Hanukkah / Yom Kippur

Hanukkah / Yom Kippur

How Hanukkah Got Started

Hanukkah

Jews worldwide light candles to commemorate the rededication, nearly 2,200 years ago, of the holy Temple of Jerusalem. Why light candles to commemorate a rededication that happened circa 165 BC?

Jewish tradition teaches that, a few years earlier, a Syrian king had desecrated Judaism's holiest place by making it home to a pagan altar. Then, during the temple's ritual rededication, a small supply of consecrated oil burned for a miraculous eight days. The eight days of Hanukkah, and the eight candles of the modern menorah (plus one more to light the others) celebrate that time of victory and reclamation.

While Jews everywhere celebrate the "Festival of Lights," we're surveying the historical journey of Judaism itself, from ancient roots to modern branches. Guerrilla resistance is key to Hanukkah's history.

Hanukkah Tidbits

Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, is a celebration of the victory of the Maccabees and the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple. It also commemorates the miracle of the oil that burned for 8 days

While in the United States it is most common to use the spelling "CHANUKAH," rest assured that they are all the same celebration:
* Chanuka
* Chanukah
* Chanukkah
* Channukah
* Hanukah
* Hannukah
* Hanukkah
* Hanuka
* Hanukka
* Hanaka
* Haneka
* Hanika
* Khanukkah

In addition to the lighting of the menorah, other traditions include spinning the dreidel, eating oily foods, and giving gifts and Hanukkah gelt.

Dreidel
The dreidel, a four-sided top with the Hebrew letters "nun," "gimel," "hey" and "shin," is spun by family members to determine how many nuts, raisins, tokens,
or chips are won based on the value assigned to each letter. Nun is nothing, gimel is all, hey is half, and shin requires the player to add a token into the pot.

Menorah
An important part of the Hannukah celebration is the menorah. This is a candleholder with eight candles and a shammash or servant candle. One candle is lit by the shammash for each of the night of Hannukah.

Blessing
Recited all eight nights just prior to lighting the candles:
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik neir (shel) chanukah.

Translation: "Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the Hanukkah lights."

How Hanukkah Got Started

The original Hanukkah story took place around 165 BC in the ancient region of Judea. Back then, Judea was a pawn in a series of squabbles between Egypt and Syria.

The Syrian king, Antiochus IV, tried to control Judea by appointing the high priest of the Temple of Jerusalem, the epicenter of Jewish life. At first, he appointed a man named Jason, but he later replaced Jason with a rival named Menelaus (reportedly because Menelaus's bribes were bigger than Jason's). When Jason returned with an army and threw Menelaus out, Antiochus decided to put an end to Jerusalem's fractious politics. He sent in his own army and tried to reshape Judea along Syrian lines.

Descended from one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antiochus promoted Greek culture in the territories he ruled. He decreed that the most distinctive aspects of Jewish identity were no longer "kosher." Jews weren't allowed to worship or study their sacred texts, and an altar to Zeus was set up in the Temple. The invasion of the Temple cut especially deep. From the Jewish perspective, the presence of the foreign altar polluted God's house.

That was too much to take. A revolt broke out, led by a priest named Mattathias and his sons, who took to the hills and embarked on a three-year war against the Syrians. It helped that Antiochus had a knack for making enemies. Along with the Egyptians, Antiochus butted heads with the Romans, Parthians, and Armenians. Soon Mattathias's son Judas Maccabeus (a.k.a. "The Hammer") took command, and repeatedly frustrated Syrian soldiers with guerrilla tactics.

Eventually, Judas chased the Syrians out of Jerusalem and set about purifying the Temple. He dedicated a new altar and instituted a new holiday--Hanukkah (Hebrew for "dedication"), an annual eight-day celebration to commemorate the victory over the Syrians.

If Judas originally intended Hanukkah as a sort of ancient Veterans Day, however, it quickly became the "Festival of Lights"--thanks to a miracle told in the Talmud. On first entering the Temple, the Talmud says, Judas found only enough ritually pure oil to burn for one day. Miraculously, that oil burned for eight days, until replacement oil arrived. Hanukkah now mainly commemorates God's miracle, not Judas's military victory.

Not surprisingly, Hanukkah's most important ritual activity involves lights. A special menorah--the hanukkiya--is prominently displayed for the occasion. It has branches for eight candles (or pots of oil), plus a ninth, called the shammash ("servant"), in the middle. At sunset on every night of Hanukkah, candles are placed in the hanukkiya from right to left, and then lit from left to right (one for each day, so that the lights grow with the holiday). The shammash is used to light the other candles.

Hanukkah also involves special prayers and songs--some of which celebrate resistance against political oppression. It's also traditional to give gifts on Hanukkah, to inspire the gratitude that's at the heart of the festivities. A Hanukkah prayer thanks God for delivering "the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, and the wicked into the hands of the righteous."

--Mark Diller

For Jewish people everywhere, Yom Kippur is a day of atonement, a time to seek God's forgiveness for the sins of the past year. For Gentiles, it's a chance to learn a little more about one of the world's most enduring faiths--and to rediscover a ritual specifically commanded in the Bible.

Incensed that the people of Israel had worshipped a golden calf rather than the Lord, Moses cast down and broke the tablets of the Ten Commandments he had received on Mount Sinai. Well, between a faithless act of idol worship and a broken covenant, you pretty much have to say you're sorry--and mean it.

So Moses ascended the mountain again to plead for God's forgiveness, and the nation fasted from sunrise to sunset. God forgave the people, and Moses came back with a second copy of the covenant--returning on the tenth day of Tishri, the seventh Jewish month.

Of course, people do stupid things, and God knew they would sin again. So he decreed that the tenth day of Tishri remain a day of atonement for all generations:

And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all . . . For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever. (Leviticus 16:29-31)

In early Judaism, before the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, this day of atonement--Yom Kippur--involved a goat: a "scapegoat." Every Yom Kippur, as prescribed by Leviticus 16:20-26, a high priest laid hands on a goat's head and confessed the people's sins. This goat, carrying the blame for the people's sins on its head, was then driven into the desert, never to be seen again.

Modern observances of Yom Kippur typically involve ten days of self-examination and repentance, beginning on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and continuing to Yom Kippur. These "Days of Awe" are a time to seek forgiveness for transgressions against others and to mortify yourself before God.

The fasts and prayers of Yom Kippur support this spiritual renewal. On Yom Kippur itself, the community fasts for 25 hours, beginning before sunset on the eve of Yom Kippur and ending after nightfall on Yom Kippur day. Breaking from the workaday world, folks spend the day at prayer in the synagogue, reinforcing not only personal introspection and repentance, but also the collective atonement of the Jewish people, humble before God and asking pardon for transgressions against his law.

Yom Kippur services traditionally end with the sounding of the shofar, an instrument made from the horn of a ram, goat, or other animal. Shofars go back to biblical times as instruments of ritual and war. When you read in Joshua 6:20 that "the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass . . . that the wall [of Jericho] fell down flat," you're reading about the shofar. Think priests blowing blasts from a wild horn, not Louis Armstrong with polished brass.

Michael Himick
October 2, 2006

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