Starting Sunday night, Jews across the region will light the first candle on their menorahs to welcome the Festival of Lights.
Hanukkah is perhaps the most widely celebrated Jewish holiday — and easily the most festive — but it’s actually a relatively minor practice.
“Hanukkah is really interesting, in part because it has been used differently in really almost every generation that celebrates it,” Rabbi Daniel Swartz said during an interview at Temple Hesed, a Reform synagogue in Scranton.
It’s not mandated to celebrate Hanukkah in the Torah, the Jewish holy book — unlike ‘major’ holidays like Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah — but it commemorates a history of military battles and the fight to preserve Judaism from the spread of ancient Greek Hellenization.
Swartz said Hanukkah’s evolving representations across different Jewish backgrounds, and in popular media, are a hallmark of the holiday itself.
Different people and religious leaders shared different stories of how Hanukkah became a holiday and what it means for the Jewish community today.
Here are a few stories about Hanukkah and events going on around the region to celebrate ‘the oil that lasted eight nights.’
What was the history of the Festival of Lights?
Swartz said the holiday tells the story of how the Maccabees, a small clan of Jewish priests, fought off the Greek Assyrian Empire to reclaim the Second Temple in ancient Jerusalem.
Rabbi Benny Rapoport, who runs the Chabad of the Abingtons and its Jewish Discovery Center in Waverly, said Hanukkah is a celebration of Jewish perseverance through difficult times. Chabad teaches Hasidism, which is a type of Orthodox Jewish philosophy.
“Hanukkah is … our story [of] where we … overcome the darkness in our life, to be able to light that little flame. And interestingly enough, it's always the little flame, the small candle, that's able to cast so much light and dispel so much darkness,” Rapoport said in a phone interview with WVIA News.
At the end of the war, the Jews found a small vial of oil to purify the temple which was supposed to last for a single day — instead, according to tradition, it lasted for eight.
He said Hanukkah teaches how positivity, kindness and community can help people overcome life’s challenges.
“That's Judaism's … critical message, not just to Jews, but to all people, that all we have to do is find a little bit of goodness in ourselves, in the people around us … to be able to cast that light, to make such a huge difference in the in the world around us,” Rapoport said.
Rabbi Laurie Green, who leads Temple B’nai B’rith, a Reform synagogue in Kingston, explained how the story of Hanukkah was written several hundred years after the Torah in the Talmud, which is a book of rabbinical debate over Jewish law and customs.
Hanukkah can mean very different things to different Jews across the world, she said. In the United States, she said Jews focus more on how the holiday can represent religious freedom, whereas in Israel, Jews associate it more with historical military victories and celebrations.
“That's the thing about a great story, it can be read in so many different ways,” Green said.
Several rabbis said that the story of the ‘oil that lasted eight nights’ may have been added in the written telling of Hanukkah as a rhetorical explanation as to why Hanukkah is celebrated for eight nights.
Rabbi Larry Kaplan leads Temple Israel, a Conservative synagogue in Wilkes-Barre. He said Hanukkah might have been first celebrated for eight days as a replacement for Sukkot, which celebrates the harvest season around September to October in the secular calendar.
The Maccabees possibly did not have time to give thanks to the harvest, which is a seven-day celebration followed by an eighth day to pray for rain (Shemini Atzeret).
“If they had to transfer the celebration to Hanukkah time, then okay, they're going to do it eight days. But the rabbis in the Talmud … [also wanted to] not so much emphasize the military victory. They wanted to emphasize God's help in that military victory. And so they [wrote the story of the oil,] an eternal light, [with] only enough oil to last for one day. And miraculously, it lasted for eight days,” Kaplan said.
He added that we have little written documentation on the oil itself.
“We never really get the details of all those stories. Why did they need that oil … There were olive trees around. Why didn't they just get some more oil,” Kaplan asked. "Anyway, we don't ask too many questions. We just … go along with it, and it's a fun celebration.”
“Now, it may have happened, I don't want to be a Grinch about Hanukkah .. It may actually have happened that … when they went in to rededicate the temple, there was only [some] sanctioned oil,” Kaplan said.
Regardless of how the Hanukkah came to be today, rabbis from all different backgrounds said the holiday brings not just the Jewish community together but people of all different faiths.
Swartz said Hanukkah’s main tenet today is about connection. He said he often gets questions from non-Jews about what Hanukkah means.
