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PortugueseChanukah is a time when we celebrate miracles and victory, but there’s much more to the holiday than just lighting candles.
According to the Talmud, the Sages instituted the celebration of Chanukah to commemorate an amazing miracle in the Holy Temple. After a bloody war in which the Greeks desecrated the Holy Temple and its sacred implements, there appeared to be no pure oil left to light the Menorah. While a vessel was eventually found, it was only sufficient for one day’s light. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days!
What was it about this miracle that inspired our Sages to institute a special festival in its honor? Understanding the answer to this question requires a look at our rich history and the challenge the Jewish people faced during the Chanukah epoch.
During this time, there was a fierce spiritual battle between the morally bankrupt Hellenistic philosophy and Judaism’s monotheistic values of kindness, peace, and human dignity. This battle could not be fought with conventional tools alone. A special miracle was required.
This miracle was sent in the form of the uncontaminated oil, which represented the Jewish soul’s pure essence and its unwavering loyalty to God. Only this oil could guide the Jews away from the poisonous Greek culture. Through this oil the Jewish people were able to literally and metaphorically rekindle the torch of Israel and reinstitute it as a light unto the nations.
On a literal level, the miracle of Chanukah was that the Menorah’s flame actually burned for eight days. On a deeper level, the pure oil was no mere flash of light in a world of darkness or fleeting spark of Divine inspiration and closeness to G-d. Instead, the flame of Chanukah shed light for all generations. Each year, the Chanukah lights live on in the Jewish soul, long after the eight day festival concludes.
In this way, Chanukah teaches us that a Jew’s soul is not bound by the rules of nature, which dictate that a spiritually inspired person’s soul can shine brightly, but only fleetingly. Indeed, when a Jew’s soul is inspired, no earthly force can still the fire.
With this in mind, one question lingers. The Menorah stayed lit for eight days, but there was sufficient oil for one day, meaning that only seven days of light were miraculous. While that is true, we celebrate for eight days as an allusion to the very essence of the miracle itself. The number seven represents the aspect of existence we can actually touch, hear, smell, and feel, as manifested in the physical world that G-d created in seven days. The number eight, however, is one step further. It represents transcendence beyond the natural world. We celebrate Chanukah for a total of eight days, as an allusion to the fact that on Chanukah we experienced something supernatural – a taste of the spiritual world!
With these lessons in mind we can more fully appreciate this amazing holiday, which inspires our infinite spiritual potential.
During these days, may the beautiful Chanukah lights inspire us to look within ourselves and go beyond nature to reach new spiritual heights.
Inspirational Gift Ideas
One of the messages of Chanukah is that the Jews turned a period of impurity and destruction a celebration of light. The Rocket Menorah made from actual rockets that landed in Israel, shares the same message: turning terror into light! Make your holiday this year exceptionally meaningful with this one-of-a-kind menorah, expressing the message of light and growth in the face of darkness and war.
Jerusalem Menorah Coins are beautiful gifts for the holiday of Chanukah, as they, too, tell the story of this joyous holiday. Depicted on one side of the coin is the seven-branch menorah that was lit in the Holy Temple. The reverse side features the Holy City of Jerusalem as it looked in the times of the Holy Temple, where the miracle we celebrate on Chanukah actually took place.
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