{"id":13886,"date":"2024-12-14T21:12:29","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T05:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rabbi-mercy.com\/home\/?p=13886"},"modified":"2024-12-14T21:35:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-15T05:35:25","slug":"facts-about-hannukkah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbi-mercy.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/12\/14\/facts-about-hannukkah\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Facts about Hanukkah"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Why Hanukkah<\/strong><\/h5>

Hanukkah (also spelled Chanukah) is the winter “festival of lights,” celebrated by nightly candle lighting, special blessings, and eating tasty foods. Holiday traditions and observance vary by different origins and sects of Judaism.<\/p>

In the second century BCE, Judea was invaded by a Seleucid king who tried to force the Jews to adopt Greek culture and beliefs. The Jewish priest Judah the Maccabee led his outnumbered and poorly armed people to defeat the far more powerful Seleucid army and reclaim the Holy temple in Jerusalem. According to the\u00a0Encyclopedia Britannica<\/a><\/em>, Hanukkah is a festival that “reaffirms the ideals of Judaism and commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem.”<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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How is it observed?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>

The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a\u00a0candelabrum\u00a0with nine branches, commonly called a\u00a0menorah\u00a0or hanukkiah. One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the\u00a0shammash<\/i>\u00a0(\u05e9\u05b7\u05c1\u05de\u05b8\u05bc\u05e9\u05c1<\/span>\u200e, “attendant”). Each night, one additional candle is lit by the\u00a0shammash<\/i> until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival.\u00a0<\/p>

Of note is the fact that according to the Britannica, although the traditional practice of lighting candles at Hanukkah was not established in the books of the Maccabees, the custom most likely started relatively early. The practice is enshrined in the <\/span>Talmud\u00a0(Shabbat 21b), which describes the\u00a0miracle\u00a0of the oil in the Temple. According to the Talmud, when Judas Maccabeus entered the Temple, he found only a small jar of oil that had not been defiled by Antiochus. The jar contained only enough oil to burn for one day, but miraculously the oil burned for eight days until new\u00a0consecrated\u00a0oil could be found, establishing the precedent that the festival should last eight days. The early date for this story or at least the practice of lighting eight candles is confirmed by the debate of the 1st-century-ce<\/span>\u00a0scholars\u00a0<\/span>Hillel\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Shammai. Hillel and his school taught that one\u00a0candle\u00a0should be lit on the first night of Hanukkah and one more each night of the festival. Shammai held that all eight candles should be lit the first night, with the number decreasing by one each night thereafter.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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What special foods, games or other activities are observed during Hanukkah?<\/strong><\/h5>

Hanukkah is a joyous\u00a0festival\u00a0that lacks the work restrictions\u00a0characteristic\u00a0of the major festivals of\u00a0Rosh Hashana\u00a0and\u00a0Yom Kippur.<\/p>

Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah songs, playing the game of dreidel, Potato pancakes (latkes), doughnuts (sufganiyot<\/em>), and other treats fried in oil, which recall the miracle of the oil, are popular. Children receive presents and gifts of money (Hanukkah gelt), which is sometimes distributed in the form of chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil. Card playing is common, and children play a game with a four-sided top called a\u00a0<\/span>dreidel (Hebrew\u00a0sevivon<\/em>). On each side of the top is a Hebrew letter, which forms the initials of the words in the phrase\u00a0nes gadol haya sham<\/em>, meaning \u201ca great miracle happened there.\u201d In modern Israel the letters of the dreidel were changed to reflect the translation \u201ca great miracle happened here.\u201d\u00a0 and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and sufganiyot, and dairy foods.<\/p>

Since the 1970s, the worldwide Chabad Hasidic movement has initiated public menorah lighting in open public places in many countries.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Hanukkah Hanukkah (also spelled Chanukah) is the winter “festival of lights,” celebrated by nightly candle lighting, special blessings, and eating tasty foods. Holiday traditions and observance vary by different origins and sects of Judaism. In the second century BCE, Judea was invaded by a Seleucid king who tried to force the Jews to adopt Greek culture and beliefs. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,55,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-holidays","category-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcJuXT-3BY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":58,"url":"https:\/\/rabbi-mercy.com\/home\/index.php\/2018\/03\/09\/the-most-important-jewish-holidays\/","url_meta":{"origin":13886,"position":0},"title":"The Most Important Jewish Holidays","author":"admin","date":"09\/03\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Rosh HashanahThe Jewish New Year, the beginning of ten days of penitence or\u00a0teshuvah\u00a0culminating on Yom Kippur. 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