Hanukkah in Jerusalem

Good afternoon, and Happy New Year everybody! As I write this, I am sitting in my room with the window open. Temp is in the 50s and every so often the rain pours--I love the sound!

Tracking backwards a little bit, the Jewish festival of Hanukkah was celebrated beginning at sunset December 1st until sunset on Thursday December 9th. Hanukkah is not the Jewish version of Christmas as commonly thought; it commemorates an entirely different event than the Protestant Christmas.

To tell the story requires a little bit of history. The land of Israel was under Egyptian Ptolemaic rule until 200 BC when it became part of the Seleucid Empire of Syria. Although the people were initially promised freedom to continue living according to "ancestral traditions," in 175 BC, Judea was invaded, the Temple plundered, and daily sacrifices were outlawed for 3 1/2 years. If that wasn't bad enough, eight years later, Antiochus IV Epiphanes ordered an altar erected in the Temple to Zeus, pigs to be sacrificed on the Temple altar, and circumcision was banned.

This was maybe not the best idea as it induced quite a rebellion. A family from Modin led a successful revolt, and one of the sons became known as Judah Maccabee ("Judah the Hammer"). By 165 BC, this revolt was successful and the temple liberated.

It may surprise you to know Hanukkah is not a Biblically-mandated festival. It was instituted to remember the rededication of the Temple. The traditional story is that when the Temple was liberated, there was found only enough oil to burn in the menorah for one day. It took eight days to create and purify more oil, and the old oil miraculously burned for those eight days. While this tradition is widely known and believed, it may or may not be true. Regardless, Hanukkah has been celebrated for eight days ever since, and the word "hanukkah" comes from a Hebrew word meaning "to dedicate." Since this whole event took place before the birth of Christ, Jesus as a Jew would have celebrated the festival of Hanukkah (it's even mentioned in John 10:22-38).

One of the main customs of Hanukkah is a hanukiah. It is similar to a Jewish menorah, but it has eight branches in remembrance of the eight days. One candle is lit the first night, and one new candle is added each subsequent night. These candles are lit by another candle yet, called the "shamash"--server/attendant candle. The holder for this is different from the other eight. Interestingly, the candles are added right to left, but the new one each night is the first lit; thus, the candles are lit left to right.

There are also special blessings and songs associated with Hanukkah. It is quite common for Psalms 30, 67, and 91 to be read during the festival. It is customary to eat foods fried in oil (reminiscent of the oil miracle) and jelly-filled doughnuts! Dreidels are another Hanukkah custom, but this is a story in and of itself. (For more about dreidels, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreidel) One thing worth mentioning . . . Dreidels purchased outside Israel are usually inscribed with the four Hebrew letters nun, gimel, hey, and shin, an acronym for "a great miracle happened there." Here in Israel, the fourth letter is peh instead, changing the acronym to "a great miracle happened HERE"!

Hanukkah was once considered a relatively minor Jewish holiday, it has become quite a symbol of Jewish identity to those Jews in the Diaspora, especially in North America.

Here is some interesting Hanukkah trivia in relation to the States . . .Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion presented then US President Harry Truman with a Hanukkah Menorah in 1951. Jimmy Carter was the first sitting president to take part in a public hanukiah lighting ceremony on the National Mall in 1979. The first Hanukiah lighting ceremony to take place in the White House was led by Bill Clinton. Interestingly, in 2001, George W. Bush held an official Hanukkah reception in the White House, complete with a candle lighting ceremony. This has become an annual tradition, and in 2008, the hanukiah given in 1951 by Ben-Gurion was used.

As the normal seven-branched menorah has been a symbol of Judaism for centuries as well as the emblem of the modern Jewish state of Israel, and the hanukiah is the classic tradition of Hanukkah, there were hanukiahs everywhere throughout Jerusalem.

Above the Mamilla pedestrian mall
One evening I went out for ice cream in Mamilla. It was such a fun experience to be in the shop while the lit the Hanukiah candles for that evening! You can see their hanukiah up on the shelf to the left.
It was special as this bunch of men stepped into the shop and sang the blessings before the candles were actually lit. Certainly not a common experience in the US, and I am so glad I was there at the right time that night.
There were hanukiahs up on the street lights around western Jerusalem
We had a Hanukkah service at Christ Church with the English and Hebrew congregations gathering together, complete with our own candle-lighting moment.
The hanukiah might look familiar from an earlier post--this one was also used at our reception desk.

And of course where better to go sight seeing for hanukiahs than the Jewish Quarter?!

Kind of hard to see, but there was a hanukiah in each of the windows of this apartment bordering Hurva Square
A candle lighting moment along one of the streets
Door to a Jewish Quarter home (so many had hanukiahs outside the door, it was quite a festive scene)
A closer lookA couple other styles . . .

The Western Wall plaza the evening beginning the last day of Hanukkah 2010 (December 8th)
A large hanukiah down at the wall in the mens' section
The best hanukiah of the year (at least, in my opinion) was this one made of flames, to the left of the Western Wall plaza!

And one last picture from the evening that is intriguing to me. There were crowds of people flowing past this gentleman, yet he stood looking at the flames lost in thought. I would love to know what he was thinking. Memories from Hanukkah last year? What has changed in the past year? Wondering what the next year will hold? Maybe just praying. I don't know, but it was a neat moment in time.