Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News

Tuesday evening, Dec. 20, until
Wednesday evening, Dec. 28.

The name of the holiday:

In Hebrew, chanukah means "dedication"
and is a shortened form of the phrase
chanukat ha-bayit ("dedication of the
house [that is, the Temple] ), or chanukat
ha-mizbeiach ("dedication of the altar").

What wetre celebrating:

The survival of Judaism in the face of a
vicious assault by pagan forces.

Historical background:

From 336 B.C.E. until his death in 323
B.C.E., Alexander the Great conquered
the entire Persian Empire, which includ-
ed ancient Israel.
After Alexander's death, a series of
internal wars tore apart his empire, sec-
tions of which were then ruled by his
generals. The Land of Israel became part
of the kingdom of Ptolemy I Soter of
Egypt, where the Jews were allowed to
freely practice their religion.
Then in 200 B.C.E., King Antiochus III
the Great of Syria defeated his Egyptian
rival; Israel was absorbed into the
Seleucid Empire (named for Alexander's
general, Seleucus I Nicator). During this

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period, a significant portion of the Jewish
people became hellenized, or absorbed
into the mixed Greek-Near Eastern cul-
ture, and tried to transform Judaism into
a religion and culture compatible with
the predominant paganism of the empire.
Although Antiochus III guaranteed his
Jewish subjects the right to practice their
religion, his son, Antiochus IV Epiphanes,
supported the hellenized Jewish faction.
In 168 B.C.E., while Antiochus IV
began his campaign to conquer Egypt, a
rumor spread in Israel that he had been
killed. A pro-Egyptian Jewish force con-
quered Jerusalem and expelled the main
hellenizing Jewish faction, the Tobiads,
to Syria. The Tobiads urged Antiochus to
retake Jerusalem.
Antiochus led his army into Israel and
sacked Jerusalem, killing tens of thou-
sands of Jews; then he made Judaism
illegal. Those who practiced any aspect
of Judaism, such as the dietary laws,
Shabbat, circumcision or Torah study,
were immediately killed. Scores of Jews
lost their lives.
Antiochus also decreed that the Jewish
Temple in Jerusalem be dedicated to the
Greek god Zeus and ordered that pigs
be sacrificed on the altar and that pagan
rituals and orgies be staged.
An old Jewish priest, Matityahu, and
his five sons, Yochanan, Shimon, Eliezer,
Yonatan and Yehuda, began an armed
insurrection. Garnering wide popular

support among traditional — and mostly
rural Jews — they gathered soldiers.
Despite having inferior weapons and
being hugely outnumbered, they fought a
successful guerilla war.
Matityahu died in 166 B.C.E., and
his son, Yehuda (Judah), known as ha-
makabi ("the hammer"), took over the
campaign. By 165 B.C.E., Judah and
his followers defeated the Syrian forces
and their hellenistic Jewish allies, took
Jerusalem and the Temple and re-estab-
lished Jewish sovereignty in the land of
Israel.
Yehuda ha-makabi (Judah Maccabee),
by then the leader of his people, declared
his victory a miracle. To express his
thanks to God, he announced an eight-
day celebration — to make up for the
eight days of the recent Sukkot holiday
that the Greeks had outlawed.
The Talmud later gave a further expla-
nation for the eight days of celebration:
After Judah Maccabee and his army
conquered Jerusalem, they cleansed
the Temple of pagan statues and sym-
bols and tried to light the golden six-
branched temple menorah that was to
burn daily. Despite a search of the entire
Temple, they found only one jar of lamp
oil with the seal of the Jewish high priest.
They filled the menorah, and during
the eight days needed to produce more
consecrated oil, the original oil continued
to burn, which was recognized as a mir-

acle. It was then decreed that the anni-
versary of the dedication of the Temple
would be a permanent holiday observed
by lighting an eight-branched menorah
for eight days.

How to celebrate:

Candles on the menorah, also known
as a chanukiah, are lit for eight succes-
sive nights. Originally, olive oil — which
burns more cleanly than any other
oil — was used, but as Jews dispersed
into northern lands where olive oil was
difficult to find, candles came into use.
(Today, most Jews use candles.)
Only oil or candles are allowed for the
Chanukah lights; electric menorahs are
for decorative use only.
Light one candle the first night, two
candles the second night and so on, until
the eighth night, when eight candles are
lit.
The candles are placed in the menorah
from right to left, with the newest candle,
for the corresponding successive day of
Chanukah, on the left. Yet the candles are
kindled from left to right, lighting the
newest candle first.
Candles should be lit as soon as it gets
dark, but any time before midnight is
acceptable. The main purpose of lighting
the menorah is to publicize the miracle,
so it is traditional to place the menorah
in a window or in a part of the house
where it will be visible from outside.