The Sunnyvale Sun
News
Hanukkah is an enlightening celebration
By Cody Kraatz and Crystal Lu
Chabad Jewish Center of Cupertino, led by Rabbi Reuven Goldstein, began the Hanukkah celebration with the youngest members of its Jewish community.
"Hanukkah is a children-oriented holiday," said Gitty Goldstein, the rabbi's wife. She runs Gan Yeladim, or "garden of children" in Hebrew, the Chabad's daycare center located at the Goldsteins' home.
The facility put on a variety of activities for the children throughout Hanukkah. The children glued shreds of multicolored tissue paper onto a rectangular wood base with eight candleholders to help make simple, festively colored menorahs.
"The menorah tells us that a little light can push away a lot of darkness," said Reuven Goldstein.
The story
The 2-year-olds also spun dreidels, the ubiquitous Hanukkah toy. The four-sided tops have Hebrew letters on each side that spell out the acronym for "a great miracle happened there."
That "great miracle" happened in 165 B.C., more than 2,100 years ago, in Jerusalem.
The Seleucids, or Syrian Greeks, sought to force Jews to abandon their religious practices, but a small group of Jews known as the Maccabees revolted and defeated the powerful Greek armies.
The Jews then established sovereignty over the region that is now Israel, and tried to rededicate the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which the Seleucids had desecrated.
They could not find enough pure olive oil to light the menorah, a seven-branched candelabra, to perform the ceremony. They used the one flask they could find, which should have been enough to last one night, but it lasted eight days and allowed them to find more pure olive oil.
Jews light an additional candle on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah until all eight are lit, to commemorate those eight days.
"This is representative of the fact that the Maccabees could increase light into the world and fight over the reign of terror that was in their generation," said Rabbi Yisrael Hecht, leader of Chabad of Sunnyvale, on Dec. 4, the first day of Hanukkah.
"For us, for this generation, the symbolism is that with every single positive thing we do...we have the power to transform the darkness immediately and completely into light."
The eight-day celebration always begins on the 25th day of the third month of the Jewish lunar calendar, which usually falls between late November and late December.
Celebrations
Hanukkah is the only Jewish observance that is specifically done in a public manner, said Hecht. Others are more private.
Chabad of Sunnyvale lit a 6-foot ice menorah in front of Izzy's Brooklyn Cafe on Dec. 9, preceded by an ice carving demonstration, music, arts and crafts, food and an olive oil pressing demonstration.
Hecht said that Jews across the United States, in Israel and around the world celebrate in a similar way.
"Hanukkah has a global message, and that is a global message of light over might," he said, also noting the importance of religious freedom to the Hanukkah story.
Chabad of Cupertino also held a menorah lighting celebration at Cali Mill Plaza on the corner of Stevens Creek and De Anza boulevards the same day, marking the sixth night of Hanukkah with music, refreshments and a toy drive.
Chabad is a New York-based Jewish organization with 3,300 member institutions worldwide, according to its website.
For more information about Chabad or Hanukkah, visit www.chabad.org.