Maimonides & Chanukah – Ask the Rabbi
Q. I have heard that Maimonides tells the story of Chanukah in his Code before he lists the laws of the festival, but he does not put in a history lesson first when enumerating other festival laws. Why the exception for Chanukah?
A. Rav JB Soloveitchik explains that one reason is that the other festivals have Biblical accounts of their history whereas Chanukah does not.
The Rav adds that since the main theme of the festival is pirsum ha-nes, publicising the miracle, we have to know what miracle it is that we are called upon to publicise.
