Celebrating a holiday of belief and hope

The small jug of oil remaining miraculously kept the menorah burning for eight days.”

From Long Island to Jerusalem, Jews all over the world will celebrate Hanukkah this year from Dec. 24 through Jan. 1. Countless families will view the bright lights of the menorah while enjoying the holiday and its blessings. But the Festival of Lights, as Hanukkah is also known, has a much more profound meaning to it than mere candles and oil. 

Observed every year during the winter months for eight days and nights, Hanukkah commemorates several miracles that occurred during the second century B.C.E., when Syrian-Greeks conquered ancient Palestine, defiled the Holy Temple and outlawed Judaism. 

A small group of Jews known as the Maccabees revolted against the Syrian-Greeks, and despite being highly outnumbered, took back the Holy Temple. When the temple was rededicated, the small jug of oil remaining miraculously kept the menorah burning for eight days. 

To celebrate these miracles, Jewish people light the menorah every night of the holiday to commemorate the miracle of the lone jug of oil that wondrously lasted eight days. Each night, an additional candle is added, as the holiday elevates in holiness. Foods fried in oil are eaten to commemorate the miracle of the oil and presents are given to celebrate the holiday. Special prayers are recited throughout the holiday to commemorate the miracles of then and now.

Although the integral rituals of Hanukkah apply to observers across the world, the holiday is palpable in Israel, as menorahs adorn the streets and sweet sufganiyot (doughnuts) are sold everywhere. The annual Hanukkah torch relay is held, as runners bring fiery torches from Modi’in — the home of the Maccabees — to the Western Wall in Jerusalem for a public lighting ceremony. But for Jews globally, Hanukkah serves as a reminder of a powerful, eternal message of belief and hope that permeates through every corner of the earth during the holiday.

All too often, our daily lives can feel like one brutal cycle; an endless struggle to get by each day’s unique challenges while bracing for the next hurricane life has in store for us. The Maccabees felt no different, as they were greatly outnumbered by their brazen persecutors who had the sole objective of obstructing religious freedom. Yet the Maccabees, armed with belief and hope in God, overcame seemingly insurmountable odds, as they defeated the Syrian-Greeks and restored religious freedom to the land. 

In our daily lives, a dose of hope and belief can go a long way in our daily lives, as we strive to overcome our unique obstacles and be the best individuals we can be. In the words of the late Theodore Herzl, an Austrian journalist and one of the founders of what is called modern political Zionism, “If you will it, it is no dream.”