Hanukkah#Alternative spellings based on transliterating Hebrew letters

The name "Hanukkah" derives from the Hebrew verb "{{Script/Hebrew|חנך|rtl=yes}}", meaning "to dedicate". On Hanukkah, the Maccabean Jews regained control of Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/judaism/hanukkah.shtml|title=Hanukkah|date=2014-12-17|access-date=2019-05-12|work=bbc.co.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226134101/http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/judaism/hanukkah.shtml|archive-date=2018-12-26}}{{cite book|title=Being Jewish: The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today|last=Goldman|first=Ari L.|year=2000|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-0-684-82389-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/beingjewishspiri00gold/page/141 141]|url=https://archive.org/details/beingjewishspiri00gold/page/141}}

Many homiletical explanations have been given for the name:{{cite web|url=https://torah.org/interest/originchanukah/ |title=Origin of the Name Chanukah |first=Nosson |last=Scherman |date=23 December 2005 |publisher=Torah.org |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121207031405/http://www.torah.org/features/holydays/originchanukah.html |archive-date=7 December 2012 |access-date=6 October 2018}}

• The name can be broken down into {{Script/Hebrew|חנו כ״ה}}, "[they] rested [on the] twenty-fifth", referring to the fact that the Jews ceased fighting on the 25th day of Kislev, the day on which the holiday begins.Ran Shabbat 9b ({{cite web|url= http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14314&pgnum=542 |title=Hebrew text |access-date=6 October 2018}})
• {{Script/Hebrew|חינוך}} {{transliteration|he|Chinuch}}, from the same root, is the name for Jewish education, emphasizing ethical training and discipline.
• {{Script/Hebrew|חנוכה|rtl=yes}} (Hanukkah) is also the Hebrew acronym for {{Script/Hebrew|ח נרות והלכה כבית הלל}} – "Eight candles, and the halakha is according to the House of Hillel". This is a reference to the disagreement between two rabbinical schools of thought – the House of Hillel and the House of Shammai – on the proper order in which to light the Hanukkah flames. Shammai opined that eight candles should be lit on the first night, seven on the second night, and so on down to one on the last night (because the miracle was greatest on the first day). Hillel argued in favor of starting with one candle and lighting an additional one every night, up to eight on the eighth night (because the miracle grew in greatness each day). Jewish law adopted the position of Hillel.{{cite web|url=http://www.ou.org/holidays/chanukah/laws/|title=The Lights of Chanukah: Laws and Customs|publisher=Orthodox Union|date=9 April 2014|access-date=6 October 2018}}
• Psalm 30 is called {{Script/Hebrew|שיר חנכת הבית}} {{transliteration|he|Shîr Ḥănukkāt HaBayit}}, "the Song of the 'Dedication' of the House", and is traditionally recited on Hanukkah. 25 (of Kislev) + 5 (Books of Torah) = 30, which is the number of the song.

File:Hanukkah.png

In Hebrew, the word Hanukkah is written {{Script/Hebrew|חֲנֻכָּה}} or {{Script/Hebrew|חֲנוּכָּה}} ({{transliteration|he|Ḥănukā}}). It is most commonly transliterated to English as Hanukkah or {{transliteration|he|Chanukah}}. The spelling Hanukkah, which is based on using characters of the English alphabet as symbols to re-create the word's correct spelling in Hebrew,{{cite web|url=https://forward.com/opinion/148856/yes-virginia-hanukkah-has-a-correct-spelling/|title=Yes, Virginia, Hanukkah Has a Correct Spelling|date=30 December 2011 }} is the most common{{cite magazine|url=https://time.com/3636698/right-spelling-hanukkah-chanukah-hannukah/|title=Is There a Right Way to Spell Hanukkah? Chanukah? Hannukah?|magazine=Time}} and the preferred choice of Merriam–Webster,{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Hanukkah|title=Definition of HANUKKAH|website=www.merriam-webster.com|date=5 December 2023 }} Collins English Dictionary, the Oxford Style Manual, and the style guides of The New York Times and The Guardian.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2012/dec/07/hanukah-chanukah-chutzpah-embrace-yiddish|title=Hanukah or Chanukah? Have the chutzpah to embrace Yiddish|first=Harriet|last=Powney|date=7 December 2012|newspaper=the Guardian}} The sound represented by Ch ({{IPAblink|χ}}, similar to the Scottish pronunciation of loch) is not native to the English language.Its use in transliteration of Hebrew into English is based on influences of Yiddish and German, particularly since transliteration into German tended to be earlier than transliteration into English. See {{slink|Romanization of Hebrew|How to transliterate}}. Furthermore, the letter ḥeth ({{Script/Hebrew|ח|rtl=yes}}), which is the first letter in the Hebrew spelling, is pronounced differently in modern Hebrew (voiceless uvular fricative) from in classical Hebrew (voiceless pharyngeal fricative {{IPAblink|ħ}}), and neither of those sounds is unambiguously representable in English spelling. However, its original sound is closer to the English H than to the Scottish Ch, and Hanukkah more accurately represents the spelling in the Hebrew alphabet. Moreover, the 'kaf' consonant is geminate in classical (but not modern) Hebrew. Adapting the classical Hebrew pronunciation with the geminate and pharyngeal {{transliteration|he|Ḥeth}} can lead to the spelling Hanukkah, while adapting the modern Hebrew pronunciation with no gemination and uvular {{transliteration|he|Ḥeth}} leads to the spelling {{transliteration|he|Chanukah}}.{{Cite web |date=January 1, 2011 |title=Hebrew Alphabet |url=https://hebrewsyntax.org/bbh2/bbh2_supplement.pdf |access-date=November 25, 2023 |page=2}}{{Cite web |title=Which Is Correct: Hanukkah or Chanukah? {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/story/which-is-correct-hanukkah-or-chanukah |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=How Do You Spell Hanukkah? |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/how-do-you-spell-hanukkah/ |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=My Jewish Learning |language=en-US}}

In Modern Hebrew, Hanukkah may also be called the Festival of Lights ({{Script/Hebrew|חַג הַאוּרִים}}, {{transliteration|he|Ḥag HaUrim}}), based on a comment by Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews, καὶ ἐξ ἐκείνου μέχρι τοῦ δεῦρο τὴν ἑορτὴν ἄγομεν καλοῦντες αὐτὴν φῶτα "And from then on we celebrate this festival, and we call it Lights". The first Hebrew translation of Antiquities (1864) used ({{Script/Hebrew|חַג הַמְּאֹרוֹת}}) "Festival of Lamps", but the translation "Festival of Lights" ({{Script/Hebrew|חַג הַאוּרִים}}) appeared by the end of the nineteenth century.{{Cite web |last=dimap |date=2019-12-17 |script-title=he:אורים ואורות |url=https://hebrew-academy.org.il/2019/12/17/אורים-ואורות/ |access-date=2022-11-24 |website=האקדמיה ללשון העברית |language=he-IL}}

The story of Hanukkah is told in the books of the First and Second Maccabees, which describe in detail the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem and the lighting of the menorah. These books, however, are not a part of the canonized Masoretic Text version of the Tanakh (Hebrew and Aramaic language Jewish Bible) used and accepted by normative Rabbinical Judaism and therefore modern Jews (as copied, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 7th and 10th centuries of the Common Era). However, the books of Maccabees were included among the deuterocanonical books added to the Septuagint, a Greek-language translation of the Hebrew Bible originally compiled in the mid-3rd century BCE. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches consider the books of Maccabees as a canonical part of the Old Testament.{{cite web|url=http://www.orthodoxchristian.info/pages/old_testament.html|title=The Old Testament in the Orthodox Church|website=OrthodoxChristian.info|last=Stergiou|first=Fr. R.|access-date=6 October 2018}}

The eight-day rededication of the temple is described in 1 Maccabees,{{bibleverse||1 Maccabees|4:36–4:59|NRSVCE}} though the miracle of the oil does not appear here. A story similar in character, and older in date, is the one alluded to in 2 Maccabees{{bibleverse||2 Maccabees|1:18–1:36|NRSVCE}} according to which the relighting of the altar fire by Nehemiah was due to a miracle which occurred on the 25th of Kislev, and which appears to be given as the reason for the selection of the same date for the rededication of the altar by Judah Maccabee. The above account in 1 Maccabees, as well as 2 Maccabees{{bibleverse||2 Maccabees|1:9|NRSVCE}} portrays the feast as a delayed observation of the eight-day Feast of Booths (Sukkot); similarly 2 Maccabees explains the length of the feast as "in the manner of the Feast of Booths".{{bibleverse||2 Maccabees|10:6|NRSVCE}}

{{See also|Mishnah#Omissions}}

Megillat Taanit (1st century) contains a list of festive days on which fasting or eulogizing is forbidden. It specifies, "On the 25th of [Kislev] is Hanukkah of eight days, and one is not to eulogize". The scholion (9th-10th century) then references the story of the rededication of the Temple.{{cite web |title=Megillat Taanit, Kislev 7 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Megillat_Taanit%2C_Kislev.7?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en |website=www.sefaria.org}}

The Mishna (late 2nd century) mentions Hanukkah in several places,[https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Bikkurim.1.6?lang=he Bikkurim 1:6], [https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Rosh_Hashanah.1.3?lang=he Rosh HaShanah 1:3], [https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Taanit.2.10 Taanit 2:10], Megillah [https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Megillah.3.4 3:4] and [https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Megillah.3.4 3:6], [https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Moed_Katan.3.9 Moed Katan 3:9], and [https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Bava_Kamma.6.6? Bava Kama 6:6] but never describes its laws in detail and never mentions any aspect of the history behind it. To explain the Mishna's lack of a systematic discussion of Hanukkah, Nissim ben Jacob postulated that information on the holiday was so commonplace that the Mishna felt no need to explain it.In his Hakdamah Le'mafteach Hatalmud Modern scholar Reuvein Margolies suggests that as the Mishnah was redacted after the Bar Kochba revolt, its editors were reluctant to include explicit discussion of a holiday celebrating another relatively recent revolt against a foreign ruler, for fear of antagonizing the Romans.Yesod Hamishna Va'arichatah pp. 25–28 ({{cite web|url=https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=20976&pgnum=24|title=Hebrew text|access-date=6 October 2018}})

File:Hanukkah2.jpg

The miracle of the one-day supply of oil miraculously lasting eight days is described in the Talmud, committed to writing about 600 years after the events described in the books of Maccabees.{{cite news|last=Dolanksy|first=Shawna|title=The Truth(s) About Hanukkah|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shawna-dolansky/the-truth-about-hanukah_b_1165708.html|newspaper=Huffington Post|date=23 December 2011|access-date=6 October 2018}} The Talmud says that after the forces of Antiochus IV had been driven from the Temple, the Maccabees discovered that almost all of the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found only a single container that was still sealed by the High Priest, with enough oil to keep the menorah in the Temple lit for a single day. They used this, yet it burned for eight days (the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready).{{cite web| url = https://www.sefaria.org.il/Shabbat.21b.10?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en| title = Shabbat 21b}}

The Talmud presents three options:{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.21b|title=Babylonian Talmud: Shabbath 21b|website=sefaria.org|publisher=Sefaria|access-date=5 May 2019}}

1. The law requires only one light each night per household,
2. A better practice is to light one light each night for each member of the household
3. The most preferred practice is to vary the number of lights each night.

