Why Eight Days, Not Seven

Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Karo 1488–1575) notes that the jug of oil found with the seal of the High Priest provided sufficient oil to light the menorah for one day, hence the actual miracle lasted only seven days, and asks why Ḥanukka is celebrated for eight days rather than the seven days of the miracle.

It is said that more than one hundred answers have been suggested for the Beit Yosef’s question. Following is my favorite answer, taken from Rabbi Eliyahu KiTov’s Sefer haToda’a.

Greek culture and philosophy clashed with the traditional Jewish approach. The Greeks deified nature, while Judaism sees nature as being governed in a direct and ongoing way by the Almighty. (Rabbi Yehoshua David Hartman phrases it thus: “for the Greeks, the miraculous was natural, while for Jews, nature is miraculous.”)

Rabbi KiTov quotes “Maoz Tzur (traditionally sung after lighting the Ḥanukka candles): “Sons of understanding (bina) established eight days in song and rejoicing,” and notes that our Sages’ definition of “bina” is inferring one thing from another. The insight that “nature” does not exist independently of Divine providence, leads to the conclusion that the first, “natural,” day is no less miraculous than the seven days of overt miracle.

Sfat Emet offers an additional explanation: it was the commitment of the Hasmoneans to rededicating the Temple and their fervor in kindling the menorah upon finding the single jar of oil that God provided the miracle. Thus, though lighting the menorah on the first night of (the original) Ḥanukka was not a miraculous event, it is commemorated since it was the act which brought about the miracle.