Hanukkah is celebrated for eight nights and days. This year, it begins at sundown on Wednesday, December 25, and continues through Thursday, January 2, 2025. During this festival, candles are lit on a nine-branched menorah, also known as a hanukkiah. One candle, called the shammash (which means “attendant” or “servant”), is typically placed above or below the other eight. Each night, an additional candle is lit until all eight candles are illuminated together on the final night of the festival. Hanukkah is also known as the Festival of Lights or the Feast of Dedication.
It all started when the Greeks looted the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and services stopped, Judaism was outlawed. In 167 BCE, Antiochus ordered an altar to Zeus to be built in the Temple and pigs to be sacrificed on it.
After the Greeks had been driven from the Temple, Judah Maccabee ordered its cleansing. He commanded that a new altar be built and that new holy vessels be made. However, the Maccabees found that almost all the ritual olive oil had been contaminated and only a single container of oil containing just enough to light the menorah for one day remained. Remarkably, this small amount of oil lasted eight days, which is the time it took to prepare new oil. This was considered a great miracle.
How is this a great miracle? It was a dark time in the world when night overshadowed day. Not only was it winter with longer nights, but miracles had ceased to occur. God was no longer visible. It felt like an era in which God had hidden His face, and humanity seemed to be on its own. In times like this, we may ask, if God is still with us, or are we doing this alone? The miracle of the burning candles was as if God said, “You thought you were alone in the dark, but I am right there with you.”
Lighting the hanukkiah reminds us that we are not alone, despite how things may seem. Even when we can’t see Him, we can trust that God is always with us. His presence surrounds and guides us in ways we might not even realize. Today is a time of great darkness. Will there be more darkness? Yes. But we are assured that even in the darkest times, God is always with us. While God may not save us from tragedy, He is there alongside us. He has not abandoned us and never will.