Except in times of danger, the lights were to be placed outside one's door, on the opposite side of the mezuza, or in the window closest to the street. Rashi, in a note to Shabbat 21b, says their purpose is to publicize the miracle. The blessings for Hanukkah lights are discussed in tractate Succah, p. 46a.{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Sukkah.46a.8?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=bi|title=Sukkah 46a:8|website=www.sefaria.org|access-date=6 October 2018}}

File:Section from Aramaic Scroll of Antiochus, April 2015.jpg, with an Arabic translation]]

Megillat Antiochus (probably composed in the 2nd century{{cite web|first=Benjamin|last=Zvieli|title=The Scroll of Antiochus|url= http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/miketz/zev.html| access-date=6 October 2018}}) concludes with the following words:

{{Blockquote|...After this, the sons of Israel went up to the Temple and rebuilt its gates and purified the Temple from the dead bodies and from the defilement. And they sought after pure olive oil to light the lamps therewith, but could not find any, except one bowl that was sealed with the signet ring of the High Priest from the days of Samuel the prophet and they knew that it was pure. There was in it [enough oil] to light [the lamps therewith] for one day, but the God of heaven whose name dwells there put therein his blessing and they were able to light from it eight days. Therefore, the sons of Ḥashmonai made this covenant and took upon themselves a solemn vow, they and the sons of Israel, all of them, to publish amongst the sons of Israel, [to the end] that they might observe these eight days of joy and honour, as the days of the feasts written in [the book of] the Law; [even] to light in them so as to make known to those who come after them that their God wrought for them salvation from heaven. In them, it is not permitted to mourn, neither to decree a fast [on those days], and anyone who has a vow to perform, let him perform it.{{cite book|last=Bashiri|first=Y.|author-link=Yihye Bashiri|contribution=מגלת בני חשמונאי |title=Sefer Ha-Tiklāl (Tiklāl Qadmonim) |editor=Yosef Ḥubara |publisher=Yosef Ḥubara |year=1964|location=Jerusalem|pages=75b–79b (Megillat Benei Ḥashmunai)|language=he|oclc=122703118}} (penned in the handwriting of Shalom b. Yihye Qoraḥ, and copied from "Tiklal Bashiri" which was written in 1618 CE). Original Aramaic text:

The Al HaNissim prayer is recited on Hanukkah as an addition to the Amidah prayer, which was formalized in the late 1st century.Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 28a Al HaNissim describes the history of the holiday as follows:

:In the days of Mattiyahu ben Yohanan, high priest, the Hasmonean and his sons, when the evil Greek kingdom stood up against Your people Israel, to cause them to forget Your Torah and abandon the ways You desire – You, in Your great mercy, stood up for them in their time of trouble; You fought their fight, You judged their judgment, You took their revenge; You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the evil into the hands of the righteous, the sinners into the hands of those who engaged in Your Torah; You made yourself a great and holy name in Your world, and for Your people Israel You made great redemption and salvation as this very day. And then Your sons came to the inner chamber of Your house, and cleared Your Temple, and purified Your sanctuary, and lit candles in Your holy courtyards, and established eight days of Hanukkah for thanksgiving and praise to Your holy name.

The Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus narrates in his book, Jewish Antiquities XII, how the victorious Judas Maccabeus ordered lavish yearly eight-day festivities after rededicating the Temple in Jerusalem that had been profaned by Antiochus IV Epiphanes.{{cite book|author=Josephus|access-date=6 October 2018|title=Jewish Antiquities|url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/josephus-jewish_antiquities/1930/pb_LCL365.167.xml?result=2&rskey=cyZg7g |doi=10.4159/DLCL.josephus-jewish_antiquities.1930|year=1930}} {{Subscription required|via=digital Loeb Classical Library}} Josephus does not say the festival was called Hanukkah but rather the "Festival of Lights":

:Now Judas celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the temple for eight days, and omitted no sort of pleasures thereon; but he feasted them upon very rich and splendid sacrifices; and he honored God, and delighted them by hymns and psalms. Nay, they were so very glad at the revival of their customs, when, after a long time of intermission, they unexpectedly had regained the freedom of their worship, that they made it a law for their posterity, that they should keep a festival, on account of the restoration of their temple worship, for eight days. And from that time to this we celebrate this festival, and call it Lights. I suppose the reason was because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us; and that thence was the name given to that festival. Judas also rebuilt the walls round about the city, and reared towers of great height against the incursions of enemies, and set guards therein. He also fortified the city Bethsura, that it might serve as a citadel against any distresses that might come from our enemies.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=J.+AJ+12.287 Perseus.tufts.edu], Jewish Antiquities xii. 7, § 7, #323

In the New Testament, John 10:22–23 says, "Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon's Colonnade" (NIV). The Greek noun used appears in the neuter plural as "the renewals" or "the consecrations" ({{langx|grc|τὰ ἐγκαίνια}}; {{lang|grc-Latn|ta enkaínia}}).This is the first reference to the Feast of Dedication by this name ({{lang|grc-Latn|ta egkainia}}, {{lang|grc-Latn|ta enkainia}} [a typical "festive plural"]) in Jewish literature (Hengel 1999: 317). The same root appears in 2 Esdras 6:16 in the Septuagint to refer specifically to Hanukkah. This Greek word was chosen because the Hebrew word for 'consecration' or 'dedication' is Hanukkah ({{lang|he|חנכה}}). The Aramaic New Testament uses the Aramaic word {{lang|arc-Latn|hawdata}} (a close synonym), which literally means 'renewal' or 'to make new'.{{cite book |title=Aramaic English New Testament, 3rd Ed. |last=Roth |first=Andrew Gabriel |year=2008 |publisher=Netzari Press LLV |page=266 }}

{{Further|Coele-Syria}}

File:Jerusalem Modell BW 2.JPG of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period]]

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, Judea became part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt until 200 BCE, when King Antiochus III the Great of Syria defeated King Ptolemy V Epiphanes of Egypt at the Battle of Panium. Judea then became part of the Seleucid Empire of Syria.{{cite book|title=The History of the Second Temple Period|last=Sacchi|first=Paolo|year=2004|isbn=978-0-567-04450-1|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing}} King Antiochus III the Great, wanting to conciliate his new Jewish subjects, guaranteed their right to "live according to their ancestral customs" and to continue to practice their religion in the Temple of Jerusalem.{{cite web|url=https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/liv.html|title=T. Livivs|website=TheLatinLibrary.com|access-date=6 October 2018}} The Seleucids, like the Ptolemies before them, held a suzerainty over Judea, where they respected Jewish culture and protected Jewish institutions. This policy was drastically reversed by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus III, seemingly after what was either a dispute over leadership of the Temple in Jerusalem and the office of High Priest, or possibly a revolt whose nature was lost to time after being crushed.{{Cite book |last=Hengel |first=Martin |title=Judaism and Hellenism. 1 |date=1974 |publisher=SCM Press |isbn=978-0-334-00788-3 |edition=1st engl. |location=London}} In 175 BCE, Antiochus IV invaded Judea at the request of the sons of Tobias.{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0148:book=1:section=31&redirect=true|title=The Wars of the Jews i. 31|last=Josephus|first=Flavius|access-date=6 October 2018}} The Tobiads, who led the Hellenizing Jewish faction in Jerusalem, were expelled to Syria around 170 BCE when the high priest Onias and his pro-Egyptian faction wrested control from them. The exiled Tobiads lobbied Antiochus IV Epiphanes to recapture Jerusalem. As Flavius Josephus relates:

{{blockquote|The king being thereto disposed beforehand, complied with them, and came upon the Jews with a great army, and took their city by force, and slew a great multitude of those that favored Ptolemy, and sent out his soldiers to plunder them without mercy. He also spoiled the temple, and put a stop to the constant practice of offering a daily sacrifice of expiation for three years and six months.|source=The Jewish War{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_yxlDizrauwC&q=%22The+king+being+thereto+disposed+beforehand%22&pg=PA238|title=The Works of Flavius Josephus|first=Flavius|last=Josephus|date=1825|via=Google Books}}}}

{{main|Miracle of the cruse of oil}}

When the Second Temple in Jerusalem was looted and services stopped, Judaism was outlawed. In 167 BCE, Antiochus ordered an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. He banned brit milah (circumcision) and ordered pigs to be sacrificed at the altar of the temple.{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0148:book=1:section=34|title=The Wars of the Jews i. 34|last=Josephus|first=Flavius|access-date=6 October 2018}}

Antiochus's actions provoked a large-scale revolt. Mattathias (Mattityahu), a Jewish priest, and his five sons Jochanan, Simeon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Judah led a rebellion against Antiochus. It started with Mattathias killing first a Jew who wanted to comply with Antiochus's order to sacrifice to Zeus, and then a Greek official who was to enforce the government's behest (1 Mac. 2, 24–25{{cite web|url=http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/1maccabees.html|title=1 Maccabees|website=EarlyJewishWritings.com|access-date=6 October 2018}}). Judah became known as Yehuda HaMakabi ("Judah the Hammer"). By 166 BCE, Mattathias had died, and Judah took his place as leader. By 164 BCE, the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid monarchy was successful. The Temple was liberated and rededicated. The festival of Hanukkah was instituted to celebrate this event.{{cite web|url=http://www.hope.edu/academic/religion/bandstra/BIBLE/1MA/1MA4.HTM#59|title=1 Macc. iv. 59|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040627184847/http://www.hope.edu/academic/religion/bandstra/BIBLE/1MA/1MA4.HTM|archive-date=27 June 2004}} Judah ordered the Temple to be cleansed, a new altar to be built in place of the polluted one and new holy vessels to be made. According to the Talmud,

"For when the Greeks entered the Sanctuary, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the kohen gadol (high priest), but which contained sufficient [oil] for one day's lighting only; yet a miracle was wrought therein, and they lit [the lamp] therewith for eight days. The following year these [days] were appointed a Festival with [the recital of] Hallel and thanksgiving."

