Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, occurs yearly, usually in December, but this year, it starts at Thanksgiving.
Hanukkah, like all Jewish holidays, is based on a lunar calendar, as opposed to the Gregorian calendar used by most of the world. Therefore, Hanukkah’s start and finish varies from year to year. This year, Hanukkah started Wednesday and runs through Thursday, Dec. 5.
So this year we can celebrate “Thanksgivukkah.”
According to the Chabad website, www.chabad.org, the coincidence of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving last happened in 1918. The next time the two holidays will coincide will be in 2070.
We celebrate Hanukkah mainly by lighting candles every evening for eight nights. The first evening/day, we light one candle, along with a “shamash” candle, which serves to light the other candles. Then the second evening, we light two candles, using the shamash. The third evening, three candles, the fourth evening four candles, etc.
Most Jews light candles in a beautiful nine-branched candle holder called a “Hanukkiyah.” Many call it a “menorah,” but Menorah refers properly to the seven-branched candle holder used in the original Temple in Jerusalem. The Hanukkiyah has one branch for each day — hence eight branches — and then a ninth branch for the shamash candle, with which others are lighted. Each evening when we light the candles we say two blessings over them.
Lighting candles and saying the blessings is the basic observance for Hanukkah. But to celebrate we eat special foods — like potato latkes, or pancakes, and donuts — foods fried in lots of oil. You can imagine that this year our Thanksgiving feasts will include lots of potato latkes.
We should try never to forget the many miracles in our lives, and to give thanks for those — every day, not just at Hanukkah and at Thanksgiving.
Hanukkah is a holiday that commemorates the fight for religious freedom long before the Common Era.
In the year 175 Before the Common Era (BCE), the Greek-Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes ruled the land of Israel and the Jews. He attempted to wipe out the Jewish religion and to replace it with Greek religion.
He did not permit the Jews to perform their normal temple service, to circumcise their sons or to celebrate the Sabbath and Holidays on the pain of death. Antiochus had a statue of Zeus put into the temple, sacrificed a pig there and expected the Jews to worship the Greek gods.
Finally, a family of Jews known as the Maccabees started a rebellion against the rule of Antiochus. It was a long struggle but in 164 BCE, the rebels overthrew Antiochus’ rule and began to restore Jewish worship.
One of the first things they did was to cleanse the temple that had been profaned by the Greek rulers.
When they were ready rededicate the temple to God (Hanukkah means dedication) and to relight the Temple Menorah — the seven-branched candle stick — they discovered that they didn’t have enough kosher oil to last more than one day. It would take eight days to prepare new kosher oil. But they didn’t wait; they lit the Menorah anyway and rededicated the temple. One great miracle was that the one-day’s supply of oil burned for eight full days in the Menorah. But an even greater miracle was that the Jews under the leadership of the Maccabees were able to restore freedom to worship to the Jewish people.
By lighting our Hanukkah candles, we relive and celebrate both the great miracle of the oil and also the great miracle of regaining religious freedom. The stories of the Maccabees remind us how blessed and privileged we are to live in a country and in a time with the freedom to worship according to our own faith.
Perhaps that is the message we need to remember this year as Thanksgiving and Hanukkah occur together. We need to give thanks for our religious freedoms. We live in a country where we can openly practice religious faiths that are not the same as the majority, and where those in power cannot dictate religious observances or spiritual thought to others.
It is incumbent on us to remember those who have suffered and died so that we can enjoy this freedom. We must also work to preserve this basic human right for all people, especially for our own neighbors in our own communities.
Happy Thanksgivukkah!
Emily Burt-Hedrick is president of the Congregation Beth Tikvah in Carlisle.
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