Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah!

“We light these lights for the miracles and the wonders, for the redemption and the battles that you made for our forefathers, in those days at this season, through your holy priests. During all eight days of Hanukkah these lights are sacred, and we are not permitted to make ordinary use of them except for to look at them in order to express thanks and praise to Your great Name for Your miracles, Your wonders and Your salvations.”

Did you know that the first day Hanukkah and Thanksgiving fall on the same day this year?

Are you feeling behind yet?  This year, I did not get my Rosh Hashanah cards, in the mail, on time.  Usually, the Jewish High Holidays are around my birthday, later in September, but this year it began of September 5, at sundown, and I ended up sending emails and making phone calls to wish my Jewish friends L’ Shana Tova!

I do not plan to make that mistake for Hanukkah, beings at sunset, on the twenty-fifth of Kislev of the Jewish lunar calendar; which on the Gregorian calendar is November 28, the same day as Thanksgiving, in the United States.

We would like to take this moment, to wish joy and hope to all those marking the Festival of Lights, which observes the rededication of the Temple, in Jerusalem, during the Maccabees revolt in 167 B.C.E., against the Syrian ruler Antiochus. He had hoped to destroy Judaism by making it illegal to practice its observance, and during his reign over Israel, defiled the Temple – going so far as to sacrifice swine.

The dreidel which is spun by children in celebration is embossed with four Hebrew letters: Nun, Gimmel, Hay, and Shin. These letters are an acronym for “Nes Gadol Haya Sham – A Great Miracle Happened There”

In wanting to cleanse and restore the Temple to its pure state, the Jews needed to burn uncontaminated olive oil. They found only enough oil for one day, but miraculously, the oil burned for eight days. Thus, this miracle is celebrated with the daily lighting of a menorah, commemorating the restoration of the Temple.

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