Lighting the Menora

hadlakat nerot

הדלקת נרות

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Israeli: ' marks a reduced vowel that Israeli speech drops (b'rachah); when the vowel is pronounced it is written e (lefanecha). - separates syllables that would otherwise run together.

How to read the transliterations

סדר הדלקת נרות חנוכה

THE HANUKKA SERVICE

Each of Hanukka’s eight nights, the menora’s lights are kindled: one upon the first night, two upon the second, and so onward. The first night uses the menora’s rightmost branch; each night thereafter, a further light is placed on the left. Nightly, kindle the new light first, then the rest, moving rightwards. Where possible, the menora ought to be displayed close to a window, that it can be seen from the street. Kindling is done with a distinct flame called the shamash. Lighting should take place promptly after nightfall. On Friday night, it must occur before Shabbat begins. See laws 153–159. Prior to lighting the Hanukka lights, say:

Hebrew

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם
אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר חֲנֻכָּה.

Israeli

baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha-olam
asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav, vetzivanu lehadlik ner Chanukah.

Hebrew

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם
שֶׁעָשָׂה נִסִּים לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בַּזְּמַן הַזֶּה.

Israeli

baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha-olam
she-asah nisim la-avoteinu bayamim hahem bazman hazeh.

Add, on the first night:

Hebrew

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם
שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה.

Israeli

baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha-olam
shehecheyanu vekiymanu vehigi-anu lazman hazeh.

Commentary

HANUKKA …

After the conquests of Alexander the Great, Israel came under the rule of Greece, in the third century BCE under the Ptolemies, based in Egypt; then in the second century BCE under the Seleucids, based in Syria. Beginning in 175 BCE, one of the Seleucid rulers, Antiochus Epiphanes, decided to embark on a campaign of enforced Hellenization of the Jews in Israel. A gymnasium was built at the foot of the Temple Mount. Temple funds were diverted to Greek athletic and cultural events. Eventually, in 167 BCE, the public practice of Judaism was forbidden and a statue of Zeus erected in the Temple. Many Jews went to their death as martyrs rather than abandon their faith.

A group of pious Jews, led by an elderly priest, Mattityahu, and his sons – including most famously Judah, known as the Maccabee – rose in revolt. Over the next three years they fought a successful campaign, driving the Greek forces out of Jerusalem and rededicating the desecrated Temple. Hanukka is the anniversary of that ceremony of rededication, celebrating not only the military victory and the restoration of Jewish self-government, but also the spiritual victory of Jewish faith over enforced assimilation. Shortly afterward, it was decided to hold an annual eight-day celebration in memory of those events, including the recitation of Hallel.

One incident came to hold immense symbolic significance: the fact that among the debris of the Temple, a single cruse of oil was found, its seal intact, with which the menora – the Temple candelabrum – could be lit. The oil that would normally have lasted for one day burned for eight, the full period of the rededication ceremony. Even after the Temple was destroyed more than two centuries later by the Romans, the Hanukka lights bore witness to the fact that after the worst desecration, something pure remains, lighting a way to the future. The Hanukka lights became one of the great symbols of Jewish hope.