That was smart. It meant that they were related. It was a deep connectedness. Once secular Jews started making seven branched menorahs in the modern period, religious Jews decided to jump on the bandwagon, so to speak, and use the same form for nine-branched Hanukkah menorahs.
How did you approach researching and writing about the various myths and legends about the possible existence of the original Temple menorah, including claims that it is being hidden at the Vatican? I hope it comes through how much I love these people that I am studying, even if I think they are wrong sometimes.
I wanted that to come through in the book. The last thing I wanted was for these people to come across as simpletons. They are not. They are good Jews trying. Zionism has always had embedded in it this messianic potential for self destruction. Everyone who founded the system knew that they were playing with fire and bringing in messianic stuff.
There is no symbol more potent than the menorah in Jewish culture, so it makes sense that an object with that much messianic potential would be too good to pass up… My menorah is good and holy and the process that I have developed from the Bible until yesterday is a happy process almost all the way. And what should come through, I hope, is how much I love all of it. I am asking that we look closely at what we are doing.
I deeply feel that our culture deeply needs protection and we have to ask questions… Is support for the various Temple parties the best thing that we could do for the future of klal yisrael [the entire Jewish people]? In Streetwise Hebrew for the Times of Israel Community, each month we learn several colloquial Hebrew phrases around a common theme. To be kosher, the Shamash must be placed on a different level than the eight other candles.
Since Hanukkah is a holiday celebrated in the home, lighting the Menorah gives each family the ability to bring the holiness of the holiday, and of the ancient Temple re-dedicated by the Maccabees, into their own home.
We like to have each child participate in creating the miracle of Hanukkah by lighting his or her own Menorah, or by having the chance to light a candle. With each succeeding night, we magnify the blessings of the holiday. Since then, dreidel has been resurrected as a fun game played during Hanukkah for chocolate coins called gelt, to commemorate this time. Each side of the dreidel has a different Hebrew letter, which tells the player how much to put in, or take out, of the pot.
While it rarely seems to be celebrated on the same day, on the Hebrew calendar, Hanukkah always falls on the 25th day of the month of Kislev.
The first day of Hanukkah can come as early as November or as late as the end of December, which means occasionally Hanukkah overlaps with Thanksgiving or Christmas. The last time we celebrated Thanksgivukkah was in Hanukkah and Christmas saw duel celebrations in and will converge again in Due to the difference in calendars, every year Jewish people around the world—and their gentile friends— are left Googling the start date for Hanukkah.
If you are confused, you can blame transliteration. Originally written in Hebrew, a character-based language, the variations arose when the word had to be written in English, an alphabet-based language. Lacking exact English equivalents to the Hebrew sounds led to the many spelling variations we see today: Hanukkah, Chanukah, Hanukah, Hannukah, Chanukkah.
So when writing Happy Hanukkah, have no fear, pick your favorite. When exactly Jews started lighting menorahs, today usually eight-branched candelabra with a ninth "shamash" candle, is unknown.
There is no mention of menorahs in the earliest known account of Hanukkah, 1 Maccabees, which describes the rededication of the Second Temple after a Maccabean victory and the decree that the anniversary of that day would be a holiday - Hanukkah.
Nor does the text say how Hanukkah should be celebrated, though in all likelihood, it was marked with animal sacrifice at the Jerusalem Temple, as all other Jewish holidays at the time were celebrated. So where did the tradition of the menorah come from?
Conservative Jewish authorities would have been unlikely to create a new tradition with no biblical reference. The more likely explanation is that Jewish households adopted the practice from pagan ritual, following which the authorities gave the practice a "Jewish explanation" after the fact.
The Zoroastrians of Persia for instance marked the Winter Solstice with a festival of fire, called Chaharshanbe Suri, which predated Hanukkah and fell at about the same time of year. Enter Josephus, with a cryptic reference The first to associate Hanukkah and fire is the Jewish historian Josephus, writing in the late 1st century CE, some years after the Maccabean Revolt. He calls the holiday "Lights", though admits that he doesn't know what the connection between light and the Maccabean victory is.
Nor does the all-important compendium of Jewish law - the Mishnah — written in the early 3rd century CE answer this question.
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