Hanukkah

חֲנֻכָּה‬

The Hebrew word Hanukkah means “dedication.” We celebrate Hanukkah each year during the eight days from Kislev 25 through Tevet 2 (Evening of Dec 2 through evening of Dec 10th) to remember the re-dedication of the Holy Temple after it was recovered from the Syrian-Greeks during the second century BCE. The Holy Land had been captured by the Selucids who tried to force the people of Israel to accept Greek culture and beliefs. A small band of faithful Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated the Greeks and drove them from the land.

Once they reclaimed the Holy Temple, they rededicated it to the service of G*d. The original Altar had been defiled by the Greeks, so the builders replaced it with a new one. When they began to rededicate the altar, they only had one cruse of olive oil to fuel it for the eight days needed to collect and prepare new oil under conditions of ritual purity. Miraculously, the one cruse of oil lasted the entire …
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