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Hanukkah Traditions
Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from November 28 to December 27 in the Gregorian calendar. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, commonly called a menorah or hanukkiah. One branch is placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the '' shammash'' (, "attendant"). Each night, one additional candle is lit by the ''shammash'' until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival. Other Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah songs, playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dreidel
A dreidel, also dreidle or dreidl, ( ; , plural: ''dreydlech''; ) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the teetotum, a gambling toy found in Europe and Latin America. Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet: (''Nun (letter), nun''), (''gimel''), (''He (letter), hei''), (''Shin (letter), shin''). These letters are represented in Yiddish as a mnemonic for the rules of a gambling game possibly derived from teetotum played with a dreidel: ''nun'' stands for the word (''nisht'', "not", meaning "nothing"), ''gimel'' for (''gantz'', "entire, whole"), ''hei'' for (''halb'', "half"), and ''shin'' for (''shtel arayn'', "put in"). However, according to folk etymology, they represent the Hebrew phrase (''nes gadól hayáh sham'', "a great miracle happened there"), referring to the miracle of the cruse of oil. For this reason, most dreidels in Israel replace the letter ''shin'' with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miracle Of The Cruse Of Oil
Miracle of the cruse of oil (), or the Miracle of Hanukkah, is an Aggadah depicted in the Babylonian Talmud as one of the reasons for Hanukkah. In the story, the miracle occurred after the liberation of the Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt, and it describes the finding of a jug of pure oil that was to be enough to light the lamp for one day, but that lasted for eight days. Historical background During the period of the Second Temple (~516 BCE – 70 CE), in around 200 BCE, Antiochus III, the Seleucid king of Syria, took control over the kingdom of Judea. He allowed the Jews living in Judea autonomous rule for some time, but then his son Antiochus IV replaced him. Trying to unify his kingdom, Antiochus IV prohibited Jews from practicing Judaism and commanded them to worship Greek gods. Many Jews went along with these demands and were known as Hellenized Jews. Tensions rose and in 168 BCE Antiochus IV invaded Jerusalem, killing thousands, and erected an altar to Z ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
