[img]96|left|Shachar||no_popup[/img]Dateline Jerusalem — A famous Jewish saying, “They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat,” is an appropriate description of the holiday of Chanukah that begins Wednesday, as well as describing most holidays and celebrations in Israel. The eating part always involves symbolic foods.

Chanukah, also known as the ” Festival of Lights,” is a holiday commemorating the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in the second century BCE (Before the Common Era) after its desecration. It commemorates the revolt and eventual victory of the Jews over their oppressors, led by Judah Maccabee with the major assistance of Yehudit, one of my favorite Jewish heroines. Nothing is more beautiful than to see flames of light shining at every home in Israel.

Chanukah is celebrated by Jews throughout the country whether or not they are religious. Because the event of re-dedicating the Holy Temple occurred after the giving of the Torah to Moses and the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, Ethiopian Jews who read the Torah in their isolated villages were never aware of Chanukah before coming to Israel. Now they celebrate it with the rest of Israelis.

The political situation when Jerusalem was conquered by the Greek/Syrian oppressors was that Jews were not allowed to perform circumcision, were compelled to eat pork, which was forbidden by the Torah (the Jewish Bible), were forced to stop reading Torah, and essentially were required to assimilate into the culture of their oppressors or be killed. In other words, they were forbidden to practice Judaism. Young virgin brides were forced to submit to the sexual whims of the conquerors of Judea the night before their weddings. And the Holy Temple was desecrated with pig sacrifices at the altar. Therefore, the Maccabees and their Jewish followers revolted and liberated the people and the Holy Temple.

After the Maccabees won the war against the conquerors of Judea and the Holy Temple was once again in Jewish hands, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to keep the eternal flame in the Holy Temple burning for one day. The miracle of Chanukah is that at the re-dedication of the Holy Temple, the oil burned for eight days, not one. Eight days was the time it took for the preparation of new consecrated pure olive oil. Therefore, we celebrate Chanukah for eight days and light candles in a Hanukkiah (menorah-candelabra) every night. In Israel, however, most people do not light candles, but instead we burn wicks floating in pure olive oil.

Winning After Enemy Lost His Head

My favorite story of Chanukah is that of Yehudit (Judith) who was a heroine during this time. She was very beautiful and pretended to surrender when she went to the tent of one of the generals who tried to conquer Judea. She fed him salty cheese and wine to quench his thirst. When he was drunk from the wine, Yehudit beheaded him and took his head with her when she fled his camp. His troops were so frightened when they saw his headless corpse that they retreated and the Jews were able to win the war.

Therefore, when observing Chanukah, the foods we eat are cheese or dairy dishes and foods fried in oil like potato pancakes, symbolic of the cheese used by Yehudit to help win the revolt, and the oil used to re-dedicate the Holy Temple. In Israel, we celebrate Chanukah by eating jelly donuts deep-fried in olive oil. These are not like jelly donuts bought in shops in the U.S. They are balls of doughnut dough dropped into hot oil, filled with jelly and covered with powdered sugar. The markets and bakeries throughout Israel sell these jelly donuts, called “sufganiyot,” as well as cheese cake for up to a month before the holiday. We also eat potato pancakes fried in oil, so the shelves are filled with potatoes, onions, and olive oil. Depending on the ethnic background of Israelis, the types of potato pancakes called “latkes” in Yiddish differ according to family tradition.

As with all Jewish holidays, Chanukah also involves prayers and thanks to Hashem (G-d) for our survival. In addition to lighting the menorah and eating cheese and fried food, the game of Dreidel (a spinning top game) is played. When the Jews were forbidden to study Torah, they would still study it but hide the Torah and play with dreidels when soldiers would come by to check up on them. The Hebrew letters on the sides of the dreidel stand for “A miracle happened here.” But in the U.S. and every country other than Israel, one of the letters is changed and now the letters stand for “A miracle happened there.”

In these times the observance of Chanukah has special significance. The holiest site for all of Judaism is the Kotel (also known as the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem. It is the last standing remnant of the Holy Temple. Jews have continuously lived in Jerusalem for over 3,000 years and prayed at the Kotel, mourning the destruction of the Holy Temple. Now in this world's political climate, the Palestinians have tried to convince the world that the Jews have no connection to Jerusalem and that the Holy Temple did not exist.

Just recently UNESCO went along with the Palestinians and declared that other Jewish holy sites such as our Matriarch Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Machpelah where our patriarchs and matriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah were buried are mosques!

This attempt to de-legitimize Israel and the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and Judaism's holiest sites, the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize Israel, and their claim to rid Israel of all Jews, makes the observance of this Chanukah most important. Hopefully future generations will not have to observe another holiday about the current events taking place in Israel during my lifetime. G-d willing there will be no new reasons to reluctantly say, “They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat.”

L'hitraot. Shachar