The Hanuka
Message:
The Lights Are
On and Are Never
Totally Dirrimed
THE JEWISH. NEWS
A Weekly Review
Editorial, Page 4
,
of Jetuish Events
HANUKA
Greetings
to Jewish
Communities
Everywhere
Copyright (9 -) The Jewish News Publishing Co.
VOL. LXXX, No. 16
17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833 -
$15 Per Year: This Issue 35c
December 18, 1981
HANUKA
5742
This Hanukia dates back as far
as 17th Century Iraq.
Photo by Shuki Kook, courtesy
Hechal Shlomo, Jerusalem.
The Magic of the Festival of Lights
By JERRY BARACH — World Zionist Press Service
JERUSALEM — Most of us know of the Hanuka
menora as a rather simple affair, even though our
menorot or "Hanukiot," as they are more properly called,
may range from inexpensive tin to heavy, solid objects
made of silver, copper or brass.
Generally, the Hanukiot familiar to most Jews today
are of two basic types: the multi-branched menora-shaped
ones, with arms or candleholders extending from a central
elongated stem, or the "bench" type where the Hanukia
sits squatly on the table, with candleholders in a horizon-
tal row.
In spite of this generality, the Hanukia over the gen-
erations has appeared in thousands of design variations,
ranging from quite simple stone oil containers to elabo-
rate silver, brass and porcelain artifacts. Indeed, the
Hanukia has become a highly-developed form of Jewish
ceremonial art. Even a short visit to the notable display of
Hanukiot at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem — or for
that matter to any museum displaying Judaica — will
on open one's eyes to the tremendous creativity that has
11.,,een poured into the design of Hanukiot.
Not surprisingly, the designs of Hanukiot in various
communities and in various epochs are highly reflective
of the art of the period and place in which Jews have found
themselves. Surprisingly, the Hanukiot also display
many of the elements of architecture of those same
periods, so much so that three years ago the Israel
Museum presented a special exhibition and printed a
catalogue illustrating the close connection between
Hanukia designs and the local architecture over the past
several hundred years.
Thus, for example, Yemenite Hanukiot are gen-
erally made of stone and show, in some designs, typ-
ical Yemenite houses. Those from Poland, in elabo-
rately detailed brass or bronze, have elements of
,
Polish architecture and motifs, including the use of
animal figures, which is highly typical of Polish folk
art and architecture. One Hanukia on display in the
Israel Museum from Galicia is a miniature reproduc-
tion of a section of a wooden synagogue in that reg-
ion of the past century. Hanukiot from Morocco
show extensive use of the crescent, an Islamic motif,
and of Moorish arches.
In German communities there was even a vogu.* e of
producing Hanukiot that were designed as replicas of
furniture of the period. An Italian Hanukia that can be
seen in the Israel Museum has the loose cross-lace pattern
that one can see in the frontal designs of the palaces of the
Doges along the Grand Canal of Venice. Elements of
Rococo and Baroque design are common in European
Hanukiot until very nearly modern times.
Even Christian symbols, somewhat disguised, can be
noted in the Hanukiot of the last couple of hundred years
from Europe. The rosette window, of Gothic churches, for
example, can be found on some Hanukiot, as can the
crowns of various royal houses of Europe, with the peren-
nial cross at the top of the crown replaced disceetly, say by
an eagle.
Chaya Benjamin, curator of Judaica at the Israel
Museum, explains why the Hanukia took on shapes and
designs familiar to architecture. First, the Hanukia is of
course reminiscent of the rededication of the Temple, it-
self a building. Then, the Hanukia is generally lit in the
home although in some cases (as can still be seen in very
Orthodox quarters in Israel today), it was lit and hung
just outside the doorway. Third, Hanukiot were very often
designed and made by non-Jewish craftsmen, since Jews
were not permitted into the various craft guilds of Europe.
Naturally, these craftsmen used the symbols and motifs
with which they were most familiar in executing their
designs.
The oldet Hanukia of the 718 owned by the Is-
rael Museum dates back to 14th Century Spain or
France. Mrs. Benjamin said she knows of an older _
one, from the 13th Century, which is in a private
collection in Faris. There are drawings in manus-
cripts of somewhat older ones than that.
What, then, has happened to the truly ancient
Hanukiot? We know that they have been in use for cen-
turies — since just after the Maccabean revolt
against the Syrian-Greeks in the time of the Second Tem-
ple, when the "miracle of the oil" that burned for eight
days occurred in the Temple in Jerusalem. Why, then,
have no Hanukiot been found from earlier periods, for
example in the many archeological excavations that have
been conducted all over Israel?
Mrs. Benjamin feels that Hanukiot as a "unit" or
special ceremonial object probably did not exist until
some several hundred years ago and that people may have
used rather plain, everyday stone oil containers or cups in
which to kindle their Hanuka lights. Thus, it would be
difficult for archeologists to show that small oil containers
found in excavations were used specifically for Hanuka
lights. The use of small stone oil cups for Hanuka had
been the practice in Persian Jewry up to recent times.
Fortunately for us, however, the Hanukia or Hanuka
menora, with all its magical associations in Jewish life,
did begin to develop as an art form among both Eastern
and Western Jewry. Today, therefore, we are able to ad-
mire and enjoy the many innovative and lovely designs
that have been created for its use on this most warm and
enjoyable of holidays.
(Editor's note: The author of this article, Jerry
Barach, is the former editor of the Cleveland Jewish
News. He went on aliya to Israel with his family two
years ago. His wife,, Norma Barach, writes the
weekly recipe column for The Jewish News as a
syndicated JTA feature.)