QC Rabbi explains significance, history of Hanukkah
By Emily Bell
Hanukkah begins at sundown this evening and lasts until Friday, December 15. This Jewish festival, which gets its name from the Hebrew word for “dedication,” celebrates the defeat of a Syrian army by a small band of rebels in 167 BCE, as well as what’s called the “miracle of the oil”, in which only a day’s worth of oil managed to last eight days.
Rabbi Linda Bertenthal, from Temple Emmanuel and Congregation Beth Israel at Beit Shalom in Davenport, spoke with Our Quad Cities News via Zoom to explain the history and significance of Hanukkah.
“It is a celebration of miracles, and the miracles are both a historical miracle and also a straight-on miracle miracle,” said Rabbi Bertenthal. Over 2,000 years ago, the Kingdom of Judea, in present-day Israel, was colonized by the Greeks and ruled by the Syrians. Antiochus the 4th made the decision to ban Judaism. Jews were no longer allowed to read the Torah, celebrate Shabbat (a weekly holy day of rest), or circumcise their sons under punishment by death. “He (Antiochus) took the holy temple that was the most sacred place in the world to the Jews and he turned it into a place to worship Zeus,” said Rabbi Bertenthal. Swine were sacrificed to dedicate the building to Zeus; Jews are prohibited from consuming pork products. “The Jewish people there started a rebellion and it was just kind of a ragtag group of guerrilla fighters led by the families that we call the Maccabees,” she said. “The Greek Syrian army was huge and powerful; they even had elephants to ride into battle. Somehow, this little band of Jewish warriors managed to defeat them, to actually drive them out of the temple and retake the temple. Then they rededicated the temple to be a place of Jewish worship again.”
After the temple was cleaned, they tried to set up the eternal lamp, but realized there was only enough oil for one day. “It was going to take another week to be able to pick the olives and do all the refining of the oil to make them pure,” said Rabbi Bertenthal, “but they were so dedicated, they were just going to go ahead and light it and then make the oil as fast as they could.” The single day’s worth of oil ended up lasting eight days, which is why Jewish people light a menorah with eight candles.
This year’s Hanukkah is especially poignant with the conflict in Gaza weighing on everyone’s minds. “It’s a bittersweet time because we have a number of Jewish people who are in captivity right now in Gaza,” said Rabbi Bertenthal. “I know a lot of people each night are dedicating their candle lighting to a different hostage. In some cases, people are dedicating each night to a different kibbutz in Israel that was destroyed on October 7th. Some people are dedicating each night to one of the heroic people, both Jews and non-Jews. There were some Arabic Israelis who are real heroes on October 7th, so some nights are dedicated to one of these modern-day heroes.”
Even though there have been reports of violence against Jews and Muslims around the world, Rabbi Bertenthal says her temple is still welcoming to visitors, as long as they call first. “We are always, always open to people of goodwill. In these days, we also take security very seriously. We simply ask that people contact us in advance if they’re going to come and worship with us and give us a little information about themselves so that we know who’s coming to us. The police officer who provides us security will know if it’s someone who is not one of the people he recognizes from the congregations. (Calling ahead) will let them know ‘oh this is an invited guest.’”
For more information on Temple Emanuel, click here. For more information on Congregation Beth Israel at Beit Shalom, click here.