—Shabbat 21b

Tertiary sources in the Jewish tradition make reference to this account.{{cite web|url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/605855/jewish/Alls-Well-When-it-Ends.htm|title=All's Well – When it Ends|last=Epstein|first=Baruch|access-date=6 October 2018|website=Chabad.org}}

Maimonides (12th century) described Hanukkah as follows:

When, on the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the Jews had emerged victorious over their foes and destroyed them, they re-entered the Temple where they found only one jar of pure oil, enough to be lit for only a single day; yet they used it for lighting the required set of lamps for eight days, until they managed to press olives and produce pure oil. Because of this, the sages of that generation ruled that the eight days beginning with the twenty-fifth of Kislev should be observed as days of rejoicing and praising the Lord. Lamps are lit in the evening over the doors of the homes, on each of the eight nights, so as to display the miracle. These days are called Hanukkah, when it is forbidden to lament or to fast, just as it is on the days of Purim. Lighting the lamps during the eight days of Hanukkah is a religious duty imposed by the sages.Mishneh Torah, {{cite web| url = https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Scroll_of_Esther_and_Hanukkah.3.2?lang=bi| title = Hilchot Megilot v Hanukkah 3:2–3}}

Some modern scholars, following the account in 2 Maccabees, observe that the king was intervening in an internal civil war between the Maccabean Jews and the Hellenized Jews in Jerusalem.{{cite book|title= Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know about the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History|last= Telushkin|first= Joseph|year= 1991|publisher= W. Morrow|isbn= 978-0-688-08506-3|page= [https://archive.org/details/jewishliteracy00telu/page/114 114]|url= https://archive.org/details/jewishliteracy00telu/page/114}}{{cite book |title= Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide|last=Johnston |first=Sarah Iles |year=2004 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-01517-3 |page= 186}}{{cite book|title= The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays|last= Greenberg|first= Irving|year= 1993|publisher= Simon & Schuster|isbn= 978-0-671-87303-5|page= [https://archive.org/details/jewishwaylivingh00gree/page/29 29]|url= https://archive.org/details/jewishwaylivingh00gree/page/29}}{{cite book |title=Judaism and the Gentile Faiths: Comparative Studies in Religion |last=Schultz |first=Joseph P. |year= 1981|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |isbn= 978-0-8386-1707-6|page= 155|quote=Modern scholarship on the other hand considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp}} These competed violently over who would be the High Priest, with traditionalists with Hebrew/Aramaic names like Onias contesting with Hellenizing High Priests with Greek names like Jason and Menelaus.{{cite book |title= A Survey of the New Testament|last=Gundry |first=Robert H. |year=2003 |publisher=Zondervan |isbn= 978-0-310-23825-6|page= 9}} In particular, Jason's Hellenistic reforms would prove to be a decisive factor leading to eventual conflict within the ranks of Judaism.{{cite book |title= Judaic Religion in the Second Temple Period: Belief and Practice from the Exile to Yavneh|url= https://archive.org/details/judaicreligionse00grab|url-access= limited|last= Grabbe|first=Lester L. |year= 2000|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-21250-2 |page= [https://archive.org/details/judaicreligionse00grab/page/n79 59]}} Other authors point to possible socioeconomic reasons in addition to the religious reasons behind the civil war.{{cite book |title=Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible |last=Freedman |first=David Noel |author2=Allen C. Myers |author3=Astrid B. Beck |year=2000 |publisher=Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-2400-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/eerdmansdictiona0000unse/page/837 837] |url=https://archive.org/details/eerdmansdictiona0000unse/page/837 }}

Image:Israel 10 Agorot 1985 Edge, Obverse & Reverse.jpg]]

What began in many respects as a civil war escalated when the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria sided with the Hellenizing Jews in their conflict with the traditionalists.{{cite book |title=A Survey of Israel's History |last=Wood |first=Leon James |year= 1986|publisher= Zondervan|isbn= 978-0-310-34770-5|page=357}} As the conflict escalated, Antiochus took the side of the Hellenizers by prohibiting the religious practices the traditionalists had rallied around. This may explain why the king, in a total departure from Seleucid practice in all other places and times, banned a traditional religion.{{cite book |title=Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews |last=Tcherikover |first=Victor |year= 1999|orig-year=1959|publisher=Baker Academic |isbn= 978-0-8010-4785-5}}

The miracle of the oil is widely regarded as a legend and its authenticity has been questioned since the Middle Ages.{{cite book |title=Encyclopaedia Judaica, Volume 8 |editor1=Fred Skolnik |editor2=Michael Berenbaum |year=2007 |publisher=Granite Hill Publishers |page=332}} However, given the famous question Joseph Karo (1488–1575) posed concerning why Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days when the miracle was only for seven days (since there was enough oil for one day),{{cite web|url=https://chicagotorah.org/why-eight-days/|title=Why Eight Days?|last=Frankiel|first=Rabbi Yaakov|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213014310/https://chicagotorah.org/why-eight-days/|archive-date=13 December 2017|access-date=6 October 2018}} it was clear that writing in the 16th century CE, he believed it to be a historical event. This belief has been adopted by most of Orthodox Judaism, in as much as Karo's Shulchan Aruch is a main code of Jewish Law.

{{Further|Second Temple period}}

File:Judea Simon Makk.PNG, 143 BCE]]

File:'קברות המכבים'.jpg, Israel]]

• 198 BCE: Armies of the Seleucid King Antiochus III (Antiochus the Great) oust Ptolemy V from Judea and Samaria.
• 175 BCE: Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) ascends the Seleucid throne.M. Zambelli, "L'ascesa al trono di Antioco IV Epifane di Siria," Rivista di Filologia e di Istruzione Classica 38 (1960) 363–389
• 168 BCE: Under the reign of Antiochus IV, the second Temple is looted, Jews are massacred, and Judaism is outlawed.{{cite book|title=Daniel: A Commentary|last1=Newsom|first1=Carol Ann|last2=Breed|first2=Brennan W.|year=2014|isbn=978-0-664-22080-8|publisher=Presbyterian Publish Corp.|page=26}}
• 167 BCE: Antiochus orders an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. Mattathias and his five sons John, Simon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Judah lead a rebellion against Antiochus. Judah becomes known as Judah Maccabee ("Judah the Hammer").
• 166 BCE: Mattathias dies, and Judah takes his place as leader. The Hasmonean Jewish Kingdom begins; It lasts until 63 BCE.
• 164 BCE: The Jewish revolt against the Seleucid monarchy is successful in recapturing the Temple, which is liberated and rededicated (Hanukkah).
• 142 BCE: Re-establishment of the Second Jewish Commonwealth. The Seleucids recognize Jewish autonomy. The Seleucid kings have a formal overlordship, which the Hasmoneans acknowledge. This inaugurates a period of population growth and religious, cultural and social development. This includes the conquest of the areas now covered by Transjordan, Samaria, Galilee, and Idumea (also known as Edom), and the forced conversion of Idumeans to the Jewish religion, including circumcision.{{cite web| url = http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-13.htm| title = Josephus, Ant. xiii, 9:1., via}}
• 139 BCE: The Roman Senate recognizes Jewish autonomy.{{Bibleverse|1|Maccabees|8:17–20|NRSV}}
• 134 BCE: Antiochus VII Sidetes besieges Jerusalem. The Jews under John Hyrcanus become Seleucid vassals but retain religious autonomy.{{cite web|title=Antiochus VII Sidetes |url=http://virtualreligion.net/iho/antiochus_7.html |last=Smith |first=Mahlon H.|access-date=6 October 2018}}
• 129 BCE: Antiochus VII dies.{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1592-antiochus-vii-sidetes |title=Antiochus VII., Sidetes |last=Ginzburg |first=Louis |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia |year=1901|access-date=6 October 2018}} The Hasmonean Jewish Kingdom throws off Syrian rule completely.
• 96 BCE: Beginning of an eight-year civil war between Sadducee king Alexander Yanai and the Pharisees.Ginzberg, Louis. {{cite web|title=Alexander Jannæus (Jonathan)|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1144-alexander-jannaeus-jonathan|access-date=6 October 2018}} Jewish Encyclopedia.
• 85–82 BCE: Consolidation of the Kingdom in territory east of the Jordan River.Ginzberg, Louis. {{cite web|title=Alexander Jannæus (Jonathan)|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1144-alexander-jannaeus-jonathan|access-date=6 October 2018|quote=His three years' war east of the Jordan (about 85–82) was successful; and he conquered Pella, Dium, Gerasa, Gaulana, Seleucia, and the strong fortress Gamala.}} Jewish Encyclopedia.
• 63 BCE: The Hasmonean Jewish Kingdom comes to an end because of a rivalry between the brothers Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II, both of whom appeal to the Roman Republic to intervene and settle the power struggle on their behalf. The Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) is dispatched to the area. Twelve thousand Jews are massacred in the Roman Siege of Jerusalem. The Priests of the Temple are struck down at the Altar. Rome annexes Judea.Josephus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0146%3Abook%3D14%3Awhiston%20chapter%3D4%3Awhiston%20section%3D4 Antiquities of the Jews 14:70–71]

{{Main|Maccabean Revolt}}

File:Knesset Menorah P5200009 Mac.JPG on the Knesset Menorah]]

Selected battles between the Maccabees and the Seleucid Syrian-Greeks:

• Battle with Apollonius and Battle with Seron: Judas Maccabeus defeats two smaller Seleucid detachments.
• Battle of Emmaus: Judas Maccabeus performs a daring night march to make a surprise attack on the Seleucid camp while the Seleucid forces are split.
• Battle of Beth Zur: Judas Maccabeus defeats the army of Lysias, and captures Jerusalem soon after. Lysias relents and repeals Antiochus IV's anti-Jewish decrees.
• Battle of Beth Zechariah: The Seleucids defeat the Maccabees. Eleazar Avaran, another of Mattathias's sons, is killed in battle by a war elephant.
• Battle of Adasa: Judas defeats the forces of Nicanor after killing him early in the battle.
• Battle of Elasa: Judas dies in battle against the army of Bacchides. He is succeeded by his brother Jonathan Apphus, and eventually their other brother Simon Thassi, as leader of the rebellion. The Seleucids re-establish control of the cities for 8 years, but eventually make deals with the Maccabees and appoint their leaders as official Seleucid governors and generals in a vassal-like status before eventual independence.

{{Main|Maccabees}}

File:Peter Paul Rubens and workshop 002.jpg, Rubens, 1634–1636]]

• Matityahu the Priest, also referred to as Mattathias and Mattathias ben Johanan. Matityahu was a Jewish priest who, together with his five sons, played a central role in the story of Hanukkah.{{Cite web |url=https://www.khouse.org/articles/2012/1091/print/ |title=Happy Hanukkah |last=Missler |first=Dr. Chuck |quote=Mattathias and his five sons became the nucleus of a growing band of rebels against Antiochus.|access-date=6 October 2018}}
• Judah the Maccabee, also referred to as Judas Maccabeus and Y'hudhah HaMakabi. Judah was the eldest son of Matityahu and is acclaimed as one of the greatest warriors in Jewish history alongside Joshua, Gideon, and David.{{cite book |title=God's Intertestamental Silence: Then Came Jesus Christ |author=Saundra L. Washington |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RKXsEwSPefcC&pg=PT14|isbn=978-1-4523-9735-1|year=2010|publisher=Saundra L Washington }}
• Eleazar the Maccabee, also referred to as Eleazar Avaran, Eleazar Maccabeus and Eleazar Hachorani/Choran.
• Simon the Maccabee, also referred to as Simon Maccabeus and Simon Thassi.
• Johanan the Maccabee, also referred to as Johanan Maccabeus and John Gaddi.
• Jonathan the Maccabee, also referred to as Jonathan Apphus.
• Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Seleucid king controlling the region during this period.
• Judith. Acclaimed for her heroism in the assassination of Holofernes.{{cite web |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/women-as-role-models/ |title=On Hanukkah, Women As Role Models |quote=Also in the Apocrypha is the Book of Judith, which tells how this heroine stopped the siege of Jerusalem by decapitating Holofernes, a major military leader for the enemy.|access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cite web |url=https://jwa.org/discover/throughtheyear/december/judith |title=December: Judith and the Hanukkah Story |quote=For several centuries there was another hero associated with Hanukkah: Judith.|access-date=6 October 2018}}
• Hannah and her seven sons. Arrested, tortured and killed one by one, by Antiochus IV Epiphanes for refusing to bow to an idol.{{cite book |title=Christmas and Hanukkah |last=Dice |first=Elizabeth A. |isbn=978-1-4381-1971-7 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |page=24}}

File:Children pull strings at Center to retell story of Hanukah, circa 1940 (4182471822).jpg

