Chanukah 2019 begins Sunday, December 22 after sunset and continues for eight continues days through December 29. Chanukah is the Jewish festival celebrating the historical and religious events during the Greek/Asyrian rule in the Land of Israel.

Alexander the Great, the Talmud details conversations of young Alexander had with the Jewish sages of the time, concluding that the Jews in his empire will be permitted to retain & practice Judaism. Alexander’s death in 323 B.C.E. split his kingdom into three: Greece, Egypt, and Syria, and the new rulers of Syria, called Seleucids were not interested in co-existence, but assimilation of the Jews into their society.

In the year 199 B.C.E., the land of Israel was conquered by the Seleucids (Greeks who lived in Syria).The Syrian-Greeks pursued a policy of forced assimilation of the Jews. Torah study became a capital crime. If a parent was found to have circumcised an infant son, both the parent and child were put to death. The Greeks set up idols in the Jewish town squares, summoned the Jews to the square and forced them to worship the statue or sacrifice a pig before it. The Syrian-Greeks wanted the Jews to renounce their own heritage and to be like them. Their campaign against Judaism began slowly, but by 168 B.C.E. they had desecrated the Holy Temple, setting a statue of Zeus in the main plaza. In the town of Modin, west of Jerusalem, there lived a man named Mattitiyahu (Matthias). He was from the Hasmonean family, one of the branches of the priestly families.

We read about the events leading to Chanukah in the Books of Maccabees, detailing of a small band of Jewish fighters under the leadership of Judah the Maccabee, (the hammer) culmination with the liberation of the city Jerusalem and especially the Holy Temple from the Syrian-Greeks legions who occupied it.

Under the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanies in 165 BCE, who sought to impose their Hellenistic religion and culture, defiling the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and banning Jewish practices.

The Maccabees had done all that was physically possible, the re-enter the Holy Temple and began to purify it. They found a jar of oil enough to kindle the Menorah for one day. To prepare for more oil would require a process of at least seven days, miraculously, the single jar burned for eight days. Thus Chanukah is more than a holiday; Chanukah is an eight-day spiritual journey. It is a story of a little candle pushing away the monster of frightening darkness, of human sensibility overcoming terror and brutal force, of life and growth overcoming destruction.

The Talmud (Rabbinic Judaism) describes Chanukah as a holiday of “praise and thanksgiving” in commemoration of the miraculous over throw of the Syrian Greeks, the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the single cruse of oil that lasted eight days. Jews kindle the lights of the chanukiyah, the eight-branched candelabrum. These lights, which can be either be candles or with oil, grow in strength during the eight days, with the addition of one candle each night. Potato latkes (pancakes) fried in oil are served, followed by a favorite activity playing with a four-sided spinning top known as a dreidel with four Hebrew letters-nun, gimel, hey, shin, representing “a great miracle happened there.” Chanukah is a time of religious celebration and family gatherings, gift giving and favorite holiday foods. One of the most prominent themes is the ongoing struggle for liberation in the face of oppression, thus celebrating the process and its outcome.

On Friday, December 13th Sabbath & Chanukkah services begins at 7:00 p.m. when a brief Sabbath service will conducted followed by a Chanukkah celebration in the Pearlman Family social hall. An outdoor Menorah will be installed in front of Temple Israel.

As the Menorah is lit at sunset, a blessing is recited: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who sanctified us to kindle the Chanukah light.”

Rabbi Elbaz and the Valdosta Hebrew Congregation expresses its good wishes to all our friends for a Mary Christmass and A Happy New Year. For additional information visit our website: www.templeisrael-valdosta.org