Chanukah: Festival of Lights

Chanukah is a Jewish holiday. It's also referred to as the Festival of Lights (I'll explain why in a bit), the Festival of Dedication (I'll explain about this too), and Hannukah (as it's transliterated in English).

Chanukah commemorates the miracles that happened to the Jewish people prior to and during the re-dedication of the Second Temple in the 2nd century BCE.

Confused? Not for long.

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago (seriously, like more than 2,000 years ago) Israel became part of the Syrian-Greek empire. In Jerusalem, the Holy Temple was still standing, with priests officiating ceremonial and daily services. One such service was the daily lighting of the menorah with pure olive oil. The menorah was wrought out of solid gold and stood so tall that the priest who lit it had to walk up three steps to reach the top.

Replica of the Holy Temple

Judaism at this time was in a precarious position, as many Jews were embracing the Greek/Hellenist culture. These assimilated Jews are referred to as "Hellenists," and they often attempted to Hellenize others. Hellenistic culture glorified the physical, like perfection of the body, while the Jewish way of life centers on the spiritual.

Onto this scene came the new Greek king, Antiochus IV, who sided with the Hellenists. He replaced the existing High Priest with a Hellenist one, defiled the Holy Temple, erected pagan alters, and basically made it illegal to practice Judaism: he banned Jewish practices such as the Sabbath, Torah study, circumcision, and dietary laws under penalty of death. Many were murdered when they refused to comply.

A small band of rebels led by former High Priest Matisyahu and his sons refused to stand idly by. They were filled with righteous rage and faith in G-d as they fought fiercely against the king's mighty army. Matisyahu's son, Yehudah "The Maccabee" (meaning "The Hammer"), led the rebellion when his father died. He and his followers, the Maccabees, won victory after victory despite their small numbers and, after three years, managed to drive the Syrian-Greek army out of Judea.

So that was the first miracle.

However, when the weary victors entered the Holy Temple, they found it in complete disarray. They immediately set about restoring it, clearing it of statues and pagan alters, and rededicated the Temple on the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev (hence the name of the holiday "The Festival of Dedication").

They still had one more task, which was to light the menorah. Here again they were brought up short: the menorah in the Holy Temple was only ever lit using pure olive oil and there was no jug of oil with its purity seal still intact in the whole Temple. But then one jug was found - it would last only a day, but it was better than nothing.

And this is where the second miracle occurred: That small jug of oil lasted for eight days, giving the Maccabees time to get a fresh batch of pure olive oil, and attesting to the enduring spiritual light of the Jewish people.

1. Menorah - The most important part of Chanukah is the lighting of the menorah, which is a special kind of candelabra. There are eight branches (one for each night) and an additional branch for the shamesh, which is the candle used to light the others. In addition, while it's perfectly fine to use wax candles, using oil and wicks is considered to be better since the miracle occurred with oil. The menorah is lit each night of Chanukah, starting with one candle on the first night, two candles on the second night, and so on until the eighth night. This process is done from right to left. You can imagine that as the nights continue, the menorah looks more and more festive. A specific blessing is recited before lighting the menorah and when all the appropriate candles are lit, it's customary to sing special songs that glorify the Chanukah miracles (Al HaNisim and Ma'oz Ztor). As you may have guessed, the menorah is the basis for the name, "Festival of Lights." The menorah is placed near the door or window so it can be seen by passerby. This is done to commemorate the public nature of the miracles that occurred and to further publicize them.

2. Dreidel - A dreidel, or sevivon, is a spinning top that has four sides. Each side is inscribed with a letter from the hebrew alphabet, which stand for words that make up a phrase. The four letters are nun, gimmel, hei, and shin. The acronym stands for "neis gadol hayah sham," which translates into "A great miracle happened there." Some dreidels have a pei instead of a shin; these are mostly found in Israel since the new acronym translates into "A great miracle happened here." The game consists of spinning the dreidel and either losing or winning coins (Chanukah gelt, or money), depending on which letter the dreidel falls. Playing with dreidels is said to have originated from the time of the Chanukah story, when studying Torah was outlawed. Righteous Jews chose to study in secret and, if soldiers came upon them, the Jews would hide their holy books and take out a game, pretending they had gathered to play. Today, dreidel is most often played by children.

3. Latkes (and other oily foods) - Latkes are potato pancakes; they can be as crispy or fluffy as you like. The idea is to eat foods that are fried in oil (sounds deliciously unhealthy, doesn't it?) since the miracle occurred with oil. Doughnuts (sufganiyot) are another common Chanukah food. It's also customary to eat dairy, to commemorate the story of Yehudis (below).

So far, the Chanukah story might seem to be one of strong men, warriors, and heroes. And it is. But Chanukah, like other Jewish holidays, also celebrates the brave women who helped the Jewish cause.

Yehudis

I mentioned before that the Syrian-Greek king passed laws to make life difficult for the Jewish people. Many might not understand the severity of these laws, what it means to a Jew to be forced to eat something that's not kosher or to violate the Sabbath. But we can all understand this: one of the laws enacted stated that brides must present themselves before their weddings to the Syrian-Greek generals who were stationed in every town. I need not specify what for. Again, this was under penalty of death. Many chose not to get married.

According to Jewish tradition, there was a woman named Yehudis who was the daughter of a High Priest. She was either engaged herself or was a widow who felt deeply for the plight of her fellow women. In any case, one night, she dressed herself in finery, put together a food basket, and announced herself to to the great, cruel general in charge of the city, claiming to have vital information regarding the Jews. When the general saw the beautiful Yehudis, she was let in. Yehudis soon had the general under her spell, plying him with wine and cheese. Eventually, the general passed out, and Yehudis grabbed his sword and chopped off his head. She quickly placed his head in her basket and returned home where she showed the men what she had done. The next day, the men attacked the soldiers - who fled when they realized their general had been assassinated.

Chana

The story of Chana and her seven sons is quite different from that of Yehudis, but no less valiant.

Chana and her seven sons were arrested, brought before Antiochus, and commanded to bow down to an idol. This is one of the worst sins a Jew can commit. Chana's oldest son refused. Seeing this, Antiochus had him tortured in front of his mother and brothers until he died. The next oldest son was called, but much to the king's chagrin, he too refused. One by one, each son was brought forward and tortured to death upon refusing to bow down.

When it was the youngest son's turn, even Antiochus was hesitant to have him killed. He dropped his ring, so the boy would have an excuse to bend down. But the boy refused. The king asked Chana to convince her son to bow down, but Chana implored her son to stay strong like his brothers. She asked that when he got to heaven, he tell his forefather Abraham that while he, Abraham, had been willing to sacrifice one son in G-d's name, she had sacrificed seven. When her last son was killed, Chana died.

Just as Jews celebrate the Macabees' physical victory over their anti-Semitic rulers, they commemorate Chana's spiritual triumph on Chanukah. When Jews were persecuted during the last 2,000 years, and urged to convert to other religions, they looked to heroes like Chana to draw the necessary strength to stand firm.

This year (2012), Chanukah begins on December 8th. But it doesn't always start then.

Here's why:
The Jewish calendar (Nissan, Iyar...) is lunar, as opposed to the more widely used solar calendar (January, February...), so the respective dates don't always align (although they're more or less synchronized due to Jewish leap years). Chanukah begins on the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev. Kislev usually coincides with December.

Chanukah is an eight-day celebration. Jewish tradition holds that sundown is the beginning of the next day. So Chanukah 2012 begins December 8th at night (the 25th of Kislev), and continues for seven more nights.

Chag Sameach - Happy holidays!