Hanukkah | Naming the Days

In Judaism, the redemptive energy of sunshine is most poignantly current within the celebration of Hanukkah, a winter competition of lights that lasts eight days. This vacation commemorates the time throughout the second century BCE when Judas Maccabaeus and his household led the Jews in opposition to the oppression of Syrian-Greek rulers. After their triumph, they discovered that the Temple in Jerusalem was soiled and desecrated. They found a jar with sufficient oil to maintain the Temple lit for at some point. However a lot to their shock and delight, the lamp saved going for eight days.

What Hanukkah Signifies:
“We gentle the Hanukkah candles to recollect the miracle that even a small gentle can dominate an unlimited darkness. The sunshine represents the holiness that lies inside every of us. Eight is a quantity that signifies ‘past the traditional.’ Seven is an entire unit, as within the seven days of the week. Eight is then one past completion.

“In lighting our menorah, we ignite the flame in our souls, the spark that can’t be extinguished that can burn not for eight days however for eternity. We place the menorah in our home windows to be seen to these passing by, simply as our inside gentle should shine in opposition to the darkness of evil and indifference and should kindle the spirits of our fellow people. The menorah reminds us of the miracle that irrespective of how darkish life could also be, there stays a supply of sunshine deep inside us. The sunshine in our souls displays and refracts the sunshine from the One who’s all brightness.”
— Michard Strassfeld in A E book of Life

To Title This Day . . .

Private Exploration

Take into consideration the significance of sunshine in your non secular custom or non secular perspective, together with references to gentle in poems and hymns.

Non secular Follow

How, the place, and when do you employ candles or different lights as a devotional software? Spend a couple of minutes each night time throughout Hanukkah with a candle, watching the flickering gentle and giving thanks for the miracles which have lit up our lives and revealed the Divine grace that sustains us.

Ritual & Ceremonies

After the menorah is lit, many Jewish households sing a hymn and provides presents. Potato pancakes and doughnuts are eaten since meals fried in oil to recall the miracle of way back. Even in case you are not Jewish, eat one thing fried in oil at present in honor of this tradition.

Artwork & Pictures

Make a dreidel. Spinning a high known as a dreidel is a well-liked recreation to play on Hanukkah. The youngsters’s image e-book Jeremy’s Dreidel by Ellie Gellman focuses on how this recreation can convey pleasure to others. Behind the e-book kids will discover directions for making dreidels and for enjoying the dreidel recreation. Some concepts for uncommon dreidels are posted on the Kar-Ben Publishing’s Pinterest board.

Books

Learn Engineer Ari and the Hanukkah Mishap by Deborah Bodin Cohen, a kids’s image e-book a couple of religious Jew and a Bedouin who’re introduced collectively on this vacation wealthy with historical past and that means.

Learn Hanukkah Haiku by Harriet Ziefert, a festive overview of this Jewish vacation with glorious little poems and top-drawer work. Then attempt writing your personal haiku to seize the essence of the competition of lights.

Video

Go right here to see the lyrics.