About 2200 years ago the land which is now Israel was run by the Seleucid Empire of the Greeks, assisted in their rule by Jewish collaborators in the form of the Hellenised Jews. Due to internal political issues and errors and mistakes made by the Greek leaders, the Greeks banned the practise of Judaism. Eventually this set off a revolt by the Jews who by use of guerrilla fighting tactics leading to not just the Greeks agreeing to tolerate Judaism again but with the re-establishment of a Jewish state. This is the basic story but the reality was much more complex and much of the Jewish revolt against the Greeks had a lot in common with a civil war but that’s a subject for another time. The Judeo-Roman writer Josephus would be helpful for those wishing to study more about this.
After the Jewish victory, the victors had a problem. The Greeks had defiled the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and it needed to be cleaned up and rededicated to the Eternal One. One of the things that needed to be done to rededicate the Temple was to relight the Ner Tamid the Eternal Light that burned in the Temple. Unfortunately there was only one sealed and therefore undefiled jar of oil to be found, enough to burn the light for one day only. It would take at least another seven days to prepare enough suitable oil to keep the light burning. But as so often in Jewish history there was a miracle either one from G-d as with the parting of the Sea of Reeds in the Passover story or the miracle of the human efforts to resist oppression as found in the Book of Esther. The Channuka miracle is about how one day’s oil burned for eight days allowing enough time to prepare fresh lamp oil.
This week Jews across the world will light one candle on each of the eight nights of Channuka to remember not just how the oil lasted for enough time to prepare new oil but also the Jewish victory over a great oppressor. At various times in history the lights of the Channukia, the special candelabra that is brought out at this point of the year have brought hope when all seemed hopeless.
The Channuka lights are a symbol of defiance to oppressors as well as a reminder that we must rededicate ourselves to that which is good.
Channuka has also become, probably because of its closeness in the calendar to Christmas, a gift giving festival and our son loves the fact that he gets one present for each day of Channuka.
Like many Jewish festivals there is a food attached to it. For Channuka the special food requirement is that the food is fried in oil in memory of the lamp oil in the Temple. This means that many of us have to have the onerous, or rather not in my case, duty of living off fried food for a week and indulging in copious quantities of deep fried doughnuts and fried potato latkes.
Being the ‘only Jews in the village’ we do not have the luxury of popping down the road to the local Kosher shop and buying ready made Latkes, we have to make our own. The Orthodox Jewish organisation Chabad has a pretty good Latke recipe that you might like to try, whether you are Jewish or not or just want something a bit better than shop bought potato hash browns which are the closest commercially available analogue of a Latke.
So, if you celebrate it have a very happy Channuka.
Happy Channuka to all this blog’s Jewish readers.
Not only are the Jews superior, but so are their potato cakes.
Well I don’t know about superior as I’ve met some pretty stupid Jews in my time. I also hold to the idea that Jews are a Choosing rather than a Chosen people as although the Eternal One watched over us specifically during the Egyptian captivity, Jews chose the Commandments at Sinai just as Abraham chose to reject idol worship so many years before.
However you are bang on about the potato cakes or Latkes as we call them. It’s a brilliant invention. I’ve been cooking loads of Latkes this week, probably more than I needed as, like my late Mum and maternal grandmother, I appear to have no functioning portion control gene LOL. My instinct is to look at a recipe and double it which is why I had latkes last night and will be having latkes with melted cheese and garlic mayonnaise for elevensies.
Instead of a miracle of the chanukka candle, wouldn’t it have been better if g-d had used his infinite powers to save the Jews from the holocaust?
Was he just scratching his arse, all the while pining for the good old days when Jews knew how to make a real sacrifice to him? Or maybe he just wanted to rid himself of a few million Jews who had not been kosher enough, while projecting the responsibility onto non-jews who were under his control?
Win-win for g-d; purifying the jews at the same time as smearing anyone who revealed the evil truths of g-d, his “religion” and his followers.
And where would the smears of misogyny, homophobia, racism, islamophobia be if it were not for the smear of “worse than hitler” which came about thanks to g-d and his cunning plan?