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With the advent of the Hanukkah �season�, all people of the community gets involved in this festival of light. Their mind, body and soul together brim with the spirit of the eight-day festival. But, why Eight Days? The two earliest sources give reasons. The second book of Maccabees says that this was because the Jews had not been able to keep Succot while hiding in the hills so they celebrated it late and ordered later generations to have an eight day festival at this time. The first book of Maccabees does not mention this reason, but just says that they kept a celebration of rededicating the altar for eight days and that in future this should be kept each year. |
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The earliest account of what happened, possibly by an eyewitness, was written in Hebrew about 30 years after the event and says simply:
"They made new holy vessels, and brought the lamp stand, the altar of incense and the table into the temple. Then they offered incense on the altar and lit the lights on the lamp stand and these gave light in the temple... they dedicated it on the very day that it had been profaned, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals ... They celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days."
In this initial account, the lamp does not appear to play a more important part than the incense altar or the table for the shewbread. The only special thing about it, was that it provided light inside the temple. |
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The next account is thought to have been written in Greek about 50 or so years after the event added some extra details:
"The sanctuary was purified on the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the same day of the same month as that on which the foreigners had profaned it. The joyful celebration lasted for eight days; it was like the Feast of Tabernacles, for they recalled how, only a short time before, they had kept that feast while they were living like wild animals in the mountains and caves; and so they carried garlanded wands and branches with their fruits, as well as palm fronds, and they chanted hymns to the One who had so triumphantly had achieved the purification of His own temple."
~ 1 Macc 4, vs. 49, 54 and 59 (2.) 2 Macc. 10, 5 - 7.
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The special lamp used on Hanukkah is called Chanukiah. Originally this was oil burning, but in recent years, most are made to hold candles. These lamps usually have eight candle arranged in a straight line, and there is a ninth one which is on a different level, which is used to light the other eight. This candle is called the Shamash. (The Shamash in the synagogue has the job of arranging everything so that the service runs smoothly.) The reason for eight lights is for the eight days of Hanukkah. Originally the lamp in the Temple had seven branches. The Rabbis said however that once the temple had been destroyed, it was forbidden to make copies of Temple ritual objects. The eight-candle menorah might therefore have developed because of this rule. Reading these early accounts, most of us would immediately notice that there is no mention of the well-known story about the oil that lasted eight days. Josephus, writing about 250 years after the event, gives a very similar account. For him, the lamp stand is still not an especially important feature of the festival. He does not yet know the Festival by the name Hanukkah; instead he calls it the Festival of Lights. |
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It was not until the Babylonian Talmud was completed in the fifth century CE that we find the story about the jar of oil that lasted eight days. That is approximately 600 years after Judah the Maccabee. The Talmud says:
"What is the reason for Hanukkah? For our Rabbis taught: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev commence the days of Hanukkah, which are eight on which a lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden. For when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the High Priest, but which contained sufficient for one day's lighting only; yet a miracle was wrought therein and they lit the lamp therewith for eight days. The following year these days were appointed a Festival with the recital of Hallel and thanksgiving."
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