Hanukkah is celebrated with a series of rituals that are performed every day throughout the eight-day holiday, some are family-based and others communal. There are special additions to the daily prayer service, and a section is added to the blessing after meals.{{cite web |url=https://www.ou.org/holidays/chanukah/chanukah_with_torah_tidbits/ |title=Chanukah with Torah Tidbits |date=29 June 2006|website=OU.org|access-date=6 October 2018}}

Hanukkah is not a "Sabbath-like" holiday, and there is no obligation to refrain from activities that are forbidden on the Sabbath, as specified in the Shulkhan Arukh.Shulkhan Arukh Orach Chayim 670:1{{cite web|url=https://ohr.edu/1304|title=The Laws of Chanukah |last=Becher |first=Rabbi Mordechai |website=Ohr.edu|access-date=6 October 2018}} Adherents go to work as usual but may leave early in order to be home to kindle the lights at nightfall. There is no religious reason for schools to be closed, although in Israel schools close from the second day for the whole week of Hanukkah.{{cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.581550|title=Education Ministry Changes Start of School Year – Again|first=Yarden|last=Skop|date=24 March 2014|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://edu.gov.il/special/students/Pages/Holiday-Calendar2018.aspx|title=לוח החופשות והימים המיוחדים לשנת תשע"ח|website=Edu.gov.il|access-date=6 October 2018|archive-date=7 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181007040316/https://edu.gov.il/special/students/Pages/Holiday-Calendar2018.aspx|url-status=dead}} Many families exchange gifts each night, such as books or games, and "Hanukkah Gelt" is often given to children. Fried foods—such as latkes (potato pancakes), jelly doughnuts (sufganiyot) and Sephardic bimuelos—are eaten to commemorate the importance of oil during the celebration of Hanukkah. Some also have a custom of eating dairy products to remember Judith and how she overcame Holofernes by feeding him cheese, which made him thirsty, and giving him wine to drink. When Holofernes became very drunk, Judith cut off his head.{{cite web|url=https://www.kashrut.com/articles/Chanukah_customs/|title=Chanukah: Performances and Customs|website=Kashrut.com|last=Glazer|first=Rabbi Chalm|access-date=6 October 2018}}

{{Further|Menorah (Hanukkah)|Miracle of the cruse of oil}}

File:A menorah defies the Nazi flag 1931.jpg

File:Hanukkah, Brandenburg Gate (Berlin).jpg in Berlin, December 2019]]

File:Hanoukkia Bruxelles rondpoint Schuman 2020.jpg, the headquarters of the European Commission, 2020]]

File:PikiWiki Israel 146 Hanukka חנוכה.Jpg

Each night throughout the eight-day holiday, a candle or oil-based light is lit. As a universally practiced "beautification" ([https://bethelbalto.shulcloud.com/blog/hiddur-mitzvah-torah-breastplate-choshen#:~:text=Hiddur%20Mitzvah%20is%20the%20Jewish,textures%2C%20colors%2C%20and%20artistry. hiddur mitzvah]) of the mitzvah, the number of lights lit is increased by one each night.Shulkhan Arukh Orach Chayim 671:2 An extra light called a shammash, meaning "attendant" or "sexton",{{cite web|url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/103868/jewish/How-to-Light-the-Menorah.htm |title=How to Light the Menorah – Light Up Your Environment!|website=Chabad.org|access-date=6 October 2018}} is also lit each night, and is given a distinct location, usually higher, lower, or to the side of the others.

Among Ashkenazim the tendency is for every male member of the household (and in many families, girls as well) to light a full set of lights each night,{{cite web |url=https://www.ou.org/holidays/chanukah/practical-halacha-chanuka/ |title=Halacha L'Maaseh on Chanuka |publisher=Orthodox Union |last=Aiken |first=Richard B. |access-date=6 October 2018|date=2015-11-30 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/792891/jewish/Why-Dont-Women-Work-While-the-Chanukah-Candles-Are-Burning.htm |title=Why Don't Women Work While the Chanukah Candles Are Burning? |publisher=Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center |last=Posner |first=Menachem |access-date=6 October 2018}} while among Sephardim the prevalent custom is to have one set of lights for the entire household.{{cite web |url=http://www.hakirah.org/Vol+7+Ajdler.pdf |title=Hakirah Volume 25, Fall 2018 |website=Hakirah.org |access-date=6 October 2018 |archive-date=7 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181007041442/http://www.hakirah.org/Vol+7+Ajdler.pdf |url-status=dead }}

The purpose of the shammash is to adhere to the prohibition, specified in the Talmud,Tractate Shabbat 21b–23a against using the Hanukkah lights for anything other than publicizing and meditating on the Hanukkah miracle. This differs from Sabbath candles which are meant to be used for illumination and lighting. Hence, if one were to need extra illumination on Hanukkah, the shammash candle would be available, and one would avoid using the prohibited lights. Some, especially Ashkenazim, light the shammash candle first and then use it to light the others.Shulkhan Arukh Orach Chayim 673:1 So altogether, including the shammash, two lights are lit on the first night, three on the second and so on, ending with nine on the last night, for a total of 44 (36, excluding the shammash). It is Sephardic custom not to light the shammash first and use it to light the rest. Instead, the shammash candle is the last to be lit, and a different candle or a match is used to light all the candles. Some Hasidic Jews follow this Sephardic custom as well.{{cite web|url=https://www.midrash.org/halakha/hanukkah-how2.html |title=The following is a response from Hakham Ya'aqob Menashe |website=Midrash.org|access-date=6 October 2018}}

The lights can be candles or oil lamps. Electric lights are sometimes used and are acceptable in places where open flame is not permitted, such as a hospital room, or for the very elderly and infirm; however, those who permit reciting a blessing over electric lamps only allow it if it is incandescent and battery operated (an incandescent flashlight would be acceptable for this purpose), while a blessing may not be recited over a plug-in menorah or lamp. Most Jewish homes have a special candelabrum referred to as either a Hanukkah menorah (the traditional name, menorah being Hebrew for 'lamp') or a Chanukiah (the modern Israeli term). Some families use an oil lamp menorah (traditionally filled with olive oil) for Hanukkah; like the candle version, it has eight wicks to light plus the additional shammash light.{{cite web|url=https://ouservices.org/resources/wEru2YXmwx/ous-chanukah-guide/ |title=OU's Chanukah Guide|publisher=Orthodox Union|access-date=6 October 2018}}

In the United States, Hanukkah became a more visible festival in the public sphere from the 1970s when Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson called for public awareness and observance of the festival and encouraged the lighting of public menorahs.{{cite book|title=A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to be Jewish|url=https://archive.org/details/kosherchristmast0000plau|url-access=registration|last=Plaut|first=Joshua Eli|year=2012|publisher=Rutgers University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/kosherchristmast0000plau/page/167 167]|isbn=9780813553818}}{{cite web|url=https://forward.com/opinion/120124/how-hanukkah-came-to-the-white-house/ |date=2 December 2009 |title=How Hanukkah Came to the White House |last=Sarna |first=Jonathan D. |publisher=Forward |access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cite book|title=Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History |last=Telushkin |first=Joseph |year=2014 |publisher=HarperCollins |page=269|title-link=Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History }}{{cite news|url=https://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/2778619/jewish/40-Years-Later-How-the-Chanukah-Menorah-Made-Its-Way-to-the-Public-Sphere.htm |title=40 Years Later: How the Chanukah Menorah Made Its Way to the Public Sphere |last=Posner |first=Menachem |date=1 December 2014 |access-date=6 October 2018}}

The reason for the Hanukkah lights is not for the "lighting of the house within", but rather for the "illumination of the house without", so that passersby should see it and be reminded of the holiday's miracle (i.e. that the sole cruse of pure oil found which held enough oil to burn for one night actually burned for eight nights). Accordingly, lamps are set up at a prominent window or near the door leading to the street. It is customary amongst some Ashkenazi Jews to have a separate menorah for each family member (customs vary), whereas most Sephardi Jews light one for the whole household. Only when there was danger of antisemitic persecution were lamps supposed to be hidden from public view, as was the case in Persia under the rule of the Zoroastrians, or in parts of Europe before and during World War II. However, most Hasidic groups light lamps near an inside doorway, not necessarily in public view. According to this tradition, the lamps are placed on the opposite side from the mezuzah, so people passing through the door are surrounded by the holiness of mitzvot (the commandments).{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.22a?lang=bi|title=Shabbat 22a}}

Generally, women are exempt in Jewish law from time-bound positive commandments, although the Talmud requires that women engage in the mitzvah of lighting Hanukkah candles "for they too were involved in the miracle."Babylonian Talmud: Shabbat 23a{{cite web|url=http://halachayomit.co.il/en/default.aspx?HalachaID=1692 |title=The Obligation of Women Regarding Chanukah Candles |first=Rabbeinu Ovadia |last=Yosef |website=Halachayomit.co.il |date=11 December 2017 |access-date=6 October 2018}}

Some Jews in North America and Israel have taken up environmental concerns in relation to Hanukkah's "miracle of the oil", emphasizing reflection on energy conservation and energy independence. An example of this is the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life's renewable energy campaign.{{cite web|last=Waskow|first=Rabbi Arthur|date=16 November 2007|title=The Eight Days of Hanukkah: Eight Actions to Heal the Earth through the Green Menorah Covenant|url=https://theshalomcenter.org/node/1315|access-date=6 October 2018|publisher=The Shalom Center|archive-date=7 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181007040137/https://theshalomcenter.org/node/1315|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|last=Hoffman|first=Gil|date=4 December 2007|title='Green Hanukkia' Campaign Sparks Ire|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|url=https://www.jpost.com/Israel/Green-Hanukkia-campaign-sparks-ire|access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cite web|last=Dobb|first=Rabbi Fred Scherlinder|date=6 July 2011|title=CFL Hannukah Installation Ceremony|url=http://coejl.org/advocacy-and-policy-issues/pastcampaigns/cfl-installation-hanukkah/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131128174911/http://coejl.org/advocacy-and-policy-issues/pastcampaigns/cfl-installation-hanukkah/|archive-date=28 November 2013|access-date=6 October 2018|publisher=Coalition on Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL)}}

File:Bialahanukabp.JPG Rebbe lights the menorah]]

Hanukkah lights should usually burn for at least half an hour after it gets dark.{{cite web |url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/603798/jewish/Chanukah-Guide.htm |title=How to Celebrate Chanukah |quote=[...] the menorah must contain enough fuel at the time of the lighting to burn until 30 minutes after nightfall. |access-date=6 October 2018}} Many light at sundown, while most Hasidim and many other communities light later, generally around nightfall.Shulchan Aruch OC 672:1, as understood by the Magen Avraham and others. Many Hasidic Rebbes light much later to fulfill the obligation of publicizing the miracle by the presence of their Hasidim when they kindle the lights.{{cite web |url=http://rabbikaganoff.com/some-light-chanukah-questions/ |title=Some Light Chanukah Questions |date=25 November 2013 |access-date=6 October 2018}}

