For my first cultural post I will explore the origins of a song that I have sang every year while lighting Channukah candles since I was very young. Every year my Dad, Brother, sister and I light Channukah candles using the same menorah that has been passed down through generations on my Dad’s side of the family. With the new skills I have learned from my time learning Hebrew I can now recite this song and actually understand the words that I am saying. Growing up I always heard a description of the holiday and that it is essentially significant because Channukah is also known as the festival of lights. The vague story that I have heard is that a group of Israelites were looking to light candles in order to stay warm for a period of nights and the candles lasted longer than they had anticipated. The holiday has always been a great time for my family and I so it will be cool to explore its origins in greater depth. From what I have read online, a Syrian king sent soldiers to Jerusalem in order to destroy the Jewish temple there. This action was unsurprisingly terrifying to the Jewish inhabitants there because aggression like this was scary to see in the Jewish homeland. The Syrian king named Antiochus Epiphanes then made Judaism and said anyone who practiced the religion would need to convert or die. In response a Jewish resistance movement was created to rebel against this oppression. The resistance rebelled and even though they were outnumbered, defeated the much bigger Syrian force. Channukah means dedication and is meant to commemorate this resistance in the face of great adversity. The significance of the eight days of Channukah comes from the story that when the Jewish group entered the temple, they found a jar of oil that would be able to burn for one day. They used the oil to light the ner tamid, which is a large hanging torch in Synagogues. The Ner Tamid, to the Jews surprise burnt for eight nights. Hence the great 8 night celebration every year. It is awesome to know the in depth significance of the holiday that I practice each year. The actual meaning of the channukah prayers are slightly different for all three of them. The translation of the first one means essentially that we thank god for commanding us to light these candles. For the second prayer observers thank god for performing helpful actions for Jewish people in the past such as during the Syrian invasion. The next is thanking god for preserving the Jewish people throughout any hardships they have faced. Knowing all these meanings behind the prayer I have sang for so long feels very cool because of how united the holiday is meant to make Jews feel. Now after knowing the whole meaning behind the holiday I will be able to tell my relatives this story that is so significant in the history of Judaism.
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