INTERFAITH WISDOM

The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah starts Saturday at sundown.  It will last eight days until sundown on January 1, 2017.  It is the Feast of Lights commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem.  The rededication followed the end of the successful revolt against the tyrannical rule of Antiochus IV.  After that revolt and by tradition, an oil lamp needed to stay lit for eight days for the rededication but only enough oil for one night was available.  Miraculously, the oil lasted for the full eight days.

Now, a menorah is used for the feast to remember the event.  The menorah is a candle holder with nine candles.  The center candle is lit each night along with another of the eight of the candelabra.  Good food and song accompany the celebration.

A typical prayer during the Hanukkah feast.  "Blessed are you, God, sovereign of all, for giving us life, for sustaining us and for enabling us to reach this season.  We kindle these lights of the menorah because of the wondrous deliverance you performed for our ancestors.  During these eight days of Hanukkah, these lights are sacred; we are not to use them but only to behold them so that their glow may rouse us to give thanks for your wondrous acts of deliverance."

O_O
May God deliver us all.