Inexpensive small wax candles sold for Hanukkah burn for approximately half an hour so should be lit no earlier than nightfall. Friday night presents a problem, however. Since candles may not be lit on Shabbat itself, the candles must be lit before sunset. However, they must remain lit through the lighting of the Shabbat candles. Therefore, the Hanukkah menorah is lit first with larger candles than usual, followed by the Shabbat candles. At the end of the Shabbat, there are those who light the Hanukkah lights before Havdalah and those who make Havdalah before the lighting Hanukkah lights.{{cite web |url=https://sites.google.com/site/tiferetisraelorg/our-rabbi/halacha-tidbits/ctilawsandcustomsofchanukah-december16-232014 |title=CTI Laws and Customs of Chanukah |date=5 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101233032/https://sites.google.com/site/tiferetisraelorg/our-rabbi/halacha-tidbits/ctilawsandcustomsofchanukah-december16-232014 |archive-date=1 January 2017}}

If for whatever reason one didn't light at sunset or nightfall, the lights should be kindled later, as long as there are people in the streets. Later than that, the lights should still be kindled, but the blessings should be recited only if there is at least somebody else awake in the house and present at the lighting of the Hannukah lights.{{cite web |url=https://njop.org/resources/holidays/complete-guide-to-holidays/chanukah/what-to-do-on-chanukah/ |title=What to do on Chanukah |access-date=6 October 2018}}

{{see also|List of Jewish prayers and blessings#Hanukkah}}

Typically two blessings (brachot; singular: brachah) are recited during this eight-day festival when lighting the candles. On the first night only, the shehecheyanu blessing is added, making a total of three blessings.Shulkhan Arukh Orach Chayim 676:1–2

The blessings are recited before each candle is lit. On the first night of Hanukkah one light (candle or oil) is lit on the right side of the menorah, on the following night a second light is placed to the left of the first but it is lit first, and so on, proceeding from placing candles right to left but lighting them from left to right over the eight nights.{{cite web|url=https://www.ou.org/holidays/chanukah/laws/ |title=The Lights of Chanukah: Laws and Customs |date=9 April 2014 |publisher=Orthodox Union |access-date=6 October 2018}}

{{Hebrew paragraph| בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר חֲנֻכָּה.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KZJFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA255|title= Celebrate!: The Complete Jewish Holidays Handbook |access-date=6 October 2018 |publisher=Jason Aronson, Incorporated |last=Ross |first=Lesli Koppelman |year=2000|isbn= 978-1-4616-2772-2}}}}

Transliteration: {{lang|he-Latn|Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner Hanukkah.}}

Translation: "Blessed are You, {{LORD}} our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the Hanukkah light[s]."

{{Hebrew paragraph| בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁעָשָׂה נִסִּים לַאֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בַּזְּמַן הַזֶּה.}}

Transliteration: {{lang|he-Latn|Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, she'asa nisim la'avoteinu ba'yamim ha'heim ba'z'man ha'ze.}}

Translation: "Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time..."

After the lights are kindled the hymn Hanerot Halalu is recited. There are several different versions; the version presented here is recited in many Ashkenazic communities:Shulkhan Arukh Orach Chayim 676:4

{{Main|Ma'oz Tzur}}

In the Ashkenazi tradition, each night after the lighting of the candles, the hymn Ma'oz Tzur is sung. The song contains six stanzas. The first and last deal with general themes of divine salvation, and the middle four deal with events of persecution in Jewish history, praising God for survival despite these tragedies (the exodus from Egypt, the Babylonian captivity, the miracle of the holiday of Purim, the Hasmonean victory) and expressing a longing for the days when Judea will finally triumph over Rome.{{cite web|url=https://www.ou.org/holidays/chanukah/maoz_tzur_translation_etc/ |title=Maoz Tzur: Translation & Explanation – Jewish Holidays|date=29 June 2006|publisher=Orthodox Union|access-date=6 October 2018}}

The song was composed in the thirteenth century by a poet only known through the acrostic found in the first letters of the original five stanzas of the song: Mordechai. The familiar tune is most probably a derivation of a German Protestant church hymn or a popular folk song.{{cite web|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/maoz-tzur-rock-of-ages/ |title=Maoz Tzur: Rock of Ages|work=My Jewish Learning |access-date=6 October 2018}}

After lighting the candles and Ma'oz Tzur, singing other Hanukkah songs is customary in many Jewish homes. Some Hasidic and Sephardi Jews recite Psalms, such as Psalm 30, Psalm 67, and Psalm 91. In North America and in Israel it is common to exchange presents or give children presents at this time. In addition, many families encourage their children to give tzedakah (charity) in lieu of presents for themselves.{{cite news|last=Newman|first=Bruce|title=Hanukkah ushers in 'tzedakah,' a religious obligation to do what is right and just|url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2012/12/07/hanukkah-ushers-in-tzedakah-a-religious-obligation-to-do-what-is-right-and-just/|newspaper=The Mercury News|date=7 December 2012|access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.kveller.com/the-fifth-night-project-teaching-giving-during-hanukkah/ |title=The Fifth Night Project: Teaching Giving During Hanukkah |date=11 December 2012 |last=Maidenberg |first=Rhiana |access-date=6 October 2018}}

{{quote box|align=right|width=30%|quote="We thank You also for the miraculous deeds and for the redemption and for the mighty deeds and the saving acts wrought by You, as well as for the wars which You waged for our ancestors in ancient days at this season. In the days of the Hasmonean Mattathias, son of Johanan the high priest, and his sons, when the iniquitous Greco-Syrian kingdom rose up against Your people Israel, to make them forget Your Torah and to turn them away from the ordinances of Your will, then You in your abundant mercy rose up for them in the time of their trouble, pled their cause, executed judgment, avenged their wrong, and delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and insolent ones into the hands of those occupied with Your Torah. Both unto Yourself did you make a great and holy name in Thy world, and unto Your people did You achieve a great deliverance and redemption. Whereupon your children entered the sanctuary of Your house, cleansed Your temple, purified Your sanctuary, kindled lights in Your holy courts, and appointed these eight days of Hanukkah in order to give thanks and praises unto Your holy name."|source=Translation of Al ha-Nissim{{cite journal|journal=New Era Illustrated Magazine|volume=5|year=1905|page=621|via=Google Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHwpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA621|title=Chanukkah, or the Feast of Dedication|last=Singer|first=Isidore|author-link=Isidore Singer}}}}

An addition is made to the "hoda'ah" (thanksgiving) benediction in the Amidah (thrice-daily prayers), called Al HaNissim ("On/about the Miracles").Shulkhan Arukh Orach Chayim 682:1 This addition refers to the victory achieved over the Syrians by the Hasmonean Mattathias and his sons.{{cite web|url=https://www.ou.org/holidays/chanukah/chanukah_with_torah_tidbits/ |title=Chanukah with Torah Tidbits |date=29 June 2006 |publisher=Orthodox Union |access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/al-hanisim-concerning-the-miracles/ |title=Al Hanisim: Concerning the Miracles |last=Nulman |first=Cantor Macy |access-date=6 October 2018}}{{Jewish Encyclopedia |title=Ḥanukkah |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7233-hanukkah|first=Kohler |last=Kaufmann |inline=1}}

The same prayer is added to the grace after meals. In addition, the Hallel (praise) Psalms{{bibleverse||Psalm|113–118|HE}} are sung during each morning service and the Tachanun penitential prayers are omitted.{{cite web|url=https://www.ou.org/torah/halacha/hashoneh-halachos/tues_02_07_12/ |title=133. Days on Which Tachanun is Omitted |publisher=Orthodox Union |access-date=6 October 2018 |last=Abramowitz |first=Rabbi Jack|work=OU Torah }}

The Torah is read every day in the shacharit morning services in synagogue, on the first day beginning from Numbers 6:22 (according to some customs, Numbers 7:1), and the last day ending with Numbers 8:4. Since Hanukkah lasts eight days it includes at least one, and sometimes two, Jewish Sabbaths (Saturdays). The weekly Torah portion for the first Sabbath is almost always Miketz, telling of Joseph's dream and his enslavement in Egypt. The Haftarah reading for the first Sabbath Hanukkah is Zechariah 2:14 – Zechariah 4:7. When there is a second Sabbath on Hanukkah, the Haftarah reading is from 1 Kings 7:40–50.

The Hanukkah menorah is also kindled daily in the synagogue, at night with the blessings and in the morning without the blessings.{{cite web|url=https://www.torahmusings.com/2010/12/chanuka-lighting-in-shul/ |title=Chanuka – Lighting in Shul |website=www.torahmusings.com |date=7 December 2010 |last=Enkin |first=Rabbi Ari |access-date=6 October 2018}}

The menorah is not lit during Shabbat, but rather prior to the beginning of Shabbat as described above and not at all during the day.

During the Middle Ages "Megillat Antiochus" was read in the Italian synagogues on Hanukkah just as the Book of Esther is read on Purim. It still forms part of the liturgy of the Yemenite Jews.{{cite web|url=http://customerservant.com/2006/12/16/the-scroll-of-the-hasmoneans/|title=The Scroll Of The Hasmoneans|author=Rahel| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070528035707/http://customerservant.com/2006/12/16/the-scroll-of-the-hasmoneans/|archive-date=28 May 2007}}

The last day of Hanukkah is known by some as Zot Hanukkah and by others as Chanukat HaMizbeach, from the verse read on this day in the synagogue Numbers 7:84, Zot Hanukkat Hamizbe'ach: "This was the dedication of the altar". According to the teachings of Kabbalah and Hasidism, this day is the final "seal" of the High Holiday season of Yom Kippur and is considered a time to repent out of love for God. In this spirit, many Hasidic Jews wish each other Gmar chatimah tovah ("may you be sealed totally for good"), a traditional greeting for the Yom Kippur season. It is taught in Hasidic and Kabbalistic literature that this day is particularly auspicious for the fulfillment of prayers.{{cite web|url=http://www.aish.com/h/c/t/sg/286646391.html |title=Hanukkah's Last Light |last=Gutfreund |first=Sara Debbie |work=aishcom |date=23 December 2014 |access-date=6 October 2018}}

Some Hasidic scholars teach that the Hanukkah is in fact the final conclusion of God's judgment extending High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana when humanity is judged and Yom Kippur when the judgment is sealed:

:Hassidic masters quote from Kabbalistic sources that the God's mercy extends even further, giving the Children of Israel till the final day of Chanukah (known as "Zot Chanukah" based on words which appear in the Torah reading of that day), to return to Him and receive a favorable judgment. They see several hints to this in different verses. One is Isaiah 27:9: "Through this (zot) will Jacob's sin be forgiven" – i.e., on account of the holiness of Zot Chanukah.{{cite web |last1=Ask the Rabbi |date=22 December 2017 |title=Final Judgment on Chanukah |url=https://www.aish.com/atr/Final-Judgment-on-Chanukah.html |access-date=1 December 2021 |website=www.aish.com |publisher=Aish HaTorah}}

It is customary for women not to work for at least the first half-hour of the candles' burning, and some have the custom not to work for the entire time of burning. It is also forbidden to fast or to eulogize during Hanukkah.

:

{{Main|Hanukkah music}}

File:מעוז צור ישועתי שירי חנוכה תווים רדומסק מבצע בעל התפילה יונתן שטנצל hanukkah songs maoz tzur yeshuati.pdf Hasidic Ma'oz Tzur.]]

