Hannukah
Hannukah, or Chanukah, often occurs around the same time as Christmas but this year the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights begins at nightfall on December 7th and finishes on December 15th. It celebrates a miracle that occurred in Jerusalem two centuries before the advent of Christianity.
The Syrian king Antiochus ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC to 164 BC and persecuted the Jews of Judaea and Samaria. He forbade them worshipping God and erected a statue of himself in the temple of Jerusalem, ordering them to bow before it. They refused because it transgressed the commandment forbidding them to worship any other than God.
The Maccabees, a priestly Jewish family, led a revolt against Antiochus and his army and after three years they recaptured the city from the Syrians. The Temple had been violated and most of the ritual olive oil desecrated.
They cleaned and rededicated the Temple by lighting the menorah using the one remaining sealed vial of holy oil. There was only enough to keep the menorah alight for one day but yet it burned for eight days, the exact time it took to press new oil. This miracle is recorded in the Talmud, the primary source of Jewish religious law, written about 600 years later.
To celebrate this wondrous miracle the candles of the menorah, the central candle, called the shamash or attendant, placed centrally and higher than the rest, is lit and used to light the others.
On the first night, the shamash lights one candle. On the second night two candles are lit with the attendant and so on until by the eighth night all eight candles are burning.
Hannukah is a time of thanksgiving, remembrance and celebration. It will be a time of great difficulty and fearfulness this year for many Jews across the world.
