Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Hanukkah

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sometime every December, members of the Jewish faith celebrate the festival of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is one of the best-known Jewish holidays and is associated with various popular symbols and objects. However, most people don't know the true story behind why the holiday exists or the background behind the many items associated with it. Learn more about the celebration of Hanukkah, its history and how it's celebrated on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now.

Starting point is 00:00:55 Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Before I get into the history of Hanukkah, I should address one basic thing about it that you might have noticed, how it is spelled. There are at least 20 different spellings of the word that are used, including some starting with an H and some starting with a C, some that use 1K and some that use 2Ks, and some that put an H at the end and some that don't, and also some that use two ends instead of one. The problem stands from the translation from Hebrew to English. The pronunciation of the word in Hebrew is Hanukkah, and I apologize for my pronunciation to any Hebrew speakers.

Starting point is 00:01:38 The first letter of the word in Hebrew is the letter Chet, which doesn't easily translate into English as with other Hebrew letters. The two most popular spellings have been H-A-N-U-K-K-A-H and C-H-H-H-H-H-O-N-U-K-H. However, over the last several years, the spelling with the H has become the preferred version of many rabbis and the one that has been predominantly used. The word Hanukkah simply translates to dedication. So with that, what is the background of this festival and why is it still celebrated today? The story starts with Alexander the Great. Well, actually, I suppose we could start it almost anywhere, but Alexander the Great is as good a place as any and where most of the histories usually begin. As you know from previous episodes, Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, established a land empire stretching from Greece to India, and died at the age of 32 without leaving an heir.

Starting point is 00:02:37 Alexander's top generals split up his empire into a collection of kingdoms, and the kingdom that is relevant for this episode is the Seleucid Empire. The Seleucid Empire comprised almost everything in Alexander's Empire to the east, including Mesopotamia and Iran. In 200 BC, the Seleucid Empire, under King Antiochus III, conquered the region known as Judea, which had been controlled by Ptolemaic Egypt. Judea was a relatively small area centered on the city of Jerusalem. extending out to the Dead Sea in the Jordan River in the east and about halfway to the Mediterranean Sea. Antiochus III wanted to keep his new subjects happy, so he allowed the Jews to continue to practice their customs and religions. However, in the year 175 BC, Antiochus IV, the son of Antiochus III, became king of the Seleucid Empire. Antiochus the 4th completely reversed his father's policy towards the Jews.

Starting point is 00:03:33 He instituted a policy of Hellenization in all of the lands he ruled. ruled. This included enforcing the Greek language and religion. And this meant banning the practice of Judaism and of all Jewish customs. There were other Jews who actually went along with the prohibitions. These were known as Hellenized Jews and they either practiced Judaism with Greek customs or abandoned Judaism entirely. Antiochus IV invaded Judea in 160APC and proceeded to sack Jerusalem. Thousands of people were killed and the second temple was defiled. In the To defiling the Jewish temple, he literally set up a temple to Zeus in the inside. Needless to say, this did not sit well with many people in Judea, many of whom still supported the Ptolems in Egypt who let them worship as they saw fit. A group of Jews led by one of the temple priests, Medathias Ben-Johanan, and his five sons, revolted against Antiochus IV.

Starting point is 00:04:30 This resistance group became known as the Maccabees, and was named after his son Judas Maccabias, which means Jewish. the Hammer. The Maccabees rose up against the Seleucids and fought a guerrilla war in Judea for several years. The entire Maccabian revolt is probably worthy of its own episode in the future, but suffice it to say that after years of struggle, they managed to recapture Jerusalem and the temple in the year 164 BC. Once the temple was recaptured, it had to be rededicated, and part of rededicating the temple was lighting the menorah. The menorah was a central component of the temple in Jerusalem. And here I should take a brief detour to explain the importance of the menorah. In ancient times, the symbol for Judaism wasn't the star of David like it is today. It was

Starting point is 00:05:19 the menorah. Several years ago, I was invited to visit one of the Jewish catacombs in Rome. These aren't as accessible as the Christian catacomb, so I took the opportunity to visit. Inside, the primary symbol that was visible over most of the tombs was the menorah. If you go to Rome today between the Coliseum in the Forum, you can see the Arch of Titus. On the arch is an engraving that shows the Roman looting of the temple in Jerusalem, which clearly shows the golden menorah. The menorah sat inside the tabernacle in the temple and had seven branches, each of which could be lit with oil. The menorah was lit every day and remained lit throughout the evening until the morning. The only thing that could be used to light the lamps for the menorah in the temple was pure, fresh, consecrated.

