Chanukah exposed

Rabbi Howard S. Herman DD

During Chanukah, we never say “chag samaach” or “gut yontif.” We don’t say “Chanukah Shalom” like we say “Shabbat Shalom,” nor do we utter any greeting at all other than “Happy Chanukah” or “Chanukah Samaach.” One lesser utilized greeting for Chanukah is “Chag Urim Samaach” or “Happy Festival of Lights.” Why? What makes this holiday so different from all the rest of them during the Jewish year?

First and foremost, the Hebrew word Chanukah means “dedication.” It speaks to the dedication of a small band of Jewish rebels who fought to reclaim the Temple for Jewish use from the Syrian Greeks. It also features the hallmark of cleansing and purifying the Temple and rededicating it back to Jewish service. But the word itself comes from the Hebrew word “Hinuch” or “to teach.” We follow a tradition of incentivizing children to learn Torah by gifting them with “gelt” or gold-wrapped chocolate resembling coins.

Chanukah never falls on the same date in the Gregorian Calendar, but it always falls on the 25th of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar. It is celebrated as an eight-day holiday with the story told that this is because of the great miracle that took place in the Temple after it was cleansed. A small cruse of pure olive oil was found to light the menorah in the Temple, but it was only enough to last one day. Runners were dispatched to find more oil and the great miracle was that the small bit of oil lasted eight days, until more oil was brought to continue the lights of the menorah.

It is a great story to explain the miraculous nature of the festival. It is doubtful that it is true. A more realistic historic explanation of celebrating eight days and nights is that the Maccabees were warring with the Seleucid Greeks during the summer, fall and into the winter. They were not able to cease fire and celebrate Sukkot, our eight-day harvest festival of thanksgiving. When the Maccabees finally stopped fighting, it was in the winter and it was decided that since they never celebrated Sukkot, they would celebrate a later Sukkot, even though it was winter.

We believe that late celebration of Sukkot was the prototype for Chanukah and stuck as a yearly celebration. It became associated with the victory over the Hellenizing Greeks and, thus, became the yearly eight-day holiday known as Chanukah. It was never a present-giving holiday. Only later, because of its relative proximity to Christmas, did Jews begin the custom of giving gifts on Chanukah.

Also because of its proximity to Christmas, Chanukah is thought by many to be the most important of Jewish holidays. Nothing could be further from the truth. On the scale of importance, Chanukah ranks very close to the bottom. It is never mentioned in the Torah because it hadn’t taken place by the time the Torah was codified and closed. Even the Book of the Maccabees, written in the late second century, is not contained in the Hebrew Bible. What is also interesting is that more Jews celebrate Chanukah than any other single Jewish holiday.

One of the more interesting additions to Chanukah is the use of the game dreidel. There is nothing particular “Chanukaish” about the dreidel other than the fact that it is only taken out at Chanukah time. It is believed that the dreidel was used so that the Jews could study the Torah while fooling the Greeks as the study of Torah was then forbidden. The idea is that they were teaching each other the Torah through oral study, but if the Greeks came upon these games, it just looked like gambling. We aren’t sure if this is true, but it makes a good explanation.

I hope some of these tidbits give you a deeper and more appreciative celebration of this special time. Chanukah Samaach. Rabbi Howard S. Herman DD serves at

Naples Jewish Congregation.