Hanukkah songs (in Hebrew except where indicated) include "Ma'oz Tzur" (Rock of Ages), "Latke'le Latke'le" (Yiddish: "Little Latke, Little Latke"), "Hanukkiah Li Yesh" ("I Have a Hanukkah Menorah"), "Ocho Kandelikas" (Judeo-Spanish: "Eight Little Candles"), "Kad Katan" ("A Small Jug"), "S'vivon Sov Sov Sov" ("Dreidel, Spin and Spin"), "Haneirot Halolu" ("These Candles Which We Light"), "Mi Yimalel" ("Who Can Retell") and "Ner Li, Ner Li" ("I have a Candle").

Among the best known songs in English-speaking countries are "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel"{{Cite web |url=https://bussongs.com/songs/dreidel-dreidel-dreidel |title=Chanukah – Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel |quote=As one of the most famous Chanukah songs... |access-date=6 October 2018}} and "Oh Chanukah".{{Cite web |url=https://www.8notes.com/scores/14871.asp |title=Oh Chanukah (Jewish Traditional) sheet music for Trombone |quote=Oh Chanukah (or Oj Chanukah) is a very popular modern English Chanukah song. |access-date=6 October 2018}}

In the Nadvorna Hasidic dynasty, it is customary for the rebbes to play violin after the menorah is lit.{{Cite web |last1=Greenberg |first1=Shlomo |date=15 December 2012 |title=Belz resumed practice of playing violin at candle lighting |url=http://www.bhol.co.il/news/742083 |access-date=6 October 2018 |website=Behadrey Haredim}}

Penina Moise's Hannukah Hymn published in the 1842 Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations was instrumental in the beginning of Americanization of Hanukkah.{{cite book|title=Hanukkah in America: A History |first=Dianne |last=Ashton |publisher=NYU Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4798-5895-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISIrAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA42 |pages=42–46 |quote=Throughout the nineteenth century some Jews tried various ways to adapt Judaism to American life. As they began looking for images to help understand and explain what a proper response to American Challenges might be, Hanukkah became ripe for reinvention. In Charleston, South Carolina, one group of Jews made Hanukkah into a time for serious religious reflexion that responded to their evangelical Protestant milieu...[Moise's] poem gave Hanukkah a place in the emerging religious style of American culture that was dominated by the language of individualism and personal conscience derived from both Protestantism and the Enlightenment. However, neither the Talmud nor the Shulchan Aruch identifies Hanukkah as a special occasion to ask for the forgiveness of sins.}}{{cite news |last=Parker |first=Adam |date=18 December 2011 |title=Celebrating Hanukkah |url=http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20111218/ARCHIVES/312189902 |url-status=dead |work=The Post and Courier |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150105131943/http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20111218/ARCHIVES/312189902 |archive-date=5 January 2015 |access-date=6 October 2018 }}{{cite journal|last=Ashton|first=Dianne|title=Quick to the Party: The Americanization of Hanukkah and Southern Jewry|journal=Southern Jewish History|volume=12|pages=1–38}}

File:Classic Hanukkah sufganiyot.JPG/doughnuts filled with strawberry jelly]]

There is a custom of eating foods fried or baked in oil (preferably olive oil) to commemorate the miracle of a small flask of oil keeping the Second Temple's Menorah alight for eight days.{{cite web|url=http://www.pjvoice.com/v7/7900food.html |title=Chanukah is upon us |publisher=The Philadelphia Jewish Voice |date=7 January 2006 |access-date=6 October 2018}} Traditional foods include potato pancakes, known as latkes in Yiddish, especially among Ashkenazi families. Sephardi, Polish, and Israeli families eat jam-filled doughnuts ({{langx|yi|פּאָנטשקעס}} pontshkes), bimuelos (fritters) and sufganiyot which are deep-fried in oil. Italkim and Hungarian Jews traditionally eat cheese pancakes known as "cassola" or "cheese latkes".{{cite news |last=Nathan |first=Joan |date=12 December 2006 |title=Hanukkah Q&A |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/dining/13hanukkahqa.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=6 October 2018}}

Latkes are not popular in Israel, having been largely replaced by sufganiyot due to local economic factors, convenience and the influence of trade unions.{{cite web |author=Jeffay, Nathan |title=Why Israel is a latke-free zone |url=https://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/food/why-israel-is-a-latke-free-zone-1.13067 |work=thejc.com |date=17 December 2009}} Bakeries in Israel have popularized many new types of fillings for sufganiyot besides the traditional strawberry jelly filling, including chocolate cream, vanilla cream, caramel, cappuccino and others.{{cite book |last=Gur |first=Jana |year=2008 |title=The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey |publisher=Schocken |pages=238–243 |isbn=978-0-8052-1224-2 }} In recent years, downsized, "mini" sufganiyot containing half the calories of the regular, 400-to-600-calorie version, have become popular.{{cite news |url=https://www.jpost.com/Arts-and-Culture/Love-me-dough |title=Love Me Dough |last1=Minsberg |first1=Tali |last2=Lidman |first2=Melanie |date=10 December 2009 |access-date=6 October 2018 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post}}

File:LatkeFry.JPG frying in hot olive oil.]]

Rabbinic literature also records a tradition of eating cheese and other dairy products during Hanukkah.{{cite web |url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/103095/jewish/Why-All-the-Oil-and-Cheese.htm |title= Why All the Oil and Cheese (and Potatoes)? |last=Soloveitchik |first=Benyamina |access-date=6 October 2018}} This custom, as mentioned above, commemorates the heroism of Judith during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews and reminds us that women also played an important role in the events of Hanukkah.{{cite web |url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/103019/jewish/The-Story-of-Yehudit.htm |title= The Story of Yehudit: The Woman Who Saved the Day |website=Chabad.org |access-date=6 October 2018}} The deuterocanonical book of Judith (Yehudit or Yehudis in Hebrew), which is not part of the Tanakh, records that Holofernes, an Assyrian general, had surrounded the village of Bethulia as part of his campaign to conquer Judea. After intense fighting, the water supply of the Jews was cut off and the situation became desperate. Judith, a pious widow, told the city leaders that she had a plan to save the city. Judith went to the Assyrian camps and pretended to surrender. She met Holofernes, who was smitten by her beauty. She went back to his tent with him, where she plied him with cheese and wine. When he fell into a drunken sleep, Judith beheaded him and escaped from the camp, taking the severed head with her (the beheading of Holofernes by Judith has historically been a popular theme in art). When Holofernes' soldiers found his corpse, they were overcome with fear; the Jews, on the other hand, were emboldened and launched a successful counterattack. The town was saved, and the Assyrians defeated.Mishna Berurah 670:2:10

Roast goose has historically been a traditional Hanukkah food among Eastern European and American Jews, although the custom has declined in recent decades.

• {{cite book |title=Eat and be Satisfied: A Social History of Jewish Food |last=Cooper |first=John |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-87668-316-3 |publisher=Jason Aronson |page=192 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ld7fuK6peH8C}}
• {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/23/garden/hanukkah-s-a-coming-geese-are-getting-fat.html |title=Hanukkah's a-Coming: Geese Are Getting Fat |last=Fabricant |first=Florence |work=The New York Times |date=23 November 1994 |access-date=6 October 2018}}
• {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/opinion/goose-a-hanukkah-tradition.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/opinion/goose-a-hanukkah-tradition.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited |title=Goose: A Hanukkah Tradition |last=Yoskowitz |first=Jeffrey |work=The New York Times |date=24 December 2016 |access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cbignore}}

Indian Jews traditionally consume gulab jamun, fried dough balls soaked in a sweet syrup, similar to teiglach or bimuelos, as part of their Hanukkah celebrations.

Italian Jews eat fried chicken, cassola (a ricotta cheese latke almost similar to a cheesecake), and fritelle de riso par Hanukkah (a fried sweet rice pancake).

Romanian Jews eat pasta latkes as a traditional Hanukkah dish.

Syrian Jews consume Kibbet Yatkeen, a dish made with pumpkin and bulgur wheat similar to latkes, as well as their own version of keftes de prasa spiced with allspice and cinnamon.{{cite web |title=8 Foods You Didn't Know Jews Eat During Hanukkah |url=https://forward.com/scribe/356515/8-foods-you-didnt-know-jews-eat-during-hanukkah/ |website=My Jewish Learning |date=8 December 2016 |access-date=8 December 2019}}

{{Main|Dreidel}}

File:Colorful dreidels2.JPGs in a Jerusalem market]]

After lighting the candles, it is customary to play (or spin) the dreidel. The dreidel, or sevivon in Hebrew, is a four-sided spinning top that children play with during Hanukkah. Each side is imprinted with a Hebrew letter which is an abbreviation for the Hebrew words {{lang|he|נס גדול היה שם|rtl=yes}} ({{lang|he-Latn|Nes Gadol Haya Sham}}, "A great miracle happened there"), referring to the miracle of the oil that took place in the Beit Hamikdash. The fourth side of some dreidels sold in Israel are inscribed with the letter {{lang|he|פ|rtl=yes}} (Pe), rendering the acronym {{lang|he|נס גדול היה פה|rtl=yes}} ({{lang|he-Latn|Nes Gadol Haya Po}}, "A great miracle happened here"), referring to the fact that the miracle occurred in the land of Israel, although this is a relatively recent{{when|date=December 2019}} innovation. Stores in Haredi neighborhoods sell the traditional Shin dreidels as well, because they understand "there" to refer to the Temple and not the entire Land of Israel, and because the Hasidic Masters ascribe significance to the traditional letters.{{cite web|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-origin-of-the-dreidel/ |title=The Surprising Origin of the Dreidel |last=Golinknin |first=Rabbi David |access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-gyration-nation-the-weird-ancient-history-of-the-dreidel-1.5344849 |title=Gyration Nation: The Weird Ancient History of the Dreidel |last=Rosenberg |first=Anat |date=14 December 2014 |access-date=6 October 2018|newspaper=Haaretz }}

{{Main|Hanukkah gelt}}File:Chocolate-Gold-Coins.jpg]]

Chanukkah gelt (Yiddish for "Chanukkah money"), known in Israel by the Hebrew translation {{Langx|he|דְּמֵי חֲנֻכָּה|dmei Hanukkah}}, is often distributed to children during the festival of Hanukkah. The giving of Hanukkah gelt also adds to the holiday excitement. The amount is usually in small coins, although grandparents or relatives may give larger sums. The tradition of giving Chanukah gelt dates back to a long-standing East European custom of children presenting their teachers with a small sum of money at this time of year as a token of gratitude. One minhag favors the fifth night of Hanukkah for giving Hanukkah gelt.{{cite web |url=http://www.schechter.edu/why-do-we-give-hanukkah-gelt-and-hanukkah-presents/ |title=Why Do We Give Hanukkah Gelt and Hanukkah Presents? |last=Golinkin |first=Rabbi Prof. David |date=19 December 2014 |access-date=6 October 2018 |publisher=The Schecter Institutes}} Unlike the other nights of Hanukkah, the fifth does not ever fall on the Shabbat, hence never conflicting with the Halachic injunction against handling money on the Shabbat.{{cite magazine |last1=Lebowitz |first1=Rabbi Aryeh |date=11 December 2005 |title=Chanukah Gelt and Gifts |url=http://download.yutorah.org/2015/1083/846556/d-varim-hayotzim-min-halev-miketz.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229100536/http://download.yutorah.org/2015/1083/846556/d-varim-hayotzim-min-halev-miketz.pdf |archive-date=2016-12-29 |url-status=live |magazine=Dvarim Hayotzim Min Halev |type=PDF |volume=17 |issue=6 |page=3 |access-date=6 October 2018 |quote="In fact, the Orchos Rabeinu in cheilek ג teaches that the Steipler Gaon maintained the minhag of giving out Chanukah gelt davka on the fifth night of Chanukah. Why specifically the fifth night? Answers the Orchos Rabeinu, since the fifth night is the only night that cannot coincide with Shabbos." }}

{{Main|White House Hanukkah Party}}

File:Truman receives menorah.jpg (center) gives President Truman (left) a Hanukkah menorah as ambassador Abba Eban watches in the Oval Office]]

The earliest Hanukkah link with the White House occurred in 1951 when Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion presented United States President Harry Truman with a Hanukkah menorah. In 1979 President Jimmy Carter took part in the first public Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony of the National Menorah held across the White House lawn. In 1989, President George H. W. Bush displayed a menorah in the White House. In 1993, President Bill Clinton invited a group of schoolchildren to the Oval Office for a small ceremony.

