OIL, LIGHT, FREEDOM

ANUKKAH, or Chanukah, pronounced Kha-nu-kah, began last evening, December 14, and ends on December 22.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

It is the Jewish eight-day winter 'festival of lights', celebrated with nightly candle-lighting, prayers, food and gifts.The Hebrew word Hanukkah means 'dedication', and is so given because it celebrates the rededication of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, the spiritual capital of the Jews. In the second century BCE, Israel was ruled by the Seleucids, 'Syrian-Greeks', who tried to force the Jewish people to accept Greek culture and beliefs instead of their own observances and belief in their god Yahweh. Against all odds, a small band of poorly-armed but determined Jews, led by 'Judas Maccabeus', meaning Judah the Hammer, defeated a force that vastly outnumbered it. The Jews drove the Greeks from Israel, reclaimed their temple and rededicated it to the service of their god.

As told in Jewish history, when they sought to light the temple's menorah or candelabrum, they found only a single cruse or earthen pot of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. But they lit the menorah anyway, and miraculously, that one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity. To commemorate and publicise these miracles, the Jewish elders instituted the festival of Hanukkah.