Festival of lights
Sundown Thursday marks the start of the Jewish Hanukkah holiday.
For the next eight nights, families will gather to light candles on the menorah to mark a miracle dating to the second century B.C.
Hanukkah means “dedication” in Hebrew. The eight-day holiday celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem after it was retaken by the Maccabees, a group of Jewish warriors, from the occupying Syrian Greeks.
Ben Vincent, rabbinical student and caretaker of the B'nai Abraham synagogue in Butler, said the occupying forces had desecrated the temple by slaughtering pigs and erecting statues of Greek gods in the structure.
He said the victors had to do a “deep clean” of the temple to rededicate it.
Vincent said the Jews tried to light the temple's menorah, a seven-branched candelabrum, but they only had enough oil for one night.
They lit the menorah and, miraculously, the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.
Roberta Gallagher, a member of B'nai Abraham, said she has 21 menorahs in her house.
“Some have been made for me. Some have been passed down from my grandmother to me. Some were given to me as gifts, and some I found in flea markets and yard sales,” said Gallagher.
“I have 15 on my table and I light 13 of them,” she said.The nightly lighting of the menorah candles is at the heart of the holiday, sometimes called the “Festival of Lights.”The menorah holds nine candles, one of which is called the shamash (“attendant”), which is used to kindle the other eight candles.On the first night of Hanukkah, one candle is lighted, and on the second night an additional candle and so on until the eighth night of Hanukkah when all eight lights are kindled.Vincent said tradition calls for the menorah to be placed in a window or at a door where it can be seen from outside.In addition to the menorah lighting, Gallagher said the holiday is marked by food. Since the original Hanukkah miracle involved oil, it is customary to eat foods fried in oil. The Eastern-European classic is the potato latke (pancake) garnished with applesauce or sour cream, and the reigning Israeli favorite is the jelly-filled doughnut.Small gifts are given to children each night of the holiday.
“Everybody has their own traditions,” said Gallagher. “In my family, my parents and my in-laws come over.“My sons had to volunteer at the VA Hospital one night instead of getting a present. Everybody has different traditions,” she said.Shirley Grossman, assistant secretary at B'nai Abraham, said it's also a Hanukkah tradition for children to play with a dreidel, a four-sided top painted with Hebrew letters representing “a great miracle happened here.”“The Jews were forbidden to study the Torah. The dreidel was a way for children to disguise their lessons,” said Grossman. “To the Syrian Greeks, it just looked like children playing with their tops.”Gallagher said Hanukkah is a holiday more celebrated in the home than the synagogue, except for this year when family gatherings will be restricted.Gallagher said she plans to Zoom visit with her sons during the holiday and pass out “Hanukkah bags” containing latkes, dreidels and books about the Festival of Lights to her neighbors.“It's a minor holiday,” she said. “It's gotten larger because of Christmas. When I was growing up, it was nothing like it is now.”“It's a holiday marking religious freedom and we mark it with food,” Gallagher said.Cranberry Township plans to light a large menorah in front of the township's Municipal Center, 2525 Rochester Road, at sunset Thursday. There will be no official ceremony because of pandemic concerns.
