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| (Replica of the Temple Menorah) |
It seems particularly ironic that a nation which celebrates Christmas earlier and earlier each year is up in arms about its president’s early celebration of Hanukkah. It also seems ironic that citizens who don’t know a menorah from a hanukiah are getting all technical about the candles.
Luckily, neither Christmas nor Hanukkah are biblical holidays – otherwise there could be you-know-what to pay for all these allegedly heinous gaffes. In any event, all this media static regarding the 2011 White House Hanukkah celebration might at least prompt some people to learn what a menorah actually is. (So listen up, Rush – and then look up “kinara lighting” while you’re at it…)
Wikipedia reports that a “menorah” – as described in Exodus 25:31-40 – is a seven-branched gold lampstand that was first used in the Tabernacle of Moses, and later used in the Jerusalem Temple. It had no candles at all; “fresh, consecrated olive oil” was used to light the lamps each day. (In fact, dickering over candles seems completely antithetical to the spirit of Hanukkah since it is the miracle of the oil that particularly defines this holiday.)
According to Philip Birnbaum in A Book of Jewish Concepts, the menorah represents the seven days of creation, “with the center light representing the Sabbath.” The Talmud (Menahot 28b) states that this prototype seven-branched menorah is only to be used within the Temple. The Hanukkah “candelabrum”
(technically speaking), actually called a hanukiah in modern Hebrew, has “eight main branches, plus a ninth branch set apart as the shamash (servant) light which is used to kindle the other lights.”
These eight primary branches of the hanukiah symbolize the eight days during which the one-day supply of ritually-pure olive oil miraculously burned. Although the House of Hillel lights only one candle on the first night of the Hanukkah celebration, the House of Shammai begins by kindling all eight.
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menorah_(Temple)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menorah_(Hanukkah)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/rush-limbaugh-obama-hanukkah-kwanzaa_n_1139849.html
Copyright December 10, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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