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Jewish holiday has many facets

By Adam Urquhart - Staff Writer | Dec 16, 2017

NASHUA – As we move into the midst of Hanukkah, many Jewish Nashuan’s are celebrating the holiday by reconnecting with family, lighting candles and enjoying traditional foods.

“There’s a few dimensions of the holiday. One is the history about the second century b.c. when the Jewish temple, which was our center in Jerusalem, was taken over by tyrants who took over and turned it into a temple for Zeus, forbidding a lot of Jewish practices and suppressing the religion at that time,” said Rabbi Jon Spira-Savett of Temple Beth Abraham.

During this time, the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks) ruled the Holy Land and tried forcing the people of Israel to accept the Greek culture and belief systems.

“It took a group of people who were willing to fight back, known as Maccabees, that led a rebellion,” Spira-Savett said.

The large-scale rebellion against the Seleucid monarchy was led by Jewish priest Mattathias and his five sons. When he died, his son Judah, who’s known as Judah Maccabee, persevered onward and, within two years, the Jewish people were able to drive the Syrians out of Jerusalem.

“They were able to come back and re-established the temple and Jewish government. That lasted for about 100 years.

It was a real struggle of religious freedom against oppressive power, so there’s that dimension,” Spira-Savett said.

He said another dimension being that we look at this as the darkest time of year and light candles, because the story tells that there was a hidden source of light in the temple when the Jewish people came back to it.

Once they returned, they sought to light the Temple’s Menorah but only had enough olive oil to last one day, yet they made the oil last for eight days.

“The custom is to light the Menorah and have the candles in a window where people can see them on their way home from work, or every day,” Spira-Savett said, adding that, “There are also special foods we eat like potato pancakes or special donuts invented in Israel. We also do things with frying food in oil.”

At home, people light candles every night, but at the synagogue, he said, they have different activities for the children, lighting of candles and the opportunity to learn about stories and the history.

He said Thursday night they had a big party with about 100 people in attendance enjoying music.

“It was a great chance to be together as a community,” Spira-Savett said.

With Hanukkah being a time where a lot of family reunion-type gatherings occur, that sense of community can be felt through celebrating together over the course of eight days.

“It’s the start of a time when I think people tend to worry about people becoming isolated in winter, and we have this occasion to be together and reconnect with family and the community,” Spira-Savett said, adding that, “We hope the image of more and more candles will stay in the eyes and memories of people so we can all do something to illuminate the world or someone else’s life.”

Adam Urquhart can be reached at 594-1206 or aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.

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