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oldephebe
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Hanukkah, also called the Festival of Lights, occurs on the twenty-fifth day of the winter month of Kislev. Lasting for eight days, the holiday commemorates the historic victory of the Maccabees over the forces of the Syrian tyrant Antiochus in the second century B.C.E. Hanukkah, which means "dedication," celebrates the reclamation of the Jerusalem Temple after years of pagan desecration. It also celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people from Hellenistic domination.
The triumph of the outnumbered and poorly equipped Jewish resistance over Antiochus's vastly superior army was indeed a military miracle. But rabbinic tradition points to a different sort of miracle that happened at this moment in Jewish history: According to the Talmud, when the victorious Jews came to rededicate the desecrated Temple, they found only one day's supply of pure olive oil for the Temple menorah. But, miraculously, the oil burned for eight full days, until a new supply could be obtained. Through the centuries, and even more so since the establishment of the state of Israel, Hanukkah has served as a symbol of national liberation and the triumph
from the Hanukka anthology..i forget the writer/and or compilers name..
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031231
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