Monday, Kislev 23, 5778 / December 11, 2017

The Chanukah holiday begins tomorrow night, Tuesday evening, December 12.

Chanukah celebrates a miracle which took place in the Second Temple. When the Maccabees overpowered and were victorious over the Greeks, who defiled the contents of the Holy Temple. When they entered the Temple, they searched and found only a single cruse of pure oil, with the seal of the High Priest, barely enough to light the menorah for one day. But the menorah had to be lit every day. A miracle occurred, and the oil lasted for eight days. This is why we celebrate Chanukah eight days.

Q.People ask me, “Why do the Jewish holiday dates vary from year to year? For example, Chanukah will come at the end of December in some years and in other years in the middle of December, as this year?”

A.Chanukah, as all Jewish holidays, is always on the same day of the month - on the Hebrew calendar month.

Our calendar is a lunar based calendar, which dates back thousands of years. The Hebrew calendar usually has 354 days. In a leap year it can have over 380 days. This is the reason why the two calendars do not conform. On the Hebrew calendar, Chanukah is always on the 25th day of the month Kislev.

Q.  The miracle of Chanukah was that the oil lasted for eight days. Why did the oil have to last exactly eight days, not more or less?

A.  According to Halacha (Jewish law) one becomes "Tamei" - "spiritually impure" when coming into contact with a dead body. The person who touched a body must then wait seven days before becoming "Tahor" - "spiritually clean."

Due to the battles which the Maccabees fought, they came into contact with dead bodies and were considered unclean. Any oil which they would have produced during these seven days would not have been considered fit for the Holy Temple. Therefore, only on the eighth day were they able to begin producing "pure oil" fit for the Holy Temple. As a result, they needed a miracle for the original oil to last eight days.

Another reason given is that the best quality oil produced in Israel was in the territory of the tribe of Asher, which was a four day journey from Jerusalem. Thus, to bring fresh oil they required four days to go and four days to return, for a total of eight days.

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY & SUCCESSFUL DAY