Honored to be joined by my husband, Rabbi Zach Shapiro, for the annual City Hall menorah lighting. @JFedLA pic.twitter.com/s0S45kjouI
— Ron Galperin (@RonGalperin) December 12, 2014
Mayor Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles’ first elected Jewish mayor, took part in Friday’s 29th annual menorah-lighting ceremony at City Hall in celebration of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah — which means dedication in Hebrew — is observed around the world by lighting candles on an eight-candle or nine-candle menorah at sundown for eight days, with an additional candle added each day.
City officials, including the mayor, took turns lighting an electric menorah that has one central candle and four candles on either side.
Garcetti said the central candle, known as the “Shamash,” is used to light the other candles and serves as a reminder of the importance of “sharing our warmth and joy with others.”
“For two millennia, Hanukkah has represented for us the idea of hope, not just for Jews, but for the world, that there are miracles, and through hope and faith, anything is possible,” he said.
The eight-day holiday, which begins at sundown Tuesday, is a commemoration of what was held to be a miracle following the Maccabees’ triumph over a larger Syrian army in 165 B.C.
The Maccabees, a “group of believers who came together to sacrifice everything to practice their faith,” stood up against a “tyrant who forbade the Israelites from practicing their faith and desecrated their holy temple,” Garcetti said.
“In the face of oppression, against all odds, the Macabees won back the holy temple in Jeruselum,” he said.
Once the Jews defeated the Hellenist Syrian forces of Antiochus IV at the end of a three-year rebellion, the temple in Jerusalem, which the occupiers had dedicated to the worship of Zeus, was rededicated by Judah Maccabee, who led the insurgency begun by his father, the high priest Mattathias.
According to the story of Hanukkah, Maccabee and his soldiers wanted to light the temple’s ceremonial lamp with ritually pure olive oil as part of their rededication but found only enough oil to burn for one day.
The oil, however, burned for eight days in what was held to be a miracle.
Other Hanukkah traditions include spinning a dreidel, a four-sided top, which partially commemorates a game that Jews under Greek domination played to camouflage their Torah study, and eating foods fried in oil, such as potato pancakes and jelly doughnuts.
Children receive Hanukkah “gelt” (the Yiddish word for money) from parents and grandparents. The tradition originated with 17th century Polish Jews giving money to their children to give their teachers during Hanukkah, which led to parents also giving children money. In the United States, the practice has evolved into giving holiday gifts to children and others, akin to Christmas gift-giving.
Unlike on the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, or Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, observant Jews are permitted to work and attend school during Hanukkah, the only Jewish holiday that commemorates a military victory.
—City News Service