Chanukah/Parshas Miketz – A DT with No Title

One of the incredible talents that we, the Jewish people have, is our ability to darshen out ever interesting understandings of our sacred texts and moments.  Some of our most profound concepts come from the way we look at words anew, so what about Chanukah – and ok, let me say this clearly now: this is totally me. I have zero source for this… but let’s have a little fun anyway. 

Within the word Chanukah we have the name of Chana – an extremely powerful woman’s name and a name that is tied to the holiday in several ways. Additionally, one can pull out of the word – anagram style – the word kavana, with a left over ches – so 8 days of intention. Hmm interesting… 

That the name Chana is connected to the idea of kavana is not surprising, given the original heroine of that name. Indeed, Chana the mother of Shmuel was a woman of unimaginable kavana. Perhaps, then, it is not surprising that two separate women bearing her name are associated with Chanukah.

The story of Chana and her seven sons comes from II Maccabees, Chapter 7, where it describes how 7 sons and their mother were jailed by the Selucids. They were brought before the king, who demanded that they consume the pork he put before them. One by one the boys refused and were tortured to death in front of their brothers and their mother. Even when the youngest was brought forward, the mother encouraged his faith, and he too was killed. The mother died after her sons (there are different opinions about how she died, so we will just leave it there). This is one of the stories we often hear about women’s connection to Chanukah – although I feel it is only right to note that the name Chana was attached to the mother of this story only many centuries later. 

Now we know that, al pi halacha, one does not have to give up their life rather than not eat treif. Indeed, there are even occasions where it is permitted for a person to eat treif if it will save their life…but this family faced something very different. In eating the pork before the king, they would have been declaring their lack of faith in Torah, and so their actions were all about the underlying intent. Look at the incredible kavana these 8 Jews had in such a terrifying situation. She is hailed in the text of II Maccabees: “It is true, who will not be in awe of the mental fortitude of this woman. Is she not fit to be a banner of nations?”

The second story associated with Chana and Chanukah is one that, to be honest, I hadn’t really heard about until this year. However, there is a medieval midrashic source, based on an earlier work called the Midrash Antiochus, that reveals that one of the instigating factors of the Maccabee rebellion came from Mattisiyahu’s daughter – Chana. There was an inhumane law that a Jewish woman had to go to the local governor before she could go to her chupah – yes, read the inference. Many women, it says, refused to marry at all in order to avoid this debased requirement. Chana, on her way to be married to Elaz...

https://cthedawn.blogspot.com/2025/12/chanukahparshas-miketz-dt-with-no-title.html

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