The United States Postal Service has released several Hanukkah-themed postage stamps. In 1996, the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued a 32 cent Hanukkah stamp as a joint issue with Israel.{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfa-archive/1996/pages/israeli-american%20hanukkah%20stamp.aspx |title=Israeli-American Hanukkah Stamp |publisher=Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs |date=22 October 1996 |access-date=6 October 2018}} In 2004, after eight years of reissuing the menorah design, the USPS issued a dreidel design for the Hanukkah stamp. The dreidel design was used through 2008. In 2009 a Hanukkah stamp was issued with a design featured a photograph of a menorah with nine lit candles.{{cite web|url=https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2009/pb22267/html/info1_005.htm |title=Stamp Announcement 09-47: Hanukkah |first=United States Postal |last=Service |access-date=6 October 2018}} In 2008, President George W. Bush held an official Hanukkah reception in the White House where he linked the occasion to the 1951 gift by using that menorah for the ceremony, with a grandson of Ben-Gurion and a grandson of Truman lighting the candles.{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/12/05/archives-hanukkah-white-house |title=From the Archives: Hanukkah at the White House |date=5 December 2013 |last=Donius |first=Susan K. |access-date=6 October 2018}}

In December 2014, two Hanukkah celebrations were held at the White House. The White House commissioned a menorah made by students at the Max Rayne school in Israel and invited two of its students to join U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as they welcomed over 500 guests to the celebration. The students' school in Israel had been subjected to arson by extremists. President Obama said these "students teach us an important lesson for this time in our history. The light of hope must outlast the fires of hate. That's what the Hanukkah story teaches us. It's what our young people can teach us – that one act of faith can make a miracle, that love is stronger than hate, that peace can triumph over conflict."{{cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/hand-in-hand-schools-menorah-lights-up-white-house-hanukkah-party/ |title=Arab–Jewish school's menorah lights up White House Hanukkah party |date=18 December 2014 |last=Ghert-Zand |first=Renee |website=TimesOfIsrael.com |access-date=6 October 2018}} Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl, in leading prayers at the ceremony commented on the how special the scene was, asking the President if he believed America's founding fathers could possibly have pictured that a female Asian-American rabbi would one day be at the White House leading Jewish prayers in front of the African-American president.{{cite web|url=https://forward.com/opinion/211168/a-most-inspiring-hanukkah-at-the-white-house/ |title=A Most Inspiring Hanukkah at the White House |website=Forward.com |date=18 December 2014 |last=Eisner |first=Jane |access-date=6 October 2018}}

{{Further|Jewish and Israeli holidays 2000–2050}}

The dates of Hanukkah are determined by the Hebrew calendar. Hanukkah begins at the 25th day of Kislev and concludes on the second or third day of Tevet (Kislev can have 29 or 30 days). The Jewish day begins at sunset. Hanukkah dates for recent and upcoming:

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In 2013, on 28 November, the American holiday of Thanksgiving fell during Hanukkah for only the third time since Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln. The last time was 1899, and due to the nature of the Gregorian and Jewish calendars being slightly out of sync with each other, it will not happen again in the foreseeable future.{{cite news | url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-joel-hoffman/hanukkah-and-thanskgiving_b_4312207.html | title=Why Hanukkah and Thanksgiving Will Never Again Coincide |work=Huffington Post |date=24 November 2013 |access-date=6 October 2018 |last=Hoffman |first=Joel}} This rare convergence prompted the creation of the neologism Thanksgivukkah.{{cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Thanksgivukka-Please-pass-the-turkey-stuffed-doughnuts-331952 |work=The Jerusalem Post |title=Thanksgivukka: Please pass the turkey-stuffed doughnuts |last=Spiro |first=Amy |date=17 November 2013 |access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cite web |url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/christinebyrne/thanksgivukkah |title=How To Celebrate Thanksgivukkah, The Best Holiday Of All Time |last=Byrne |first=Christine |publisher=Buzzfeed |date=2 October 2013 |access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cite news|author=Stu Bykofsky |url=https://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131011_Thanks_for_Thanukkah_.html |title=Thanks for Thanukkah! |publisher=The Inquirer |date=11 October 2013 |access-date=6 October 2018}}

File:Jerusalem Hannukah 021210.jpg]]

Major Jewish holidays are those when all forms of work are forbidden, and that feature traditional holiday meals, kiddush, holiday candle-lighting, etc. Only biblical holidays fit these criteria, and Chanukah was instituted some two centuries after the Hebrew Bible was completed. Nevertheless, though Chanukah is of rabbinic origin, it is traditionally celebrated in a major and very public fashion. The requirement to position the menorah, or Chanukiah, at the door or window, symbolizes the desire to give the Chanukah miracle a high-profile.{{cite web|url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/789857/jewish/Chanukah-FAQs.htm#q6 |title=Chanukah FAQs|website=Chabad.org |access-date=6 October 2018}} Moreover, Hallel (a set of Psalms expressing praise that is recited on significant Jewish holidays) is recited on all eight days of Hanukkah, which signifies Hanukkah's importance on the Jewish calendar. While not considered the most significant holiday, the recitation of Hallel on Hanukkah highlights its importance in Jewish tradition.{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=O. U. |date=2011-09-14 |title=The Recitation of Hallel |url=https://www.ou.org/holidays/hallel/ |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=Jewish Holidays |language=en-US}}

Some Jewish historians suggest a different explanation for the rabbinic reluctance to laud the militarism.{{clarify|reason=different from what? what reluctance?|date=December 2020}} First, the rabbis wrote after Hasmonean leaders had led Judea into Rome's grip and so may not have wanted to offer the family much praise. Second, they clearly wanted to promote a sense of dependence on God, urging Jews to look toward the divine for protection. They likely feared inciting Jews to another revolt that might end in disaster, as the Bar Kochba revolt did.{{cite book |title=Hanukkah in America: A History |last=Ashton |first=Dianne |year=2013 |isbn= 978-0-8147-0739-5 |location=New York |publisher=New York University Press |page=29 |url=https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/}}

{{Quote box|width=256px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote=

"Hanukkah is an ancient holiday, but a modest one. The holiday of the Hasmoneans is new, yet it is full of spiritual exaltation and national joy. What was Hanukkah forty years ago? 'Al ha-nissim' and Hallel; a short reading in the synagogue; lighting the tiny, slender wax candles or oil lights; at home, levivot [latkes-potato pancakes], cards for the older children, and sevivonim [dreidels-spinning tops] for the little ones. But what is Hanukkah today? The holiday of the Hasmoneans. A holiday of salvation. A great national holiday, celebrated in all the countries of the Diaspora with dances and speeches, melody and song, outings and parades, as if a new soul has been breathed into the ancient holiday, another spirit renewed within it. One thing is clear: if those tiny, modest candles had been extinguished in Diaspora times, if our grandparents had not preserved the traditions of Hanukkah in the synagogue and at home . .., the holiday of the Hasmoneans could never have been created. There would have been nothing to change, nothing to renew. The new soul of our times would not have found a body in which to envelop itself."

| source=Joseph Klausner, 1938, in Haim Harari's Sefer Hanukkah{{sfn|Conforti|2012|p=159}}{{sfn|Zion|Spectre|2000|p=13}}}}

The emergence of Jewish nationalism and the Zionist movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had a profound impact on the celebration and reinterpretation of Jewish holidays. These developments resulted in increased emphasis on certain Jewish celebrations, of which Hanukkah and Tu BiShvat are prominent examples.{{sfn|Conforti|2012|loc=p. 158-159, "Jewish nationalism and Zionism breathed new life into the Jewish holidays. The traditional Jewish calendar is full of holidays and days of commemoration, which served as a basis for the revival of modern Jewish nationalism. From its inception, Zionism made broad use of the reserve of Jewish memories and myths from biblical times and from the Second Temple period. This was the case for the renewal of biblical names and symbols as well as the significance of national holidays. Significant examples of this are the holidays of Hanukkah and Tu bi-Shvat. These two holidays were initiated relatively late in history, and had relatively little importance in the religious sense. But beginning with the Zionist awakening in the 1880s, these holidays took on central meaning. In the 1890s, many of the newly founded Zionist organisations adopted the names 'Hasmoneans and 'Maccabees', in an attempt to create a clear connection between the heroic foundations of the ancient biblical golden age and the renaissance of Jewish nationalism… Hanukkah, celebrated in the Diaspora as the festival of lights, mainly expressed God's might and the principles of the Jewish faith. But at the inception of the Zionist project, this holiday was transformed into a symbol of the power and rebellion of the entire nation against its foreign oppressor (Don-Yehiya 1992). The connection that the Zionist movement made between ba-vamim ha-hem u-ba-zman ha-zeh [*in days past, and in these times'] expressed the Zionist desire to return to a heroic past and 'the lost Jewish masculinity'. It also reflected the aspiration to create a new Jew, in contrast to the Diaspora Jew (Bashkin 1998). Instead of God's might, the Zionists began to emphasise the strength of the rebel Maccabbees. In the arts, Boris Schatz's sculpture "Mattathias the Hasmonean' was given a position of honour in Zionist iconography."}}

