In the Loup is a bimonthly publication of the Robert E. Loup Jewish Community Center and the Mizel Arts & Culture Center
350 S. Dahlia St., Denver, CO 80246.

Ask the Rabbi

“What is the difference between a menorah and a hanukiah?”

The word menorah is a generic term for a lamp. The seven-branch menorah is one of the oldest symbols of the Jewish people. It was one of the implements of the tabernacle described in Exodus 25 and later a prominent feature of the Temple in Jerusalem. When the State of Israel was established in 1948, the Knesset adopted the seven branch menorah as the official emblem of the Jewish State.

The term hanukiah was coined in modern Hebrew to refer to the menorah used for Hanukkah. The hanukiah has eight branches plus a 9th branch to hold the shamash candle, which is used to kindle the other eight. The practice of lighting the hanukiah is derived from the Talmud (BT Shabbat 21b), which describes a miracle that took place when the Hasmoneans (Macabees) rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem. According to the Talmud, the Macabees found only one jar of oil that had not been desecrated.The oil, only enough to last one day, burned for eight days.The story told by the rabbis in the 6th century CE appears nowhere else in the historical sources.

Scholars point out that the rabbis promoted the legend of the oil because they were ambivalent about the Hasmonean revolt, which had taken place in 164 BCE. The Hasmonean uprising against the Syrian Greek occupiers was also a civil war between Jews who adopted Greek culture and those Jews who resisted acculturation. Furthermore, after winning the war, the Hasmoneans installed themselves as both kings and priests. This unprecedented abuse of power angered the sages who wrote the Talmud centuries later. Instead of focusing on the war, the rabbis emphasized the miracle of the oil. This served to transform the commemoration of an historical event into a religious holiday.

The spiritual dimension of lighting the hanukiah is evident in the Talmud’s subsequent discussion of how one is to kindle the hanukiah. The followers of the sage Shammai proposed that one should light eight flames on the first night and then decrease each subsequent night. This practice would echo the miracle and recall the way the oil slowly burned out. The followers of Hillel said that we should start with one candle and add one every night. They relied on the principle that one should always seek to increase holiness.

To this day, we follow the School of Hillel. We add candles to the hanukiah from right to left and we light them from left to right. Since the object of lighting the hanukiah is to publicize themiracle,we place themenorah close to a window and we light it shortly after sunset, whenmore people are likely to see it. The wisdom of Beit Hillel was to recognize that in a world filled with so much darkness, it is incumbent on us to add light and joy. It is only appropriate, then, that our sages transformed Hanukkah from a military celebration into a festival of lights.

Rabbi Salomon Gruenwald is the Assistant Rabbi of CongregationHebrew EducationalAlliance inDenver. He joined the HEA clergy in July 2008, shortly after his ordination from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles. His previous experience includes serving as the rabbinic intern at Congregation Bnai Israel in Tustin, California, and as a chaplain at UCLA Medical Center.RabbiGruenwald directed the Lishma Program at Camp Ramah in California for two years and taught on the faculty of LosAngelesHebrew High for four years. He holds a B.A. in Social Sciences fromUCIrvine, an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara, and an M.A. in Rabbinic Studies from the American Jewish University (formerly University of Judaism). Rabbi Gruenwald was raised in southern California and is the son of Jewish immigrants from Peru.He and his wife,Melanie, have three children: Yaakov (Koby), Hannah andMicah.