Chanukah , the Jewish Festival of Lights , set about at sundown on December 11 with the light of one candle on the eight - candle menorah . Every night an additional candle burns , until the 8th night , when eight candles are lighted .
To observe , we ’ve answered eight questions about the closed book of Chanukah " “ one for each dark . And yes , one of the mysteries involves the right spelling .
1. What is Chanukah?
To put yourself in the good human body of head , think 2,000 years ago . Better yet , think 2,200ish age ago .
Thanks to Alexander the Great , Hellenic kings predominate in the Middle East , and Hellenistical culture has been embrace by the region ’s elite .
Now rivet on Judea " “ at the time , the area immediately besiege and include Jerusalem . It was from the mountains and caves of Judea that a rebellion of diehard Jews , get laid as the Maccabees , broke out against the dominion of Antiochus , the Damascus - free-base Hellenic Billie Jean King , and those Jews who had abandon their custom in favor of Hellenistic way .
King Antiochus tried to steady down out local religions in his empire . In Judea , that mean criminalise circumcision , cosher food for thought and the Judaic Sabbath and , in 169 BCE , introducing pagan sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem .
The Maccabees struggle a guerrilla war against Antiochus ’s military force for three years , before recapturing Jerusalem in 166 BCE . They immediately get to clean the Temple of its ritual impurities . And on the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev ( roughly corresponding to December ) , they made the first burnt oblation in the rededicated Temple .
That was the first Chanukah , which means " dedication" in Hebrew . And it has been celebrated beginning on the 25th of Kislev every year since .
2. So why is Chanukah 8 days (nights) long?
The first Chanukah celebration lasted eight days , in imitation of the eight - day fall harvest holiday call up Sukkot ( the fete of Huts ) , which the Maccabees had not been able to celebrate in their mountain redoubts . Judaic holiday start at sundown because that ’s when the new twenty-four hour period begin , according to the Judaic calendar .
3. What about the miraculous oil?
You ’re referring to the wonderful tale that , when the Temple had been sanctify and there was nothing leave to do but illuminate the eternal lamp , they found only enough pure vegetable oil to burn up for a exclusive day . By a miracle , the oil colour live for eight days " “ long enough to process more cosher crude oil and look sharp it to the Temple .
The story of the oil colour offers an alternative reason for why the festival is eight - days long . It descend from the Talmud , which contains the law and traditional knowledge of the early rabbis . And while the early rabbis dwell long after the pious , honorable Maccabees , they were coeval of the Maccabees ' despotic descendants , who dominate Judea by unite the authority of king and in high spirits non-Christian priest , corrupt both .
The miracle of the oil was the rabbis ' spin on Chanukah , which enhance the holiday ’s spiritual significance while First State - emphasizing the political use of the Maccabees .
4. Speaking of spin, what’s the deal with that top?
The dreidel found itself plug into to Chanukah because the four letters forge the abbreviation of the phrase"Nes gadol hayah sham" " “ " A great miracle happen there" " “ " there" being long - ago Judea , and the miracle being that high - gasoline mileage crude .
( In Israel , the sevivon is markednun , gimel , hey , pey , for"Nes gadol hayah po" " “ " A great miracle happenedhere . “ )
But the Israeli translation is a relatively recent adaptation . It seems the dreidel is base on a German top . The four letters also abide for four words in Yiddish , a European Judaic language base on German . Nunstands fornitz(nothing),gimelforganz(everything),heyforhalb(half ) andshinforshtell - arein(put in ) . And these are the keys to playing the dreidel game .
Traditionally dreidel is play with bollock , rather than coins or chips , which are separate between the players and a pot in the middle . Each player takes a turn spinning . The varsity letter facing up when the dreidel stops determines whether the participant can take the whole potty , half the pot , nothing , or must add nuts to the pot .
5. Why do you get a present each night?
For the same reason that people line up outside Wal - Mart at 5 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving . There are n’t any determine rule for gift - gift . But how can you not do something everyone else is doing ? When it come to commerce , Chanukah has been absorbed into the tumid Christmas gift parade .
It was n’t always that way . Once upon a prison term , children might get a few coin during Chanukah . I have a ledger about Jewish holiday published in 1938 , which put it this way:“The children eat hotcake and count their coin , and consider themselves fortunate . “
6. Is this the big Jewish holiday of the year?
You ’d cogitate so . And , in fact , a 2000 survey found that 72 per centum of American Jews light Chanukah candles " “ more or less fewer than the 77 percentage who hold or take care a Passover Passover supper , but a lot more than the 59 per centum who fast on Yom Kippur . So Chanukah is certainly just about the most popular Judaic holiday .
But for most of the 21 C after that first solemnisation in Jerusalem , Chanukah was a low - key , minor vacation . That began to exchange in the nineteenth century when , under the secular influences of the Enlightenment and Zionism , the Maccabees and their struggle began to be see as heroic .
Today in Israel , Chanukah is celebrated as an turn of interior liberation . In the United States , the vacation ’s subtext of spiritual freedom resonates .
7. What were you saying before about pancakes?
What they have in common is both are fried in oil . So there ’s a admonisher of the miracle in every delectable bite .
8. So how do you spell it ““ Chanukah? Hanukkah? Hanuka?
The myopic answer is yes . We ’re portion out with a transliteration that " “ because English and Hebrew do n’t partake in all of the same sound and none of the same letters " “ is inexact .
The first Hebraical letter in the holiday ’s name has the sound of a croaky " h. “ How would you favour to render that in English " “ with an " h,“ which can go people to mean that the give-and-take starts with an English " h" audio ? Or how about using " ch" rather " “ which could leave some to think the sound is like the " ch" in " cheese" ?
Then there ’s the last letterhey , which does have the strait of " h" " “ except when it comes at the end of the countersign . Then it ’s silent . So , do you habituate an " h" to be as honest to the Hebrew spelling as possible ? Or do you result it out , because the countersign does n’t end with an " h" auditory sensation ?
The pick is yours . Chew it over while you polish off your jelly doughnut .
David Holzel has a little dreidel . He writes on other Jewish subjects atThe Jewish Angle .
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