By Howard Goldstein
Defiled by the Hellenic Syrians, the Maccabees rededicated the holy altar to the God of Israel, but found no ritually pure olive oil with which to light the Menorah, a seven-branched candelabra that was kept perpetually burning.
According to the story, only a single cruse of religiously permitted oil was discovered in the Temple -- enough for only one day. A miracle, however, occurred, and the Menorah's fire burned for eight days, enough time to procure more oil.
This is the most-famous miracle of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, which this year began on Nov. 29.
But a deeper and more-profound miracle, according to the rabbis, is that Jews continue to light eight-branched Hanukkah menorahs (more properly called "chanukiahs"; the true seven branched Menorah burned every day in the Temple) millennia after the event.
In Bellmore, nearly 200 people came out on Sunday, Dec. 3 to see the lighting of the Bellmore Menorah in Bellmore Village.
Jews all over the world, and all over Bellmore, will celebrate this joyous holiday as a commemoration of the great and successful struggle of a small band of Jews to hold fast to their allegiance to God and reject the materialist culture of Seleucid Syria.
"We were very pleased that so many attended," said Rona Weiss of the Chamber of Commerce of the Bellmores, which sponsors the event.
"It was freezing, but beautiful, and filled with singing, festivities and families," she said.
Brownie Troop No. 919 and the North Bellmore Temple Beth-El nursery and Hebrew schools came out to lead the crowd in Hanukkah songs.
Hanukkah activity books, chocolate coins called "gelt" (Yiddish for "money") and dreidels were given out to dozens of families. Debora and Roger Miller of the Bellmore Filling Station Pub provided hot chocolate and Hanukkah cookies.
The connection between Hanukkah and dreidels is that when Antiochus IV of the Seleucid Dynasty ascended to the throne in 174 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era), he forbade studying Torah on penalty of death.
Jewish children gathering to study would bring tops and assure soldiers that the purpose of meeting was to play games.
These four-sided tops bear the Hebrew letters
Nun, Gimmel, Hay and Shin for "
Nes Gadol Ha'yah Sham", Hebrew for "A Great Miracle Happened There."
