Megilat Chanukah

ספר לחברים על הספר 'מגילת חנוכה'

The Books of the Maccabees document one of the most heroic periods in Jewish history — the Maccabean Revolt and the establishment of the Hasmonean state. This is the story of a small nation that went out to fight the Greek-Seleucid Empire for its religious freedom and political independence — and won!

The Books of the Maccabees have been preserved in Greek and were first translated into Hebrew by Abraham Kahana, and later by A. S. Hartom. More recently, Books I and II of the Maccabees were published in a scholarly edition translated by Rappaport and Schwartz.

For various reasons, these books are not widely used in educational settings. These reasons include their religious content, the difficulty of their biblical-style language, and numerous deviations from the central narrative.

The book Megillat Chanukah (“The Chanukah Scroll”) was created to overcome these obstacles and present Hebrew-speaking readers in Israel and throughout the Diaspora with a concise account of the Chanukah story, written in clear and flowing language.

The book is divided into chapters corresponding to the eight days of Chanukah and is based entirely on the Books of the Maccabees, supplemented by sources from rabbinic literature (Chazal).

This adaptation is both scholarly and faithful to the historical sources, while also being designed for the general public and school students through its accessible style and literary presentation.

Dr. Chagai Ben Artzi, a resident of Beit El, teaches Bible and Jewish thought at teacher-training colleges in Jerusalem and at Bar-Ilan University. In his educational work, Dr. Ben Artzi combines a commitment to the Torah of Israel with an academic and scientific approach.