Chanukah is here

Chanukah, or the Festival of Rededication, celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, after its defilement by the Syrian Greeks in 164 BCE.                                          

Although it is a late addition to the Jewish liturgical calendar, the eight-day festival of Chanukah has become a beloved and joyous holiday.

It is also known as the “Festival of Lights” and usually takes place in December, at the time of year when the days are shortest in the northern hemisphere.

Beginning in 167 BCE, the Jews of Judea rose up in revolt against the oppression of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire. The military leader of the first phase of the revolt was Judah the Maccabee, the eldest son of the priest Matityahu, also known as Mattathias.

In the autumn of 164, Judah and his followers were able to capture the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been turned into a pagan shrine. They cleansed it and rededicated it to Israel’s god.                                                                           

This event was observed in an eight-day celebration, which was patterned on Sukkot, the autumn festival of huts. Much later rabbinic tradition ascribes the length of the festival to a miraculous small amount of oil that burned for eight days.

Much of the activity of Chanukah takes place at home. Central to the holiday is the lighting of the Chanukiah or menorah, an eight-branched candelabrum, to which one candle is added on each night of the holiday until it is ablaze with light on the eighth night.

In commemoration of the legendary cruse of oil, it is traditional to eat foods fried in oil. The most familiar Hanukkah foods are the European — Ashkenazi — potato pancakes, or latkes, and the Israeli favorite jelly donuts, or Sufganiyot.                                       

The tradition developed in Europe to give small amounts of money, as well as nuts and raisins to children at this time.

Under the influence of Christmas, which takes place around the same time of year, Chanukah has evolved into the central gift-giving holiday in the Jewish calendar in the Western world.

Since Chanukah is not biblically ordained, the liturgy for the holiday is not well developed. It is actually a quite minor festival. However, it has become one of the most beloved of Jewish holidays.  In an act of defiance against those in the past and in the present, who would root out Jewish practice, the observance of Chanukah has assumed a visible community aspect.

Jews will often gather for communal celebrations and public candle lighting. At such celebrations, Chanukah songs are sung and traditional games such as dreidel are played.

Like Passover, Chanukah is a holiday that celebrates the liberation from oppression. It also provides a strong argument in favor of freedom of worship and religion.                                            

In spite of the human action that is commemorated, never far from the surface is the theology, that the liberation was possible only thanks to the miraculous support of the divine.

The significance of the miracle is that it demonstrated that God’s presence still dwelt in the Holy Temple. This is what Chanukah represent: the closeness to God and the avoidance of Assimilation.

May the Chanukah lights shine brightly upon the entire world, especially in the Middle East, and let us be filled with a world of brightness and peace! AMEN!                                                                         

We light the first candle on Thursday evening Dec. 7. Happy Chanukah!

— Sam Waidenbaum