This Sunday will be the first night of Chanuka. Its English calendar date is not fixed; Chanuka always falls on the 25th day of Kislev, which has a different English date every year.  (This year, the first night is the 18th of December.)

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, you might recognize that number- 25. That date wasn’t chosen by accident by the first Christians. (It also explains why this is one of the few- the very few- holidays Christians celebrate on the “eve”- because it derives from the Jewish rule that a day is one evening and one morning….)

The holiday of Chanuka is NOT the same as Christmas. For us Jewish folk, this is a minor Jewish holiday. There is no requirements to refrain from work, nor do we say the “full Hallel”, either. (Hallel- ‘Praise’- are a series of prayers stated and sung to praise the Supreme Being on each of our holidays.)

We celebrate Chanuka because it commemorates the revolt of the Maccabees against the Greeks- in particular, against a boorish king called Antiochus. And, the Great Temple was taken back in the actions started by Matisyahu, a Kohen (priest). Yehuda, his eldest son, was the warrior/leader who led the battles and adopted the name “Makabi” (alternative spelling), which means “The Hammer”….

The name- ‘Cha-nu’ ‘KH’ (transliteration of the Hebrew letters)- means ‘dedication on the 25th’ or ‘dedication here’. That’s the way folks want to remember the event.   Once the Great Temple was freed from the Greeks, it was cleaned, purified, and rededicated to the uses of the Supreme Being.

The story is that during their purification, the Makabis found only one cruse of oil; it generally took a week to prepare more pure oil. But, that didn’t matter to the Makabi- they would act now and see what happened… And, the menora (the ritual SEVEN branched candelabra) remained lit for eight days, until the new oil was ready. The lesson we draw from this is action is important- and there is no time like the present.

What is not normally discussed is that this holiday really celebrates not just the singular battle against the Greeks, but against the assimilators. Anyone who would not return to the fold was fair game. Not much different than the Tea Party trying to purge competing conservatives from the Republican party- except this religious purging involved swords and death…

But, nowadays, the Chanuka holiday serves to celebrate our religious freedom- our freedom to worship as we want. By lighting candles or oil lamps each night for eight nights. And, just like the Jews did when they were being released from Egypt (they put the blood of the animal [which was a god of the Egyptians, to boot] on their doorpost, making it clear to all within sight that they believed in the Supreme Being), our chanukiyas (with eight equal lights and one extra with which we light the others) are displayed so the world outside can see the light. (I put mine right by my front storm door.) It’s another way we bring light to the world.

Because of the oil “miracle”, we also choose to eat foods that are cooked in oil.  That’s why latkes (mine are comprised of sweet potatoes or eggplant) are fried in oil.  Even our sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts in English) have been fried in oil.

Our celebration includes giving small gifts to our children (and, nowadays, extended to our relatives) and lighting the candles, as listed above.  Besides the ritual prayers for lighting the candles (three blessings are sung the first night, two the rest of the nights), there are two other prayers:  Haneirot Halalu- ‘these precious lights’- and Maoz Tzur- ‘Rock of Ages’ (which, contrary to popular belief, has many stanzas!).  I recall (OK, I sing it, too) with fondness one of the other songs (‘He Struck the Traitor to the Earth’- or “Matisyahu“)  I learned as a child- and taught my children.

Feel free to NOT listen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFFz8GEZ6Ws

Happy Chanuka to one and all!