Christmas traditions: Hanukkah

Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday. It lasts eight days. In remembrance of the 'Hanukkah miracle' (from a very small amount of holy oil, a candle burned for eight days). The first day of this holiday begins after sunset on the 24th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. Kislev is the third month of the Jewish year and has 30 or 29 days. Hanukkah is celebrated from December 25, 2024, to January 2, 2025.

Hanukkah

Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday. The holiday is also known as 'the festival of lightsor dedication festival. The festival lasts eight days, in remembrance of the 'miracle of oil' in the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 164 BC. The first day of this festival begins after sunset on the 24th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. The festival celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in 164 BC by Judas Maccabeus. After the rededication, according to the description of the miracle of the oil in the Talmud, only one small jar of kosher oil was available to light the menorah during the purification of the Temple. However, the jar did not run empty until new pure oil was prepared, but provided enough oil to keep the menorah burning for eight days.  

The story of Hanukkah

The story of Hanukkah is about Judah the Maccabee. The Maccabees are related to high priests, and their followers were also counted among the Maccabees. Judah lived during a time when the Jews were heavily oppressed, the so-called Hellenistic era. It even went so far that the Greek oppressors sacrificed a pig on the holy temple in Jerusalem; a pig is considered unclean in the Jewish faith. The Greeks even wanted to place a statue of Zeus in the temple. The Jews really wouldn't tolerate this any longer and decided to fight back in a small group led by Judah.

They gained more and more followers and reclaimed more and more pieces of land! The group became so popular that all Jews began calling Judah 'Jehuda haMakabi,' which means Judah the Hammer. Because Judah won more and more battles, his group became known as the Maccabees. Finally, Judah and his men reached Jerusalem, and after a difficult fight, they defeated the Greeks! But when they entered the temple, they saw that everything was destroyed; it was the high priest's task to make everything beautiful again. After much work, the temple was restored, and people celebrate this with Hanukkah.  

The miracle of the oil

The tall menorah that stood in the Temple had been knocked over by the Greeks and had to be set upright again. The Hanukkah menorah is a nine-branched candelabra (menorah). It has one candle for each day. The middle candle is lit first every day and is then used to light the other candles. After this was done, the priests noticed that there were no more oil jars. However, one of them found a small jar, properly sealed by the Kohen Gadol (the high priest), containing just enough oil to keep the menorah burning for a day. The menorah was lit, and the Temple was rededicated. The priests had to search for more ritually purified olive oil to keep the menorah burning, but could not find any. The next day, however, the small jar was suddenly full again. The next day the same thing happened, and so it went on for eight days. Miraculously, the small amount of oil from the found small jar was thus sufficient for eight days, the time required to press and purify new oil. According to another view, the festivities of the dedication of the temple lasted eight days because the Maccabees had not had the opportunity to celebrate Sukkot during their two years of living underground, and that upon their return to Jerusalem they celebrated a delayed Sukkot. The high priest, priests, Maccabees, and the common people celebrated a great feast, and the high priest instituted this feast at the same time of year, the month of Kislev, so that the Jews would not forget this wondrous event. Therefore, the Jews celebrate the Feast of Hanukkah annually starting from the 25th of Kislev, which means '(re)dedication'.  

Lighting the menorah

The Hanukkah menorah has room for 8+1 lights, usually candles or oil flames. The Hanukkah menorah differs from the Menorah, which has seven arms. During the festival, one more light is lit each day, immediately after it has fallen dark: one on the first day, two on the second, and so on, until all the lights are burning on the eighth day. On the Friday evening of Shabbat, the Hanukkah menorah is lit for the Shabbat candles. When lighting, the extra (“ninth”) light, the shamash or shammes, is lit first each day. Shamash is derived from the Hebrew shimush, meaning 'service', because this light serves to light the others. The shamash stands slightly separated from the other lights, in terms of height or position. After it has been lit, the other lights are lit with the shamash in hand. The lights are lit from left to right each time. However, in the form of candles, they are placed from right to left. On the first day, the rightmost light; on the second day, the two rightmost lights; etc. In this way, the last light added is lit first. After lighting the shamash and before lighting the other lights, two blessings are recited: Asher Tzivanu 'who commanded us' and Sheasa Nisim 'who performed miracles'. Only on the first day of Hanukkah is an extra blessing recited: Shehechiyanu 'who made us experience'. The candles should burn for at least half an hour, and they continue to burn until they go out by themselves. In total, 44 candles are needed for the entire 8 days of Hanukkah. After lighting the candles, a text is often recited stating the reasons for lighting the lights and the rules regarding their use: Hanerot halaloe 'these lights'. Following this, in the Ashkenazi tradition, the Maoz Tsoer is sung, and in the Sephardic tradition, Psalm 30. The Maoz Tsoer is an acrostic; the first letters of the verses form a name. Often, only the first verse is sung. A distinctive aspect of the menorah with lights is that—provided it poses no danger—one is expected to place it in the window frame. This rule is unusual in Judaism, which otherwise has a rather introverted character. Chabad-Lubavitch, an extroverted Hasidic movement centered on the Lubavitcher Rebbe, has even derived a custom from this of placing gigantic menorahs in public places. Similar menorahs in Israel also exist independently of that Hasidic movement. In many families, every family member has their own menorah.  

Dreidel

The dreidel, trendel, or sevivon is a four-sided spinning top that is mainly played with by children nowadays. Traditionally, the dreidel is played with during the Jewish Hanukkah festival.

On the four sides of the dreidel are four Hebrew letters: nun, giemel, hee, and shin. These four letters stand for the Hebrew words Nes Gadol Haja Sjam, translated as: 'a great miracle happened there'. The miracle refers to the miracle of the oil, which is commemorated at the Hanukkah festival. In Israel, the shin is replaced by the pee, so that it reads: a great miracle happened here (Nes Gadol Haja Po). When Jewish study was forbidden during the Hanukkah episode under the Syrian occupation, the spinning top was used to study in secret; if students were caught, they pretended to be playing an innocent game. The game with the dreidel revolves around a pot into which the participants place coins, nuts, or chocolate. The participants take turns spinning the dreidel until one of the letters lands face up. The meaning of the letters, derived from Yiddish, is as follows:

• Nothing (nothing – you get nothing)
• Ganz (gans – you get everything)
• Halb (half – you get half)
• Shtell arein (put in / you have to add to the pot)

The game continues until everyone is broke, except the winner, who has everything.  

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Hanukkah: https://chanoeka.info/ Previous Christmas traditions blogs: https://www.postzegelblog.nl/tag/kersttradities/