The Meaning and History of Menorah and Chanukah

Chanukah, or the "Festival of Lights" is an eightas Yehuda Maccabi. By 165 BCE, the Jewish revolt
day Jewish holiday which starts on the 25th ofwas successful. Yehuda Maccabi, who had taken
Kislev.over after his father died, rallied his brothers to
The Miracleenter the desecrated Temple, cleanse it, and
This holiday commemorates the miracle whichmake new holy vessels. They needed pure olive
occurred after the Second Temple in Jerusalemoil to light the menorah, and only found one small
after it was desecrated by the forces offlask. Miraculously, this small amount of oil lasted
Antiochus. The Maccabees wanted to re-dedicatefor eight days.
the Temple and light the holy Menorah there.Mitzvot (Commandments)
They searched for pure olive which hadn't beenThe mitzvah of lighting the Chanukah menorah, or
defiled. They found one small container of oil, withchanukiyyah, is to light the candles each night with
enough oil for only one day. The miracle occurredthe blessings. On the first night, we light one
when the oil was sufficient to light the Menorahcandle, on the second night, two, etc. After the
for eight days, which was the length of time itlighting, special Chanukah songs are sung while the
took to press, prepare and consecrate fresh olivewhole family sits together near the menorah.
oil.There are special additions to the daily prayers
The Storyand the blessing after meals.
In 175 BCE, Antiochus Epiphanes became the kingCustom
of Syria. At this time, in Israel there was anThe dreidel, a square top, is a favorite Chanukah
internal civil war between the traditionalist Jewsgame. Each dreidel is marked with four Hebrew
and the Hellenized Jews. They were also in conflictletters which stand for; "a great miracle happened
over who would be "Kohen Gadol" or High Priest inthere", or in Israel "a great miracle happened
the Temple. Antiochus sided with the Hellenizershere". This is to commemorate the time when
and issued anti-religious decrees. He banned thethe Jews learnt Torah despite the decrees against
learning of Torah, the practice of circumcision andit. They pretended to play a gambling game, and
the declaring of the New Month. This provoked awhen the soldiers passed, they continued learning
large scale revolt by Mattityahu, a Jewish KohenTorah.
and his five sons. His son Yehuda became known