Starting point is 00:06:06 olive oil. Supposedly the Seleucids had only left a single jar of concentrated olive oil that could be used on the temple manora. Making new consecrated olive oil requires the person making the oil to have been purified. According to Jewish law to be purified, you had to have not touched a human corpse for seven days. Because all the Maccabians were soldiers who had just finished fighting a battle, no one was able to consecrate the oil. for seven days. So, the legend has it that the single jar of consecrated oil managed to keep the menorah lit for eight days, the seven days of waiting for the purification to be over, and the one day of actually making the oil. Haunica lasting eight days has actually been the

Starting point is 00:06:55 subject of controversy, because of the whole purification period just lasting seven days. There have literally been hundreds of explanations trying to explain how the seven days resulted in celebrating for eight days. Accounts of the Maccabeean Revolt have been documented in Maccabees 1 and 2, which are the last books in the Old Testament in the Orthodox and Catholic Bibles. However, the story of the oil miracle isn't presented in these texts. There is a reference to the rededication of the temple, but not about the oil. The story of the oil has mostly been passed down from the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus

Starting point is 00:07:29 and from the Talmud. The Talmud is an authoritative text containing Jewish laws, ethics, customs, custom, and folklore. So how did this end up becoming a regularly celebrated festival? In the years following the events of the Maccabeean Revolt, people began to light flames to remember and honor the events that took place in the miracle that they believed happened. These first lights were probably not menoras because, at that time, the temple still existed, and the menorah was at the temple. They were probably just simple oil lamps with multiple wicks. The destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 by the Romans began the Jewish diaspora,

Starting point is 00:08:09 which sent Jewish people out of the Levant and all over the world. As the diaspora spread, they took with them the tradition of celebrating Hanukkah. I should note that Hanukkah is not actually one of the major religious Jewish holidays. For most of the last 2,000 years, it was mostly considered to be a minor festival. It's considered to be a rabbinical festival, not a biblical one, like Rosh Hashanah or Passover. Sabbath prohibitions are in place for several high holy days on the Jewish calendar, but that is not the case for Hanukkah.

Starting point is 00:08:43 Hanukkah became popularized in the 20th century, largely due to its proximity to Christmas. Hanukkah is always on the same dates on the Jewish calendar every year, but it falls on different dates on the Gregorian calendar. This is because the Jewish calendar is a lunar solar calendar. Unlike a true lunar calendar, such as the Islamic calendar, dates are usually around the same time of year on a solar calendar, but just not the exact same dates. Because Hanukkah is always in December for at least part of the eight days, it's been rolled up into the greater holiday season.

Starting point is 00:09:18 And just as Christmas has become commercialized, so too has Hanukkah. There are several Hanukkah traditions and symbols that most Jews practice. These traditions can differ as Hanukkah practices diverged over the centuries between Ascanazi, Sephardic, and other Jewish groups. The most obvious symbol is the menorah. A Hanukkah menorah is not a replica of the menorah that was in the temple. The temple menorah had seven branches, one for each day of the week. A Hanukkah menorah will usually have nine branches, four on either side and one in the middle. Each branch in a modern Hanukkah menorah will usually hold a candle, whereas I mentioned before, the temple menorah burned olive oil. The four branches on either side represent

Starting point is 00:10:03 the eight days of Hanukkah, and the center is used to hold a candle to light all the others. Every night on Hanukkah, an additional candle is lit, and that means the total number of candles required to celebrate Hanukkah is 44, which is just two plus three plus four, plus five, plus six, plus seven, plus eight, plus nine. Blessings are often said when the candles are being lit, and the lighting of the candles is often a family affair in each household. Another popular symbol of Hanukkah is the Dratel. A dradle is a fratel is a four-sided spinning top. On each of the four sides is a Hebrew character which is supposed to represent the first letters of the Hebrew words, Ness Godol, Haya, Sham, which means a great miracle happened there.

Starting point is 00:10:47 The Dradle is not an ancient device. It comes from a European toy that was normally used for gambling called a T-totum. The Dradle game involves players usually betting on something like pieces of candy, raisins, or pennies. At the beginning of every turn, everyone puts one item into a tenter. to the pot. The first player spins the dradle, and depending on what comes up, they either do nothing, take the entire pot, take half the pot, or add to the pot. Mathematical analysis of the game has shown that the first player has a decided advantage over everyone else. Another tradition is Hanukkah Gelt, which is the Yiddish word for Hanukkah money. And this is a tradition of giving children small coins, and today the coins are often just chocolate and a foil wrapper that looks like a coin.

Starting point is 00:11:31 Finally, as with pretty much any festival, there is food. Popular Hanukkah foods are usually cooked in oil, ideally olive oil, to commemorate the miracle. Two common foods are potato pancakes known as Latkas and usually some form of deep-fried donut. So for all those out there who are celebrating, have a happy Hanukkah. And for those of you who don't, hopefully you have a better appreciation of the festival, which dates back to an uprising that took place over 2,100 years ago. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kiefer.

Starting point is 00:12:13 I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who supports the show on Patreon. Your support helps me put out a new show every day. And if you're interested in Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise, Patreon is currently the only place where it's available. And if you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and get notified a future or episodes and projects, please join my Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Hanukkah

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