“I always see my role as not just serving the Jewish community, but being kind of an ambassador to the broader community … [Hanukkah] is a time to rejoice, and it's a time to celebrate family and bring light. And if we think about the darkness in the world right now, of distrust and xenophobia, then the light to counter that is to be welcoming and to try to be understanding,” he said.
He talked about Hanukkah and Jewish joy as an act of resistance.
“For me, that's a kind of act of resistance … [where I ask myself,] ‘How can I treat somebody well, how can I love somebody who's different from me?’ And for me, that feels like as much of a rebellion as the … Maccabees did" in ancient Jerusalem, Swartz said.
Hanukkah events around the region
As you celebrate the eight days of Hanukkah, here are some local options to take part in the festival of lights for all ages.
FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
DEC. 13 - Children’s candy dreidel-making at Temple Israel, Wilkes-Barre: Kids can make edible dreidels out of marshmallows, pretzel sticks and Hershey's kisses the day before Hanukkah today, Saturday, Dec. 13 at 5 p.m. The kids can also make centerpieces for next week’s Hanukkah dinner at the Friedman Jewish Community Center.
DEC. 14 - Pre-Hanukkah party at Temple Hesed, Scranton: Make drip candles, fry sufganiyot (Hanukkah donuts), make Hanukkah decorations, and learn the Hanukkah blessings. All families are welcome. RSVP for Sunday, Dec. 14’s event from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
DEC. 19 - Hanukkah Celebration at Temple Hesed: Everyone is welcome to join Temple Hesed’s celebration of Hanukkah on Friday, Dec. 19. The celebration begins with a potluck dinner and latke (potato pancake) cook-off at 6 p.m. RSVP if you plan to come to the cookoff. The family service, with stories, songs, and the world premiere of “A Golden Hanukkah” (to the tune of “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters) begins at 7 p.m. — no RSVP needed for the service. There is no cost for either the dinner or the service.
DEC. 21 - Family-friendly Mayrutz Run and community dinner at the Friedman JCC, Kingston: Celebrate the 55th community gathering, fun run and menorah lighting in Kingston with Temple Israel, Temple B’nai B’rith and Congregation Ohav Zedek. The run starts at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 21 at the Friedman JCC. RSVP is required for the Hanukkah dinner and for more information, visit the JCC’s website.
- Carla Weiss, Friedman JCC’s Director of Programming and Marketing said the run “will kick off the evening’s festivities, as runners light the way from Wilkes-Barre to Kingston. After the run, the community will gather for a joyful Hanukkah celebration and menorah lighting ceremony, marking the seventh night of the holiday.”
- Kaplan said the event brings Northeast Pennsylvania’s diverse Jewish community together, “we have lots of different groups of Jews from different backgrounds and different levels of observance, and we all seem to get together pretty well down here.”
FOR ADULTS
DEC. 16 - A Journey from Darkness to Light with Judith Raanan: On Oct. 7, 2023, Chicago resident Judith Raanan and her eighteen-year-old daughter were visiting family in Kibbutz Nahal Oz in Israel. They were taken as hostages to Gaza where they survived for two weeks before being released. Raanan shares her story at the Jewish Discovery Center, Waverly, on Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 6 p.m. For more information and to RSVP, visit the JDC’s website.
DEC. 18 - Queer Torah Study for Everybody: Hanukkah with Rabbi Laurie Green at the Friedman JCC - Join Temple B’nai B’rith’s first Queer Torah Study on Thursday, Dec. 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the Friedman JCC.
- Green said everyone is welcome to the event, people do not need to be Jewish or LGBTQ+ to join the event. She said Thursday’s meeting will focus on a broad definition of queerness, from gender, body image and sexuality. The meeting will also cover the story of Judith and other tales of “powerful women” that are connected to the Hanukkah story.
DEC. 21 - Young Adult Hanukkah Party: Celebrate Hanukkah with other Jews in their 20s and 30s with the Chabad of the Abingtons and its Jewish Discovery Center on Dec. 21. Enjoy latkes, donuts and sushi with new friends. For more information and to RSVP, visit the JDC’s website.
- Rapoport said the event will help bring young Jewish adults together to bond over their faith and shared background. “I think people are feeling … the need to connect and the need to strengthen themselves and each other,” he said.