Hanukkah took on renewed meaning following the rise of Jewish nationalism as a nationalist holiday, symbolizing the struggle of the Jewish people against foreign oppression and their desire for national re-creation{{Sfn|Zion|Spectre|2000|loc=p. 12, "The rabbinic religious tradition - in so far as it recalled the Hasmoneans at all - emphasized the religious miracle in their battle against persecution of Judaism and the desecration of the Temple (see the traditional praver "Al Ha. Nissim"). However the Secular Zionists rejected the miracle and emphasized the earthly realism of Hasmonean heroism. Zionism made Hanukkah a nationalist holidav. The secularization and nationalization of religious celebrations focused on minor religious holidavs and reprioritized their significance. Lag BaOmer became a celebration of Bar Kochba's revolt against the Roman Empire (132-135 CE): Tu B'Shvat became a celebration of the redemption of Eretz Yisrael through reforestation. However. Hanukkah was the main site of national re-creation. The early religious Zionist Rabbi Shmuel Mohi-lever proposed that Hanukkah be the official holiday of the proto-Zionist organization in Russia - Hovevei Zion (1881). This minor holiday provided neutral ground for religious and secular Zionists to share their nationalist program."}} (although the struggle of Jews against foreign oppression has always been a core component of Hanukkah, as shown by the Al HaNissim, which has been part of Jewish liturgy since at least 700 CE).{{Cite web |title=What is the origin of Al Ha Nissim for Hanukka? |url=https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/138758/what-is-the-origin-of-al-ha-nissim-for-hanukka |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=Mi Yodeya |language=en}} Hanukkah served as a common ground where both religious and secular Zionists could unite around their nationalist agenda. Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever, an early religious Zionist, proposed making Hanukkah the official holiday of the proto-Zionist organization Hovevei Zion in Russia in 1881. Public celebrations of Hanukkah gained prominence in the early 20th century, with parades and public events becoming common. Schools in Mandate Palestine played an early role in promoting these celebrations.{{sfn|Conforti|2012|p=160ps:"Schools in the Yishuv as well as adults followed the tradition of visiting the tombs of the Maccabees. Thus beginning in this period, Hanukkah was given a renewed interpretation that was nationalist, romantic, and activist, as opposed to the traditional interpretation. From the inception of Zionism in the 1880s and '90s, Hanukkah took on a central position as a national holiday. The pioneers of the First Aliya to Palestine (1882-1903), as well as members of the Zionist organisations in Europe, raised Hanukkah to the level of a national holiday. Hanukkah would not have taken its central place in the national calendar without the close cooperation between religious and secular Zionists from the beginning of Zionism until the period of the British mandate and the Jewish settlement (Yishuv) in Palestine (Dotan 1988:38-43). With the revival of Jewish nationalism, Hanukkah took on a new character. It was celebrated not only at home, but in public as well. In the 1920s, the holiday began to receive increasing public expression. Parades were held in celebration of Hanukkah, the festival of lights. For example, schoolchildren in Tel Aviv marched in a torch procession organised by the school in conjunction with the Tel Aviv municipality (Arieh-Sapir 2002). This process of adapting a 'useful past' for the purpose of strengthening the national narrative was not necessarily made "from the top down'. Rather, it had many agents, all of which contributed to the success of Hanukkah celebrations throughout all of Palestine. Although institutions were involved in moulding the character of the holiday, many citizens also participated "from the bottom up'. Furthermore, the religious character of the symbols did not completely disappear from the public arena. For example, the Great Synagogue on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv served as the starting point for the festival parade in the 1930s, with the menorah lit on top of the building. The revolution that Zionism led in the celebration of Hanukkah is just one example of the broader revolution it initiated in other Jewish holidays by granting them a new Zionist interpretation. Examples of this are Shavuot celebrations among the workers' settlements and Purim festivities in Tel Aviv, as well as other holidays, in the 1920s and '30s (Helman 2007; Shoham 2006)."}}

With the advent of Zionism and the state of Israel, the themes of militarism were reconsidered. In modern Israel, the national and military aspects of Hanukkah became, once again, more dominant.{{cite book|last=Haberman |first=Bonna |title=Rereading Israel: The Spirit of the Matter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HAG5BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA152 |date=1 October 2014 |publisher=Urim Publications |isbn=978-965-524-202-7 |page=152}}{{cite book|last=Berkowitz |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Berkowitz |title=Nationalism, Zionism and Ethnic Mobilization of the Jews in 1900 and Beyond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V1ueQ2-5siUC&pg=PA244 |year=2004 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-13184-2 |page=244}}

File:Carter Menorah.jpg attends Menorah Lighting, Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C., 1979]]

In North America, Hanukkah in the 21st century has taken a place equal to Passover as a symbol of Jewish identity. Both the Israeli and North American versions of Hanukkah emphasize resistance, focusing on some combination of national liberation and religious freedom as the defining meaning of the holiday.{{cite web|last=Zion|first=Noah|date=4 December 2012|title=Reinventing Hanukkah: The Israeli Politics of the Maccabean Holiday|url=https://hartman.org.il/Blogs_View.asp?Article_Id=1047|access-date=6 October 2018|publisher=Shalom Hartman Institute}}

Diane Ashton attributed the increased visibility and reinvention of Hanukkah by some of the American Jewish community as a way to adapt to American life, re-inventing the festival in "the language of individualism and personal conscience derived from both Protestantism and the Enlightenment".

{{See also|Jews and Christmas}}

In North America, Hanukkah became increasingly important to many Jewish individuals and families during the latter part of the 20th century, including a large number of secular Jews, who wanted to celebrate a Jewish alternative to the Christmas celebrations which frequently overlap with Hanukkah.{{cite journal |last1=Abramitzky |first1=Ran |last2=Einav |first2=Liran |last3=Rigbi |first3=Oren |title=Is Hanukkah Responsive to Christmas? |journal=The Economic Journal |date=1 June 2010 |volume=120 |issue=545 |pages=612–630 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0297.2009.02305.x |s2cid=17782856 |url=https://web.stanford.edu/~leinav/pubs/EJ2010.pdf |access-date=30 December 2019| issn=0013-0133 }}{{Cite web|title=How Christmas Transformed Hanukkah in America|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hanukkah-american-style/|access-date=2020-12-10|website=My Jewish Learning|language=en-US}} Diane Ashton argues that Jewish immigrants to America raised the profile of Hanukkah as a kid-centered alternative to Christmas as early as the 1800s.{{Cite book|last=Ashton|first=Dianne|url=http://archive.org/details/hanukkahinameric0000asht|title=Hanukkah in America : a history|date=2013|publisher=New York : New York University Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-8147-0739-5}} This in parts mirrors the ascendancy of Christmas, which like Hanukkah increased in importance in the 1800s.{{cite web|author=Jacob R. Straus|date=November 16, 2012|title=Federal Holidays: Evolution and Current Practices|url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41990.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103115217/http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41990.pdf|archive-date=January 3, 2014|access-date=January 2, 2014|publisher=Congressional Research Service}} During this time period, Jewish leaders (especially Reform) such as Max Lilienthal and Isaac Mayer Wise made an effort to rebrand Hanukkah and started creating Hanukkah celebration for kids at their synagogues, which included candy and singing songs.{{Cite web|last=Rubin|first=Debra|title=Since the 1800s, Hanukkah in the US is a response to Xmas|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/since-the-1800s-hanukkah-in-the-us-is-a-response-to-xmas/|access-date=2020-12-10|website=www.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}} By the 1900s, it started to become a commercial holiday like Christmas, with Hanukkah gifts and decorations appearing in stores and Jewish Women's magazines printing articles on holiday decorations, children's celebrations, and gift giving. Ashton says that Jewish families did this in order to maintain a Jewish identity which is distinct from mainline Christian culture, on the other hand, the mirroring of Hanukkah and Christmas made Jewish families and kids feel that they were American. Though it was traditional for Ashkenazi Jews to give "gelt" or money to children during Hanukkah, in many families, this tradition has been supplemented with the giving of other gifts so that Jewish children can enjoy receiving gifts just like their Christmas-celebrating peers do.{{cite web|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hanukkah-gifts/ |title=Hanukkah Gifts |publisher=My Jewish Learning |last=Rosenstock |first=Natasha |date=1 October 2016 |access-date=6 October 2018}} Children play a big role in Hanukkah, and Jewish families with children are more likely to celebrate it than childless Jewish families, and sociologists hypothesize that this is because Jewish parents do not want their kids to be alienated from their non-Jewish peers who celebrate Christmas. Recent celebrations have also seen the presence of the Hanukkah bush, which is considered a Jewish counterpart to the Christmas tree. Today, the presence of Hanukkah bushes is generally discouraged by most rabbis.{{cite book | last=Diamant | first=Anita | title=Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends | publisher=Schocken Books | year=1998 | isbn=978-0-8052-1095-8|quote=Rabbis are emphatic and virtually unanimous in their feeling that there is no place for Christmas celebrations within a Jewish home.}} But that would seem to be overstating the case, vide {{cite book |title=Ask the Rabbi: The Who, What, When, Where, Why, & How of Being Jewish |author=Ron Isaacs |year=2003 |publisher=Jossey-Bass |isbn=0-7879-6784-X}}

In December 2022, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Reverends Al Sharpton and Conrad Tillard, businessman Robert F. Smith, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and Elisha Wiesel joined to celebrate Hanukkah and Kwanzaa together, and combat racism and antisemitism, at Carnegie Hall.{{Cite web|url=http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2022/12/21/mayor-eric-adams-the-rev-al-sharpton-others-gather-for-joint-kwanzaa-hanukkah-celebration/|title=Mayor Eric Adams, Rev. Al Sharpton, others gather for joint Kwanzaa, Hanukkah celebration|date=December 21, 2022|website=New York Amsterdam News}}{{Cite web|url=https://forward.com/news/529652/kwanzakkah-a-way-to-celebrate-dual-heritage-and-combat-hate/|title=Kwanzakkah: A way to celebrate dual heritage, and combat hate|date=December 23, 2022|author= Stewart Ain and TaRessa Stovall|website=The Forward}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.jns.org/wire/mayor-eric-adams-rev-al-sharpton-robert-f-smith-robert-f-smith-rev-conrad-tillard-rabbi-shmuley-boteach-and-elisha-wiesel-join-together-to-host-15-days-of-light-celebrating-hanukkah-and/|title=Mayor Eric Adams, Rev. Al Sharpton, Robert F. Smith, Robert F. Smith, Rev. Conrad Tillard, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and Elisha Wiesel join together to host '15 Days of Light,' celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa|website=JNS}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.yahoo.com/now/black-jewish-leaders-gather-carnegie-032200862.html|title=Black and Jewish Leaders Gather at Carnegie Hall to Take a Stand Against Antisemitism and Racism|website=Yahoo|date=December 20, 2022|access-date=28 December 2022|archive-date=25 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225013742/https://www.yahoo.com/now/black-jewish-leaders-gather-carnegie-032200862.html|url-status=dead}}

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{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |first=Dianne |last=Ashton |title=Hanukkah in America: A History |location=New York |url=https://nyupress.org/9780814707395/hanukkah-in-america |publisher=New York University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8147-0739-5}}
• {{cite journal | last=Conforti | first=Yitzhak | title=Zionist Awareness of the Jewish Past: Inventing Tradition or Renewing the Ethnic Past? | journal=Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism | publisher=Wiley | volume=12 | issue=1 | year=2012 | issn=1473-8481 | doi=10.1111/j.1754-9469.2012.01155.x | pages=155–171|url=https://www.academia.edu/2217641}}
• {{cite book | last1=Zion | first1=N. | last2=Spectre | first2=B. | title=A Different Light: A Pluralist Anthology : the Big Book of Hanukkah | publisher=Devora Pub. | year=2000 | isbn=978-1-930143-37-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tMwMZyEBPJIC | access-date=2023-09-17}}

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• [https://www.poeticmind.co.uk/sages/hanukah-story-and-art-activities-for-kids-age-7-12/ Hanukah – Story and Art Activities.]
• [http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/hanukkah.htm Hanukkah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212115344/http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/hanukkah.htm |date=12 February 2017 }} at About.com
• [http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/hanukkah Hanukkah] at the History channel
• [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7233-hanukkah Hanukkah] at the Jewish Encyclopedia
• [http://www.jewishagency.org/hanukkah/content/23838 Hanukkah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927025048/http://www.jewishagency.org/hanukkah/content/23838 |date=27 September 2015 }} at the Jewish Agency for Israel
• [http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/default_cdo/jewish/Hanukkah.htm Hanukkah] at Chabad.org
• [http://www.aish.com/h/c/ Hanukkah] at Aish HaTorah

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