following explanation (Doros Harishonim 1:340ff):
These Jews hiding in the caves originally had no intention of waging war against the Greeks and their Jewish Hellenist allies, and no reason to think they'd be successful in doing so. But they figured that, while the Hellenists didn'...
10
The Shulchan Aruch in O.C. 677:3 writes:
יש אומרים שאע"ג שמדליקין עליו בתוך ביתו, אם הוא במקום שאין בו ישראל מדליק בברכות
Some say that even though they are lighting for a person at his home, if he is in a place where there are no Jews he should light with the blessings.
The Rema adds
וכן נוהגין
And this is our practice.
This is a person ...
10
This immediately follows another statement of R. Kahana's, which also quoted an exegesis of R. Nasan b. Minyome's in the name of R. Tanchum. Quoting another statement from the same people is pretty common in the Bavli.
But there can be a deeper explanation also:
Tora T'mima (ad loc.) shows that the brothers must not have known that the pit had snakes and ...
9
Orach Chaim 672:2 says that after 1/2 hour you may extinguish the fire.
9
The Darkei Moshe (Rav Moshe Isserles's commentary to the Tur) discusses this issue in OC 672 sk 3. He quotes Rabbi Menachem of Reisberg (Merseburg?) as ruling that one who missed the first night lights only one candle, as it is his first night. However, Rema eventually rules against this and in accordance with Maharil (Responsum 28) that one who missed a ...
9
In the Artscroll book on Chanukah, Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm writes that while many ancient chroniclers follow the timeline of Megillas Antiochus, "most contemporary Orthodox historians" (including R' Yitzchak Isaac Halevi, author of Doros Harishonim) follow the timeline provided by I and II Maccabees. He also writes that R' Yaakov Kaminetzky concurred with this ...
9
I think an answer can be inferred from the Aruch Hashulchan's detailed discussion in 673:9-12. He sources the Tur, who says explicitly that there are two non-mitzva lights in addition to the official Chanuka lights. One is a "helper light" called the shamash and the other is an "extra" one.
The shamash is used to light the other light(s). In practice this ...
9
The Mishna B'rura (672:6, citing Magein Avraham 672:3) writes:
If he put a lot of oil so that the flame will last longer, there is no mitzva in this. But with wax candles, there is a beautification of the mitzva when they are long. Nevertheless, one should not make them inordinately long.
The distinction between oil and wax is based on the Magein ...
9
A Chanukah Shiur by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, delivered at Moriah Synagogue, circa-1950, transcribed by Rabbi Nisson E. Shulman, explains the meaning of Chanukah and shows that Chanukah itself is basically a "hidden" celebration. We speak of the fight against the Syrian-Greeks, but that was not the main battle. As with many of the trials, tribulations ...
8
http://www.torah.org/advanced/weekly-halacha/5764/vayeishev.html
Children should be discouraged from playing dreidel games on Shabbos,
even when playing with candy, etc.(Mishnah Berurah 322:22) A dreidel,
however, is not muktzeh.(Igros Moshe Orach Chaim 5 Siman 22 Os 10)
8
This is a famous question asked by the Bait Yosef (OC 670), which has gained so much popularity since he's asked it, seemingly because of it's simplistic ingenuity, that it's attracted hundreds of answers from most everyone who has ever had anything to say about Chanuka.
The Bait Yosef himself gives three possible answers: (quoted from here)
Those who ...
8
It is well know that there is a disagreement whether one should light Channuka candles at sunset or at tzet hakochavim. However, the basis for this disagreement is less known, and this I will try to clarify.
The Gemara (Shabbat 21b) states that one should light candles "mishtishka hachama". This expression appears in other places in shas as well including in ...
8
In Riv'vos Efrayim (volume 8 number 267), Rabbi Efrayim Greenblatt suggests that it may refer to Haman's slaves. (He also refers the reader to Or L'avraham on Rus, by Rabbi Avraham Gurewitz (spelling?), page 98; but I don't have a copy.)
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