Happy Holiday – חג שמח – Happy Hanukkah! Before my DNA surprise and dive into Judaism, I never understood Hanukkah. I always thought of it as an alternative to Christmas. I couldn’t be more wrong.
1. This is a very minor Jewish holiday (not in the Torah)
2. This is a holiday about assimilation
3. To celebrate חנוכה (Hanukkah, which means dedication) is to shout “I’m proud to be a Jew”
The Seleucid (Syrian) Empire (after Alexander the Great died, his lands were divided up – read Greeks if you want) attempted to assimilate every culture they conquered and convert everyone to Hellenism. The Jews were no exception. Over time the Jewish community splintered and the “Hellenists” wanted to abandon many Jewish traditions. When asked to make an animal sacrifice, Jewish zealots – the Maccabees, revolted. A Jewish civil war over assimilation and a war on Seleucids (Greeks) ensued. Eventually, the Maccabees won.
The Seleucids (Greeks) had sacked the Jewish Temple and when the Maccabees took it back they rededicated it in 164 BCE and the holiday of חנוכה (Hanukkah) was born. Later the stuff about lights and oil was added to the holiday by rabbis. The odds were against the Jews who the Greeks wanted to extinguish and we persevered through our strength or light.
The tale is that when the Maccabees rededicated the Temple in 164 BCE, there is only enough consecrated oil to relight the menorah (candelabra) for one day, yet it remained lit for eight days until they could bring in new oil. The Hanukkiah is a nine-branched menorah. Eight candles for the eight nights the oil miraculously burned and the shammash, or helping or servant candle, to light the others. Originally, a menorah had seven candles for the seven days of creation. Now, most people associate the Hanukkiah as the only menorah Jews use.
Many Jews eat fried foods (latkes – fried potato fritters and sufganiyot – jelly-filled doughnuts) at Hannukkah to symbolize the miracle of the oil. Gift giving is a new tradition for Hanukkah and some call it the “Christmasfication” of the holiday. People like to keep the gifts small if at all or donate to charity instead. Kids also play dreidel, a four-sided spinning top used for betting chocolate coins – gelt, which means money in Yiddish. (I enjoy dreidel too). Everyone puts a coin in the center and then one person spins the top. One side has the letter nun – “נ,” which stands for nothing – the person who spins gets nothing from the center. Another has the letter gimmel – “ג,” for great or large and if you land on this you get everything. The third side has the letter hey “ה,” for it happened which means you get half the coins at the center. Finally, the fourth side has the letter “ש,” meaning there and you have to add another coin to the center.
